,,musical ,,portraits  ,,interpretations
 ,,of ,,twenty ,,modern ,,composers     
,,by ,,paul ,,rosenfeld   ,,new ,,york  
,,harcourt1 ,,brace ,,and ,,howe #aibj  
,,copyright1 #aibj1 ,,by ,,harcourt1    
,,brace ,,and ,,howe1 ,,inc4  ,,the     
,,quinn  ,,boden ,,company ,,rahway1 ,n4
 ,j4   ,to ,,arthur ,,moore ,,williamson
         ,some of the material of this  
book was originally printed in the      
form of articles in ,the ,dial1 ,the    
,new ,republic1 and ,the ,seven         
,arts4 ,thanks are due the editors of   
these periodicals for       permission  
to recast and reprint it4     ,,contents
   ,,wagner1              #c ,,strauss1 
#bg ,,moussorgsky1        #eg ,,liszt1  
#gc ,,berlioz1            #hg ,,franck1 
#aja ,,debussy1           #aai ,,ravel1 
#acc ,,borodin1           #adi          
,,rimsky-,,korsakoff1  #aei             
,,rachmaninoff1      #afi ,,scriabine1  
#agg ,,strawinsky1        #aia ,,mahler1
            #bje ,,reger1               
#bbc ,,schoenberg1        #bcc          

,,sibelius1          #bde ,,loeffler1   
#beg ,,ornstein1          #bfg ,,bloch1 
#bha ,,appendix1          #bii          
,,musical ,,portraits     ,wagner       
,wagner's music1 more than any other1 is
 the sign and symbol of the nineteenth  
century4 ,the men to whom it was        
disclosed1 and who first sought to      
refuse1 and then accepted it1           
passionately1 without reservations1     
found in it their truth4 ,it came to    
their ears as the sound of their own    
voices4 ,it was the common1 the         
universal tongue4 ,not alone on         
,germany1 not alone on ,europe1 but on  
every quarter of the globe that had     
developed coal-power civilization1 the  
music of ,wagner descended with the     
formative might of the perfect image4   
,men of every race and continent knew it
 to be of themselves as much as was     
their hereditary and racial music1 and  
went out to it as to their own          
adventure4 ,and wherever music          
reappeared1 whether under the hand of   

the ,japanese or the semi-,african or   
the ,yankee1 it seemed to be growing    
from ,wagner as the bright shoots of the
 fir sprout from the dark ones grown the
 previous year4 ,a whole world1 for a   
period1 came to use his idiom4 ,his     
dream was recognized during his very    
lifetime as an integral portion of the  
consciousness of the entire race4  ,for 
,wagner's music is the century's paean  
of material triumph4 ,it is its cry of  
pride in its possessions1 its aspiration
 toward greater and ever greater        
objective power4 ,wagner's style is     
stiff and diapered and emblazoned with  
the sense of material increase4 ,it is  
brave1 superb1 haughty with             
consciousness of the gigantic new body  
acquired by man4 ,the tonal pomp and    
ceremony1 the pride of the trumpets1 the
 arrogant stride1 the magnificent       
address1 the broad1 vehement1           
grandiloquent pronouncements1 the       
sumptuous texture of his music seems    
forever proclaiming the victory of man  

over the energies of fire and sea and   
earth1 the lordship of creation1 the    
suddenly begotten railways and shipping 
and mines1 the cataclysm of wealth and  
comfort4 ,his work seems forever seeking
 to form images of grandeur and empire1 
flashing with ,siegfried's sword1       
commanding the planet with ,wotan's     
spear1 upbuilding above the heads of men
 the castle of the gods4 ,it dares      
measure itself with the terrestrial     
forces1 exults in the fire1 soughs      
through the forest with the             
thunderstorm1 glitters and surges with  
the river1 spans mountains with the     
rainbow bridge4 ,it is full of the      
gestures of giants and heroes and gods1 
of the large proud movements of which   
men have ever dreamed in days of        
affluent power4 ,even ,tristan und      
,isolde1 the high song of love1 and     
,parsifal1 the mystery1 spread richness 
and splendor about them1 are set in an  
atmosphere of heavy gorgeous stuffs1    
amid objects of gold and silver1 and    

thick clouding incense1 while the       
protagonists1 the lovers and saviors1   
seem to be celebrating a worldly        
triumph1 and crowning themselves kings4 
,and over the entire body of ,wagner's  
music1 there float1 a massive diadem1   
the towers and parapets and banners of  
,nuremberg the imperial free city1      
monument of a victorious burgherdom1 of 
civic virtue that on the ruins of       
feudalism constructed its own world1 and
 demonstrated to all times its dignity  
and sobriety and industry1 its solid    
worth4  ,for life itself made the       
,wagnerian gesture4 ,the vortex of steel
 and glass and gold1 the black          
express-packets plowing the seven seas1 
the smoking trains piercing the bowels  
of the mountains and connecting cities  
vibrant with hordes of business men1 the
 telegraph wires setting the world      
aquiver with their incessant reports1   
the whole sinister glittering faery of  
gain and industry and dominion1 seemed  
to tread and soar and sound and blare   

and swell with just such rhythm1 such   
grandeur1 such intoxication4 ,mountains 
that had been sealed thousands of years 
had split open again and let emerge a   
race of laboring1 fuming giants4 ,the   
dense primeval forests1 the             
dragon-haunted ,german forests1 were    
sprung up again1 fresh and cool and     
unexplored1 nurturing a mighty and      
fantastic animality4 ,wherever one      
gazed1 the horned ,siegfried1 the man   
born of the earth1 seemed near once     
more1 ready to clear and rejuvenate the 
globe with his healthy instinct1 to     
shatter the old false barriers and      
pierce upward to fulfilment and power4  
,mankind1 waking from immemorial sleep1 
thought for the first time to perceive  
the sun in heaven1 to greet the creating
 light4 ,and where was this music more  
immanent than in the ,new ,world1 in    
,america1 that essentialization of the  
entire age8 ,by what environment was it 
more justly appreciated1 ,saxon though  
the accents of its recitative might be8 

,germany had borne ,wagner because      
,germany had an uninterrupted flow of   
musical expression4 ,but had the ,north 
,american continent been able to produce
 musical art1 it could have produced    
none more indigenous1 more really       
autochthonous1 than that of ,richard    
,wagner4 ,whitman was right when he     
termed these scores the music of the    
',leaves4' ,for nowhere did the forest  
of the ,niebelungen flourish more       
lushly1 more darkly1 than upon the      
,american coasts and mountains and      
plains4 ,from the towers and walls of   
,new ,york there fell a breath1 a       
grandiloquent language1 a stridency and 
a glory1 that were ,wagner's indeed4    
,his regal commanding blasts1 his       
upsweeping marching violins1 his pompous
 and majestic orchestra1 existed in the 
,american scene4 ,the very masonry and  
river-spans1 the bursting towns1 the    
fury and expansiveness of existence shed
 his idiom1 shadowed forth his proud    
processionals1 his resonant gold1 his   

tumultuous syncopations and blazing     
brass and cymbals and volcanically      
inundating melody2 appeared to be       
struggling to achieve the thing that was
 his art4 ,american life seemed to be   
calling for this music in order that its
 vastness1 its madly affluent wealth and
 multiform power and transcontinental   
span1 its loud1 grandiose promise might 
attain something like eternal being4    
,and just as in ,wagner's music there   
sounds the age's cry of material        
triumph1 so1 too1 there sounds in it its
 terrible cry of homesickness4 ,the     
energy produced and hurled out over the 
globe was sucked back again with no less
 a force4 ,the time that saw the victory
 of industrialism saw as well the       
revival or the attempted revival of     
medieval modes of feeling4 ,cardinal    
,newman was as typical a figure of      
nineteenth-century life as was ,balzac4 
,the men who had created the new world  
felt within themselves a passionate     
desire to escape out of the present into

 the past once more4 ,they felt         
themselves victors and vanquished1      
powerful and yet bereft and forlorn4    
,and ,wagner's music expresses with     
equal veracity both tides4 ,just as his 
music is brave with a sense of outward  
power1 so1 too1 it is sick with a sense 
of inner unfulfilment4 ,there is no     
longing more consuming1 no homesickness 
more terrible1 no straining after the   
laving1 immersing floods of             
unconsciousness more burning than that  
which utters itself through this music4 
,there are passages1 whole hours of his1
 that are like the straining of a man to
 return into the darkness of the        
mothering night out of which he came4   
,there is music of ,wagner that makes us
 feel as though he had been seeking to  
create great warm clouds1 great scented 
cloths1 wide curtains1 as though he had 
come to his art to find something in    
which he could envelop himself          
completely1 and blot out sun and moon   
and stars1 and sink into oblivion4 ,for 

such a healer ,tristan1 lying dying on  
the desolate1 rockbound coast1 cries    
through the immortal longing of the     
music4 ,for such a divine messenger the 
wound of ,amfortas gapes2 for such a    
redeemer ,kundry1 driven through the    
world by scorching winds1 yearns4 ,his  
lovers come toward each other1 seeking  
in each other the night1 the descent    
into the fathomless dark4 ,for them sex 
is the return1 the complete             
forgetfulness4 ,through each of them    
there sounds the insistent cry3         
,frau ,minne will      ,es werde ,nacht6
   ,there is no tenderness1 no awareness
 of each other1 in these men and women4 
,there is only the fierce1 impersonal   
longing for utter consumption1 the      
extinction of the flaming torch1        
complete merging in the ,absolute1 the  
weaving ,all4 ,in each of them1 desire  
for the void mounts into a gigantic1    
monstrous flower1 into the shimmering   
thing that enchants ,king ,mark's garden
 and the rippling stream and the distant

 horns while ,isolde waits for ,tristan1
 or into the devastating fever that     
chains the sick ,tristan to his bed of  
pain4  ,for all these beings1 and behind
 them ,wagner1 and behind him his time1 
yearn for the past1 the pre-natal1 the  
original sleep1 and find in such a      
return their great fulfilment4 ,siegmund
 finds in the traits of his beloved his 
own childhood4 ,siegfried awakes on the 
flame-engirdled hill a woman who watched
 over him before he was born1 and waited
 unchanged for his ripening4 ,it is with
 the kiss of ,herzeleide that ,kundry   
enmeshes ,parsifal4 ,brunhilde struggles
 for the forgiving embrace of ,wotan1   
sinks on the breast of the god in       
submission1 reconciliation1 immolation4 
,and it is towards an engulfing         
consummation1 some extinction that is   
both love and death and deeper than     
both1 that the music of his operas      
aspires4 ,the fire that licks the rock  
of the ,walkyrie1 the ,rhine that rises 
in the finale of ,goetterdaemmerung and 

inundates the scene and sweeps the world
 with its silent1 laving tides1 the     
gigantic blossom that opens its corolla 
in the ,liebestod and buries the lovers 
in a rain of scent and petals1 the      
tranquil ruby glow of the chalice that  
suffuses the close of ,parsifal1 are the
 moments toward which the dramas        
themselves labor1 and in which they     
attain their legitimate conclusion1     
completion and end4 ,but not only his   
finales are full of that entrancement4  
,his melodic line1 the lyrical passages 
throughout his operas1 seem to seek to  
attain it1 if not conclusively1 at least
 in preparation4 ,those silken          
excessively sweet periods1 the moment of
 reconciliation and embrace of ,wotan   
and ,brunhilde1 the ,ach1 ,isolde       
passage in the third act of ,tristan1   
those innumerable lyrical flights with  
their beginnings and subsidings1 their  
sudden advances and regressions1 their  
passionate surges that finally and after
 all their exquisite hesitations mount  

and flare and unroll themselves in      
fullness--they1 too1 seem to be seeking 
to distill some of the same brew1 the   
same magic drugging potion1 to conjure  
up out of the orchestral depths some    
,venusberg1 some ,klingsor's garden full
 of subtle scent and soft delight and   
eternal forgetfulness4  ,and with       
,wagner1 the new period of music begins4
 ,he stands midway between the feudal   
and the modern worlds4 ,in him1 the old 
and classical period is accomplished4   
,indeed1 so much of his music is sum1 is
 termination1 that there are times when 
it seems nothing else4 ,there are times 
when his art appears entirely bowed over
 the past2 the confluence of a dozen    
different tendencies alive during the   
last century and a half2 the capping of 
the labor of a dozen great musicians2   
the fulfilment of the system regnant in 
,europe since the introduction of the   
principle of the equal temperament4 ,for
 the last time1 the old conceptions of  
tonality obtain in his music dramas4    

,one feels throughout ,tristan und      
,isolde the key of ,d-flat1 throughout  
,die ,meistersinger the key of ,c-major1
 throughout ,parsifal the key of ,a-flat
 and its relative minor4 ,rhythms that  
had been used all through the classical 
period are worked by him into new       
patterns1 and do service a last time4   
,motifs which had been utilized by      
others are taken by him and brought to  
something like an ultimate conclusion4  
,the ending1 the conclusion1 the        
completion1 are sensible throughout his 
art4 ,few musicians have had their power
 and method placed more directly in     
their hands1 and benefited so hugely by 
the experiments of their immediate      
predecessors1 have fallen heir to such  
immense musical legacies4 ,indeed1      
,wagner was never loath to acknowledge  
his indebtedness1 and there are on      
record several instances when he        
paraphrased ,walther's song to his      
masters1 and signaled the composers who 
had aided him most in his development4  

,to-day1 the debt is very plain4 ,at    
every turn1 one sees him benefiting1 and
 benefiting very beautifully1 by the    
work of ,beethoven4 ,the structure of   
his great and characteristic works is   
based on the symphonic form4 ,the       
development of the themes of ,tristan   
and ,die ,meistersinger and ,parsifal   
out of single kernels2 the fine logical 
sequence1 the expositions of the        
thematic material of ,parsifal in the   
prelude and in ,gurnamanz's narrative1  
and its subsequent reappearance and     
adventures and developments1 are        
something like a summit of symphonic art
 as ,beethoven made it to be understood4
 ,and his orchestra is scarcely more    
than the orchestra of ,beethoven4 ,he   
did not require the band of independent 
instrumental families demanded by       
,berlioz and realized by the modern men4
 ,he was content with the old1 classical
 orchestra in which certain groups are  
strengthened and to which the harp1 the 
,english horn1 the bass-tuba1 the       

bass-clarinet have been added4  ,and his
 conception of an unending melody1 an   
unbroken flow of music intended to give 
cohesion and homogeneity to his         
music-dramas1 was a direct consequence  
of the efforts of ,mozart and ,weber to 
give unity to their operatic works4 ,for
 although these composers retained the  
old convention of an opera composed of  
separate numbers1 they nevertheless     
managed to unify their operas by        
creating a distinct style in each of    
them1 and by securing an emotional      
development in the various arias and    
concerted numbers4 ,the step from ,don  
,giovanni and ,euryanthe to ,tannhaeuser
 and ,lohengrin does not seem quite as  
long a one to-day as once it did4       
,indeed1 there are moments when one     
wonders whether ,lohengrin is really a  
step beyond ,euryanthe1 and whether the 
increase of power and vividness and     
imagination has not been made at the    
expense of style4 ,moreover1 in much of 
what is actually progress in ,wagner the

 influence of ,weber is clearly         
discernible4 ,the sinister passages seem
 but developments of moments in ,der    
,freischuetz2 the grand melodic style1  
the romantic orchestra with its sighing 
horns and chivalry and flourishes1 seem 
to come directly out of ,euryanthe2 the 
orchestral scene-painting from the      
sunrise and other original effects in   
,oberon4  ,even ,meyerbeer taught       
,wagner something more than the use of  
certain instruments1 the bass-clarinet1 
for instance4 ,the old operatic         
speculator indubitably was responsible  
for ,wagner's grand demands upon the    
scene-painter and the stage-carpenter4  
,his pompous spectacles fired the       
younger man not only with ,rienzi4 ,they
 indubitably gave him the courage to    
create an operatic art that celebrated  
the new gold and power and magnificence1
 and was ,grand ,opera indeed4 ,if the  
works of the one were sham1 and those of
 the other poetry1 it was only that     
,wagner realized what the other sought  

vainly all his life to attain1 and was  
prevented by the stock-broker within4   
,and ,chopin's harmonic feeling as well 
as ,berlioz's orchestral wizardry played
 a role in ,wagner's artistic education4
 ,but for all his incalculable          
indebtednesses1 ,wagner is the great    
initiator1 the compeller of the modern  
period4 ,it is not only because he      
summarized the old4 ,it is because he   
began with force a revolution4 ,in      
expressing the man of the nineteenth    
century1 he discarded the old           
major-minor system that had dominated   
,europe so long4 ,that system was the   
outcome of a conception of the universe 
which set man apart from the remainder  
of nature1 placed him in a category of  
his own1 and pretended that he was both 
the center and the object of creation4  
,for it called man the consonance and   
nature the dissonance4 ,the octave and  
the fifth1 the bases of the system1 are 
of course1 to be found only in the human
 voice4 ,they are1 roughly1 the         

difference between the average male and 
the average female voice1 and the       
difference between the average soprano  
and alto4 ,it is upon those intervals   
that the ,c-major scale and its         
twenty-three dependents are based4 ,but 
with the coming of a conception that no 
longer separated man from the rest of   
creation1 and placed him in it as a     
small part of it1 brother to the animals
 and plants1 to everything that         
breathes1 the old scale could no longer 
completely express him4 ,the modulations
 of the noises of wind and water1 the   
infinite gradations and complexes of    
sound to be heard on the planisphere1   
seemed to ask him to include them1 to   
become conscious of them and reproduce  
them4 ,he required other more subtle    
scales4 ,and with ,wagner the monarchy  
of the ,c-major scale is at an end4     
,tristan und ,isolde and ,parsifal are  
constructed upon a chromatic scale4 ,the
 old one has had to lose its privilege1 
to resign itself to becoming simply one 

of a constantly growing many4 ,if this  
step is not a colossal one1 it is still 
of immense importance4 ,the musical     
worthies who ran about wringing their   
hands after the first performance of    
each of ,wagner's works1 and lamented   
laws monstrously broken1 and traditions 
shattered1 were1 for once1 right4 ,they 
gauged correctly from which direction   
the wind was blowing4 ,they probably    
heard1 faintly piping in the distance1  
the pentatonic scales of ,moussorgsky   
and ,debussy1 the scales of ,scriabine  
and ,strawinsky and ,ornstein1 the      
barbarous1 exotic and ,african scales of
 the future1 the one hundred and        
thirteen scales of which ,busoni speaks4
 ,and to-day there are no longer musical
 rules1 forbidden harmonies1            
dissonances4 ,siegfried has broken them 
along with ,wotan's spear4 ,east and    
,west are near to merging once again4   
,no doubt1 had there been no ,wagner1   
the change would have arrived           
nevertheless4 ,however1 it would have   

arrived more slowly4 ,for what he did   
accomplish was the rapid emptying of the
 old wine that still remained in the    
wineskin1 the preparation of the        
receptacle for the new vintage4 ,he     
forced the new to put in immediate      
appearance4  ,the full impact of these  
reforms1 the full might of ,wagner1 we  
of our generation doubtlessly never     
felt4 ,they could have been felt only by
 the generation to whom ,wagner first   
disclosed himself1 the generation that  
attained maturity between #ahej and     
#ahhj4 ,it was upon the men of those    
days that he did his full work of       
destruction and revival4 ,it was in them
 he battered down walls4 ,it was them he
 made to hear afresh1 to stretch and    
grow in the effort to comprehend him4   
,at the moment we encountered ,wagner1  
his work was already something of a     
closed experience1 something we were    
able to accept readily and with a       
certain ease because it had been        
accepted and assimilated by an entire   

world1 and become part of the human     
organism4 ,its power was already        
slightly diminished4 ,for instance1     
,wagner the musician was no longer able 
to make either ,wagner the poet or      
,wagner the philosopher exist for us as 
they existed for the men of the earlier 
generation4 ,only ,houston ,stewart     
,chamberlain still persisted in trying  
to stand upon the burning deck whence   
all the rest had fled4 ,for us1 it was  
obvious that if ,wagner's work throned  
mightily it was because of his music1   
and oftentimes in spite of his verse and
 his doctrine4 ,for us1 it was a        
commonplace that dramatic movement and  
the filling up of scenes by the         
introduction of characters who propose  
pointless riddles to one another and    
explain at length what their names are  
not1 are incompatible2 that poetry does 
not consist in disguising commonplace   
expressions in archaic and alliterative 
and extravagant dress2 that ,wotan      
displays no grasp of the essentials of  

,schopenhauer's philosophy when he      
insists on dubbing ,brunhilde his ,will4
  ,and yet1 whatever the difference1    
most of ,wagner's might was still in him
 when first we came to know his music4  
,the spell in which he had bound the    
generation that preceded ours was still 
powerful4 ,for us1 too1 there occurred  
the moments when ,siegfried's cavernous 
forest depths first breathed on us1 when
 for the first time ,die ,meistersinger 
flaunted above the heads of all the     
world the gonfalon of art1 when for the 
first time we embarked upon the         
shoreless golden sea of ,tristan und    
,isolde4 ,for us1 too1 the name of      
,richard ,wagner rang and sounded above 
all other musical names4 ,for us1 too1  
he was a sort of sovereign lord of      
music4 ,his work appeared the climax    
toward which music had aspired through  
centuries1 and from which it must of    
necessity descend again4 ,other1 and    
perhaps purer work than his1 existed1 we
 knew4 ,but it seemed remote and less   

compelling1 for all its perfection4 ,new
 music would arrive1 we surmised4 ,yet  
we found ourselves convinced that it    
would prove minor and unsatisfactory4   
,for ,wagner's music had for us an      
incandescence which no other possessed4 
,it was the magnetic spot of music4 ,its
 colors blazed and glowed with a depth  
and ardor that seemed to set it apart   
from other music as in an enchanted     
circle4 ,it unlocked us as did no other4
 ,we demanded just such orchestral      
movement1 just such superb gestures1    
just such warm1 immersing floods1 and   
were fulfilled by them4 ,that there     
would come a day when the magnetism     
which it exerted on us would pass from  
it1 and be seen to have passed1 seemed  
the remotest of possibilities4  ,for we 
accepted him with the world of our      
minority4 ,for each individual there is 
a period1 varying largely in extent1    
during which his existence is chiefly a 
process of imitation4 ,in the sphere of 
expression1 that submission to authority

 extends well over the entire period of 
gestation1 well into the time of        
physical maturity4 ,there are few men1  
few great artists1 even1 who do not1    
before attaining their proper idiom and 
gesture1 adopt those of their teachers  
and predecessors4 ,shakespeare writes   
first in the style of ,kyd and ,marlowe1
 ,beethoven in that of ,haydn and       
,mozart2 ,leonardo at first imitates    
,verrocchio4 ,and what the utilization  
of the manner of their predecessors is  
to the artist1 that the single devotion 
to ,wagner was to us4 ,for he was not   
only in the atmosphere1 not only        
immanent in the lives led about us4 ,his
 figure was vivid before us4 ,scarcely  
another artistic personality was as     
largely upon us4 ,there were pictures1  
on the walls of music-rooms1 of         
gray-bearded1 helmeted warriors holding 
mailed blonde women in their arms1 of   
queens with golden ornaments on their   
arms leaning over parapets and agitating
 their scarves1 of women throwing       

themselves into the sea upon which      
ghastly barks were dwindling1 of oldish 
men and young girls conversing teasingly
 through a window by a lilac-bush1 that 
were ,wagner4 ,there were books with    
stories of magical swans and hordes of  
gold and baleful curses1 of phantasmal  
storm ships and hollow hills and swords 
lodged in tree-trunks awaiting their    
wielders1 of races of gods and giants   
and grimy dwarfs1 of guardian fires and 
potions of forgetfulness and prophetic  
dreams and voices1 that were ,wagner4   
,there were adults who went to assist at
 these things of which one read1 who    
departed in state and excitement of an  
evening to attend performances of ,die  
,walkuere and ,tristan und ,isolde1 and 
who spoke of these experiences in voices
 and manners different from those in    
which they spoke1 say1 of the theater or
 the concert4 ,and there were           
magnificent and stately and passionate  
pieces that drew their way across the   
pianoforte1 that seized upon one and    

made one insatiable for them4 ,long     
before we had actually entered the opera
 house and heard one of ,wagner's works 
in its entirety1 we belonged to him and 
knew his art our own4 ,we were born     
,wagnerians4  ,but of late a great      
adventure has befallen us4 ,what once   
seemed the remotest of possibilities has
 actually taken place4 ,we who were born
 and grew under the sign of ,wagner have
 witnessed the twilight of the god4 ,he 
has receded from us4 ,he has departed   
from us into the relative distance into 
which during his hour of omnipotence he 
banished all other composers4  ,he has  
been displaced4 ,a new music has come   
into being1 and drawn near4 ,forms as   
solid and wondrous and compelling as his
 are about us4 ,little by little1 during
 the last years1 so gradually that it   
has been almost unbeknown to us1 our    
relationship to him has been changing4  
,something within us has moved4 ,other  
musicians have been working their way in
 upon our attention4 ,other works have  

come to seem as vivid and deep of hue1  
as wondrous and compelling as his once  
did4 ,gradually the musical firmament   
has been reconstellating itself4 ,for   
long1 we were unaware of the change1    
thought ourselves still opposite        
,wagner1 thought the rays of his genius 
still as direct upon us as ever they    
were4 ,but of late so wide has the      
distance become that we have awakened   
sharply to the change4 ,of a sudden1 we 
seem to ourselves like travelers who1   
having boarded by night a liner fast to 
her pier and fallen asleep amid familiar
 objects1 beneath the well-known beacons
 and towers of the port1 waken suddenly 
in broadest daylight scarcely aware the 
vessel has been gotten under way1 and   
find the scene completely transformed1  
find themselves out on ocean and        
glimpse1 dwindling behind them1 the     
harbor and the city in which apparently 
but a moment since they had lain        
enclosed4  ,it is the maturing of a     
generation that has produced the change4

 ,for each generation the works of art  
produced by its members have a distinct 
importance4 ,out of them1 during their  
time1 there sparks the creative impulse4
 ,for every generation is something of a
 unit4        ,chaque generation        
d'hommes      ,germant du champs        
maternal en sa saison1      ,garde en   
elle un secret commun1 un certain noeud 
dans la profonde contexture de son bois1
   ,claudel assures us through the mask 
of ,tete d',or4 ,and the resemblances   
between works produced independently of 
each other within the space of a few    
years1 generally so much greater than   
those that exist between any one work of
 one age and any of another1 bears him  
out4 ,the styles of ,palestrina and     
,vittoria1 which are obviously          
dissimilar1 are nevertheless more alike 
than those of ,palestrina and ,bach1    
,vittoria and ,haendel2 just as those of
 ,bach and ,haendel1 dissimilar as they 
are1 have a greater similarity than that
 which exists between those of ,bach and

 ,mozart1 of ,haendel and ,haydn4 ,and  
so1 for the men of a single period the  
work produced during their time is a    
powerful encouragement to               
self-realization1 to the espousal of    
their destiny1 to the fulfilment of     
their life4 ,for the motion of one part 
of a machine stirs all the others4 ,and 
there is a part of every man of a       
generation in the work done by the other
 members of it4 ,the men who fashion the
 art of one's own time make one's proper
 experiment1 start from one's own point 
of departure1 dare to be themselves and 
oneself in the face of the gainsaying of
 the other epochs4 ,they are so         
belittling1 so condescending1 so        
nay-saying and deterring1 the other     
times and their masterpieces6 ,they are 
so unsympathetic1 so strange and grand  
and remote6 ,they seem to say ,thus must
 it be2 this is form2 this is beauty2   
all else is superfluous4 ,who goes to   
them for help and understanding is like 
one who goes to men much older1 men of  

different habits and sympathies1 in     
order to explain himself1 and finds     
himself disconcerted and diminished     
instead1 glimpses a secret jealousy and 
resentment beneath the mask4 ,but the   
adventure of encountering the artist of 
one's own time is that of finding the   
most marvelous of aids1 corroboration4  
,it is to meet one who has been living  
one's life1 and thinking one's thoughts1
 and facing one's problems4 ,it is to   
get reassurance1 to accept oneself1 to  
beget courage to express one's self in  
one's own manner4  ,and we of our       
generation have finally found the music 
that is so creatively infecting for us4 
,we have found the music of the         
post-,wagnerian epoch4 ,it is our music4
 ,for we are the offspring of the       
generation that assimilated ,wagner4    
,we1 too1 are the reaction from ,wagner4
 ,through the discovery we have come to 
learn that music can give us sensations 
different than those given us by        
,wagner's4 ,we have learned what it is  

to have music say to us1 ,it is thus1   
after all1 that you feel4 ,we have      
finally come to recognize that we       
require of music forms1 proportions1    
accents different from ,wagner's2       
orchestral movement1 color1 rhythms1 not
 in his4 ,we have learned that we want  
an altogether different stirring of the 
musical caldron4 ,a song of             
,moussorgsky's or ,ravel's1 a few       
measures of ,pelleas or ,le ,sacre du   
printemps1 a single fine moment in a    
sonata of ,scriabine's1 or a quartet or 
suite of ,bloch's1 give us a joy1 an    
illumination1 a satisfaction that little
 of the older music can equal4 ,for our 
own moment of action is finally at hand4
  ,so ,wagner has retreated and joined  
the company of composers who express    
another day than our own4 ,the          
sovereignty that was in him has passed  
to other men4 ,we regard him at present 
as the men of his own time might have   
regarded ,beethoven and ,weber4 ,still1 
he will always remain the one of all the

 company of the masters closest to us4  
,no doubt he is not the greatest of the 
artists who have made music4 ,colossal  
as were his forces1 colossal as were the
 struggles he made for the assumption of
 his art1 his musical powers were not   
always able to cope with the tasks he   
set himself4 ,the unflagging inventive  
power of a ,bach or a ,haydn1 the       
robustness of a ,haendel or a           
,beethoven1 the harmonious personality  
of a ,mozart1 were things he could not  
rival4 ,he is even inferior1 in the     
matter of style1 to men like ,weber and 
,debussy4 ,there are many moments1 one  
finds1 when his scores show that there  
was nothing in his mind1 and that he    
simply went through the routine of      
composition4 ,too often he permitted the
 system of leading-motifs to relieve him
 of the necessity of creating4 ,too     
often1 he made of his art a purely      
mental game4 ,his emotion1 his creative 
genius were far more intermittent1 his  
breath far less long than one once      

imagined4 ,some of the earlier works    
have commenced to fade rapidly1         
irretrievably4 ,at present one wonders  
how it is possible that one once sat    
entranced through performances of ,the  
,flying ,dutchman and ,tannhaeuser4     
,lohengrin begins to seem a little      
brutal1 strangely ,prussian lieutenant  
with its militaristic trumpets1 its     
abuse of the brass4 ,one finds oneself  
choosing even among the acts of ,tristan
 und ,isolde1 finding the first far     
inferior to the poignant1 magnificent   
third4 ,sometimes1 one glimpses a little
 too long behind his work not the heroic
 agonist1 but the man who loved to      
languish in mournful salons1 attired in 
furred dressing gowns4  ,indeed1 if     
,wagner seems great it is chiefly as one
 of the most delicate of musicians4 ,it 
is the lightness of his brush stroke    
that makes us marvel at the third act of
 ,tristan1 the first scene of the       
,walkuere4 ,it is the delicacy of his   
fancy1 the lilac fragrance pervading his

 inventions1 that enchants us in the    
second act of ,die ,meistersinger4      
,through the score of ,parsifal there   
seem to pass angelic forms and wings    
dainty and fragile and silver-shod as   
those of ,beardsley's ,morte d',arthur4 
,but the debt we owe him will always    
give him a vast importance in our eyes4 
,the men of to-day1 all of them1 stand  
directly on his shoulders4 ,it is       
doubtful whether any of us1 the passive 
public1 would be here to-day as we are1 
were it not for his music4     ,strauss 
,strauss was never the fine1 the perfect
 artist4 ,even in the first flare of    
youth1 even at the time when he was the 
meteoric1 dazzling figure flaunting over
 all the baldpates of the universe the  
standard of the musical future1 it was  
apparent that there were serious flaws  
in his spirit4 ,despite the audacity    
with which he realized his amazing and  
poignant and ironic visions1 despite his
 youthful fire and exuberance--and it   
was as something of a golden youth of   

music that ,strauss burst upon the      
world--one sensed in him the not quite  
beautifully deepened man1 heard at      
moments a callow accent in his          
eloquence1 felt that an unmistakable    
alloy was fused with the generous gold4 
,the purity1 the inwardness1 the        
searchings of the heart1 the religious  
sentiment of beauty1 present so         
unmistakably in the art of the great men
 who had developed music1 were wanting  
in his work4 ,he had neither the        
unswerving sense of style1 nor the      
weightiness of touch1 that mark the     
perfect craftsman4 ,he was not          
sufficiently a scrupulous and exacting  
artist4 ,it was apparent that he was    
careless1 too easily contented with some
 of his material1 not always happy in   
his detail4 ,mixed with his fire there  
was a sort of laziness and indifference4
 ,but1 in those days1 ,strauss was      
unmistakably the genius1 the original   
and bitingly expressive musician1 the   
engineer of proud orchestral flights1   

the outrider and bannerman of his art1  
and one forgave his shortcomings because
 of the radiance of his figure1 or      
remained only half-conscious of them4   
,for1 once his period of apprenticeship 
passed1 and all desire to write         
symphonies and chamber-music in the     
styles of ,schumann and ,mendelssohn and
 ,brahms1 to construct operas after the 
pattern of ,tannhaeuser and ,parsifal   
gone out of him1 this slender1 sleepy   
young ,bavarian with the pale curly hair
 and mustaches had commenced to develop 
the expressive power of music amazingly1
 to make the orchestra speak wonderfully
 as it had never spoken before4 ,under  
his touch the symphony1 that most rigid 
and abstract and venerable of forms1 was
 actually displaying some of the novel's
 narrative and analytical power1 its    
literalness and concreteness of detail4 
,it was describing the developments of a
 character1 was psychologizing as it had
 hitherto done only in conjunction with 
poetry or the theater4 ,strauss made it 

represent the inflammations of the sex  
illusion1 comment upon ,nietzsche and   
,cervantes1 recount the adventures1     
somersaults and end of a legendary      
rascal1 portray a hero of our time4 ,he 
made all these intellectual concepts    
plastic in a music of a brilliance and a
 sprightliness and mordancy that not    
overmany classic symphonies can rival4  
,other and former composers1 no doubt1  
had dreamt of making the orchestra more 
concretely expressive1 more precisely   
narrative and descriptive4 ,the         
,pastoral symphony is by no means the   
first piece of deliberately1 confessedly
 programmatic music4 ,and before        
,strauss1 both ,berlioz and ,liszt had  
experimented with the narrative1        
descriptive1 analytical symphony4 ,but  
it was only with ,strauss that the      
symphonic novel was finally realized4   
,neither ,berlioz nor ,liszt had really 
embodied their programs in living music4
 ,liszt invariably sacrificed program to
 sanctioned musical form4 ,for all his  

radicalism1 he was too trammeled by the 
classical concepts1 the traditional     
musical schemes and patterns to quite   
realize the symphony based on an        
extra-musical scheme4 ,his symphonic    
poems reveal how difficult it was for   
him to make his music follow the curve  
of his ideas4 ,in ,die ,ideale1 for     
instance1 for the sake of a conventional
 close1 he departed entirely from the   
curve of the poem of ,schiller which he 
was pretending to transmute4 ,the       
variations in which he reproduced       
,lamartine's verse are stereotyped      
enough4 ,when was there a time when     
composers did not deform their themes in
 amorous1 rustic and warlike variations8
 ,the relation between the pompous and  
somewhat empty ,lament and ,triumph and 
the unique1 the distinct thing that was 
the life of ,torquato ,tasso is outward 
enough4 ,and even ,mazeppa1 in which    
,liszt's virtuosic genius stood him in  
good stead1 makes one feel as though    
,liszt could never quite keep his eye on

 the fact1 and finally became engrossed 
in the weaving of a musical pattern     
fairly extraneous to his idea4 ,the     
,faust ,symphony is1 after all1 an      
exception4 ,berlioz1 too1 failed on the 
whole to achieve the musical novel4     
,whenever he did attain musical form1 it
 was generally at the expense of his    
program4 ,are the somewhat picturesque  
episodes of ,harold in ,italy1 whatever 
their virtues1 and they are many1 more  
than vaguely related to the ,byronism   
that ostensibly elemented them8 ,the    
surprisingly conventional overture to   
,king ,lear makes one feel as though    
,berlioz had sat through a performance  
of one of ,shakespeare's comedies under 
the impression that he was assisting at 
the tragedy1 so unrelated to its subject
 is the music4 ,and where1 on the other 
hand1 ,berlioz did succeed in being     
regardful of his program1 as in the     
,symphonic ,fantastique1 or in ,lelio1  
there resulted a somewhat thin and      
formless music4  ,but ,strauss1         

benefiting by the experiments of his two
 predecessors1 realized the new form    
better than any one before him had done4
 ,for he possessed the special gifts    
necessary to the performance of the     
task4 ,he possessed1 in the first place1
 a miraculous power of musical          
characterization4 ,through the          
representative nicety of his themes1    
through his inordinate capacity for     
thematic variation and transformation1  
his playful and witty and colorful      
instrumentation1 ,strauss was able to   
impart to his music a concreteness and  
descriptiveness and realism hitherto    
unknown to symphonic art1 to            
characterize briefly1 sparingly1 justly1
 a personage1 a situation1 an event4 ,he
 could be pathetic1 ironic1 playful1    
mordant1 musing1 at will4 ,he was sure  
in his tone1 was low-,german in ,till   
,eulenspiegel1 courtly and brilliant in 
,don ,juan1 noble and bitterly sarcastic
 in ,don ,quixote1 childlike in ,tod und
 ,verklaerung4 ,his orchestra was able  

to accommodate itself to all the folds  
and curves of his elaborate programs1 to
 find equivalents for individual traits4
 ,it is not simply a man1 or even an    
amatory hero that is portrayed in ,don  
,juan4 ,it is no vague symbol for the   
poet of the sort created by ,orpheus or 
,tasso or ,mazeppa4 ,it is ,lenau's hero
 himself1 the particular being ,don     
,juan ,tenorio4 ,the vibrant1 brilliant 
music of the up-surging1 light-treading 
strings1 of the resonant1 palpitating   
brass1 springs forth in virile march1   
reveals the man himself1 his physical   
glamour1 his intoxication that caused   
him to see in every woman the ,venus1   
and that in the end made him the victim 
as well as the hero of the sexual life4 
,it is ,till ,eulenspiegel himself1 the 
scurvy1 comic rascal1 the eternal dirty 
little boy with his witty and obscene   
gestures1 who leers out of every measure
 of the tone-poem named for him1 and    
twirls his fingers at his nose's end at 
all the decorous and respectable world4 

,here1 for once1 orchestral music is    
really wonderfully rascally and         
impudent1 horns gleeful and windy and   
insolent1 wood-wind puckish and obscene4
 ,here a musical form reels hilariously 
and cuts capers and dances on bald      
heads4 ,the variation of ,don ,quixote  
that describes with wood-wind and       
tambourine ,dulcinea del ,toboso is     
plump and plebeian and good-natured with
 her very person1 is all the more       
trenchantly vulgar and flat for the     
preceding suave variation that describes
 the knight's fair1 sonorous dream of   
her4 ,there is no music more plaintively
 stupid than that which in the same work
 figures the sheep against which ,don   
,quixote battles so valiantly4 ,nor is  
there any music more maliciously1       
malevolently petty than that which      
represents the adversaries in ,ein      
,heldenleben4 ,so exceedingly definite  
is the portrait of the ,hero's ,consort1
 for which ,frau ,richard ,strauss1     
without doubt1 sat1 that without even   

having seen a photograph of the lady1   
one can aver that she is graced with a  
diatonic figure4 ,and1 certainly the    
most amusing passage of ,sinfonia       
,domestica is that complex of ,bavarian 
lustihood1 ,bavarian grossness1         
,bavarian dreaminess and ,bavarian good 
nature1 the thematic group that serves  
as autoportrait of the composer4  ,and  
just as there seemed few characters that
 ,strauss could not paint1 in those     
days1 so1 too1 there seemed few         
situations1 few atmospheres1 to which he
 could not do justice4 ,a couple of     
measures1 the sinister palpitation of   
the timpani and the violas1 the brooding
 of the wood-wind1 the dull flickering  
of the flutes1 the laboring breath of   
the strings1 and we are lying on the    
death-bed1 exhausted and gasping for    
air1 weighed by the wrecks of hopes1    
awaiting the cruel blows on the heart   
that will end everything4 ,horns and    
violins quaver and snarl1 flutes shrill1
 a brief figure descends in the oboes   

and clarinets1 and ,till has shed his   
rascal-sweat and danced on the air4 ,the
 orchestra reveals us ,don ,juan's love 
affairs in all their individuality3     
first the passionate1 fiery relation    
with the ,countess1 quickly begun and   
quickly ended2 then the gentler and more
 inward communion with ,anna1 with the  
boredom resulting from the lady's       
continual demand for sentiment and      
romantic posturing2 then the great night
 of love and roses1 with its intoxicated
 golden winding horns1 its ecstatically 
singing violins2 and finally the        
crushing disappointment1 the shudder of 
disgust4 ,the battle in ,ein            
,heldenleben pictures war really2 the   
whistling1 ironical wind-machine in ,don
 ,quixote satirizes dreams bitingly as  
no music has done2 the orchestra        
describes the enthusiastic ,don         
recovering from his madness1 and smiles 
a conclusion2 in ,also ,sprach          
,zarathustra it piles high the tomes of 
science1 and waltzes with the ,superman 

in distant worlds4  ,and then1 though   
less fecund an inventor than ,liszt1    
less rich and large a temperament than  
,berlioz1 ,strauss was better able than 
either of his masters to organize his   
material on difficult and original      
lines1 and find musical forms           
representative of his programs4 ,because
 of their labors1 he was born freer of  
the classical traditions than they had  
been1 and was able to make music plot   
more exactly the curves of his concepts1
 to submit the older forms1 such as the 
rondo and the theme and variations1 more
 perfectly to his purpose4 ,compositions
 of the sort of ,till ,eulenspiegel1    
,tod und ,verklaerung and ,ein          
,heldenleben1 solidly made and yet both 
narrative and dramatic1 place the       
symphonic poem in the category of       
legitimate musical forms4 ,the themes of
 ,till grow out of each other quite as  
do the themes of a ,beethoven symphony  
or of ,tristan or of ,parsifal4 ,indeed1
 ,strauss has done for the symphonic    

poem something of what ,wagner did for  
the opera4 ,and not an overwhelming     
number of classical symphonies contain  
music more eloquent than1 say1 the      
sunrise in ,also ,sprach ,zarathustra1  
or the final variation of ,don ,quixote 
with its piercing1 shattering trumpets  
of defeat1 or the terrifying opening    
passage of ,tod und ,verklaerung4 ,for  
,strauss was able to unloose his verve  
and fantasy completely in the           
construction of his edifices4 ,his      
orchestra moves in strangest and most   
unconventional curves1 shoots with the  
violence of an exploding firearm1 ambles
 like a palfrey1 swoops like a bird4    
,there are few who1 at a first hearing  
of a ,strauss poem1 do not feel as      
though some wild and troubling and panic
 presence had leaned over the concert   
hall and bedeviled the orchestra4 ,for1 
in his hands1 it is no longer the       
familiar and terrorless thing it once   
had been1 a thing about whose behavior  
one can be certain4 ,it has become a    

formidable engine of steel and gold1    
vibrant with mad and unexpected things4 
,patterns leap and tumble out of it4    
,violin music launches swiftly into     
space1 trumpets run scales1 the tempi   
move with the velocity of express       
trains4 ,it has become a giant1 terrible
 bird1 the great auk of music1 that     
seizes you in its talons and spirals    
into the empyrean4  ,but it was what he 
seemed to promise to perform1 to bring  
into being1 even more than what he had  
already definitely accomplished1 that   
spread about the figure of ,strauss the 
peculiar radiance4 ,it was ,nietzsche   
who had made current the dream of a new 
music1 a music that should be fiercely  
and beautifully animal1 full of         
laughter1 of the dry good light of the  
intellect1 of salt and fire and the     
great1 compelling logic1 of the light   
feet of the south1 the dance of the     
stars1 the quivering dayshine of the    
,mediterranean4 ,the other composers1   
the ,beethovens and ,brahms and         

,wagners1 had been sad1 suffering1      
wounded men1 men who had lost their     
divine innocence and joy in the         
shambles1 and whose spiritual bodies    
were scarred1 for all the muscular      
strength gained during their fights1 by 
hunger and frustration and agony4 ,pain 
had even marred their song4 ,for what   
should have been innocence and          
effortless movement and godlike joy1    
,mozartean coordination and harmony1 was
 full of terrible cries1 and convulsive1
 rending motions1 and shrouding sorrow4 
,and ,nietzsche had dreamt of music of  
another sort4 ,he had dreamt of a music 
that should be a bridge to the          
,superman1 the man whose every motion   
would be carefree4 ,he had seen striding
 across mountain chains in the bright   
air of an eternal morning a youth       
irradiant with unbroken energy1 before  
whom all the world lay open in vernal   
sunshine like a domain before its lord4 
,he had seen one beside whom the other  
musicians would stand as convicts from  

,siberian prison camps who had stumbled 
upon a banquet of the gods4 ,he had seen
 a young ,titan of music1 drunken with  
life and fire and joy1 dancing and      
reeling and laughing on the top of the  
world1 and with fingers amid the stars1 
sending suns and constellations         
crashing4 ,he had caught sight of the   
old and eternally youthful figure of    
,indian ,dionysos4  ,and even though    
,strauss himself could scarcely be      
mistaken for the god1 nevertheless he   
made ,nietzsche's dream appear          
realizable4 ,he permitted one for an    
instant to perceive a musical realm in  
which the earth-fast could not breathe4 
,he permitted one for an instant to hear
 ringing the prelude of a deeper1       
mightier1 perchance a more evil and     
mysterious music2 a super-,german music 
which does not fade1 wither and die away
 beside the blue and wanton sea and the 
clear ,mediterranean sky2 a music       
super-,european1 which would assert     
itself even amid the tawny sunsets of   

the desert2 a music whose soul is akin  
to the palm-trees2 a music that can     
consort and prowl with great1 beautiful1
 lonely beasts of prey2 a music whose   
supreme charm is its ignorance of ,good 
and ,evil4 ,for he came with some of the
 light and careless and arrogant tread1 
the intellectual sparkling1 the superb  
gesture and port1 of the musician of the
 new race4 ,the man who composed such   
music1 one knew1 had been born on some  
sort of human height1 in some cooler1   
brighter atmosphere than that of the    
crowded valleys4 ,for in this music     
there beat a faster pulse1 moved a      
lighter1 fierier1 prouder body1 sounded 
a more ironic and disdainful laughter1  
breathed a rarer air than had beat and  
moved and sounded and breathed in music4
 ,it made drunken with pleasant sound1  
with full rich harmonies1 with exuberant
 dance and waltz movements4 ,it seemed  
to adumbrate the arrival of a new sort  
of men1 men of saner1 sounder1 more     
athletic souls and more robust and cool 

intelligences1 a generation that was    
vitally satisfied1 was less torn and    
belabored by the inexpressible longings 
of the romantic world1 a generation very
 much at home on the globe4 ,for it had 
none of the restless1 sick desire of    
,wagner1 none of his excessive pathos1  
his heaviness and stiff grandeur4 ,it   
had come down off its buskins1 was more 
easy1 witty1 diverting1 exciting1       
popular and yet cerebral4 ,though it was
 obviously the speech of a complicated1 
modern man1 self-conscious1             
sophisticated1 nervous1 product of a    
society perhaps not quite as free and   
,nietzschean as it deemed itself1 but   
yet cultivated and illuminated and      
refined1 it nevertheless seemed         
exuberantly sound4 ,the sweet1 broad1   
diatonic idiom1 the humor1 the sleepy   
,bavarian accent1 the pert1 naive1      
little folk-tunes it employed1 the      
tranquil1 touching1 childlike tones1 the
 close of ,tod und ,verklaerung1 with   
its wondrous unfolding of corolla upon  

corolla1 were refreshing indeed after   
all the burning chromaticism of ,wagner1
 the sultry air of ,klingsor's          
wonder-garden4  ,and this music         
glittered with the sun4 ,the pitch of   
,wagner's orchestra had1 after all1 been
 predominantly sober and subdued4 ,but  
in the orchestra of ,strauss1 the       
color-gamut of the plein-air painters   
got a musical equivalent4 ,those high   
and brilliant tints1 these shimmering1  
biting tones1 make one feel as though   
,strauss made music with the paint-brush
 of a ,monet or a ,van ,gogh4 ,his      
trumpets are high and brilliant and     
silvery1 his violins scintillant and    
electric1 at moments winding a lazy1    
happy1 smoke-blue thread through the    
sunburnt fabric of the score4 ,his horns
 glow with soft1 fruity timbres4 ,the   
new sweetness of color which he attains 
in his songs1 the pale gold of ,morgen1 
the rose of the ,serenade1 the mild     
evening blue of ,traum durch die        
,daemmerung1 shimmers throughout his    

orchestra scores4 ,never have wind      
instruments sounded more richly1        
dulcetly1 than in that ,serenade fuer   
dreizehn ,blaeser4 ,at a first hearing  
of ,also ,sprach ,zarathustra1 it seemed
 as though the very dayspring had       
descended into the orchestra to make    
that famous1 brassy opening passage4    
,for here1 in the hand of ,strauss1 the 
orchestra begins to round out its form  
and assume its logical shape4 ,the      
various families of instruments are made
 independent2 often play separately4    
,the shattering brass of which ,berlioz 
had dreamt is realized4 ,violas d'amore1
 hecklephones1 wind-machines1 are       
introduced into the band2 the familiar  
instruments are used in unfamiliar      
registers4 ,through the tone-poems of   
,strauss1 the orchestral composer for   
the first time has a suitable palette1  
and can achieve a brilliance as great as
 that which the modern painter can      
attain4  ,to-day1 it is difficult to    
realize that ,richard ,strauss ever     

incensed such high hopes1 that there was
 a time when he made appear realizable  
,nietzsche's mad dream of a modern      
music1 and that for awhile the nimbus of
 ,dionysos burnt round his figure4      
,to-day it is difficult to remember that
 once upon a time ,strauss seemed to the
 world the golden youth of music1 the   
engineer of proud orchestral flights1   
the outrider and bannerman of his art4  
,for it is long since he has promised to
 reveal the new beauty1 the new rhythm1 
has seemed the wonderful start and      
flight toward some rarer plane of       
existence1 some bluer ether1 the friend 
of everything intrepid and living and   
young1 the arrow of longing for the     
,superman4 ,it is a long while since any
 gracious1 lordly light has irradiated  
his person4 ,in recent years he has     
become almost the very reverse of what  
he was1 of what he gave so brave an     
earnest of becoming4 ,he who was once so
 electric1 so vital1 so brilliant a     
figure has become dreary and outward and

 stupid1 even4 ,he who once seemed the  
champion of the new has come to fill us 
with the weariness of the struggle1 with
 deep self-distrust and discouragement1 
has become a heavy and oppressive       
weight4 ,he who once sought to express  
the world about him1 to be the poet of  
the coming time1 now seems inspired only
 by a desire to do the amazing1 the     
surface thing1 and plies himself to     
every ephemeral and shallow current of  
modern life4 ,for ,strauss has not only 
not deepened and matured and increased  
in stature2 he has not even stood still1
 remained the artist that once he was4  
,he has progressively and steadily      
deteriorated during the last decade4 ,he
 has become a bad musician4 ,he is the  
cruel1 the great disappointment of      
modern music1 of modern art4 ,the       
dream-light has failed altogether1 has  
made the succeeding darkness the thicker
 for the momentary illumination4        
,strauss to-day is seen as a rocket that
 sizzled up into the sky with           

many-colored blaze1 and then broke      
suddenly and extinguished swiftly into  
the midnight4  ,it is not easy1 even for
 those who were aware from the very     
first that ,strauss was not the spirit  
pardlike1 beautiful and swift and that  
there always were distinctly gross and  
insensitive particles in him1 to        
recognize in the slack and listless     
person who concocts ,joseph's ,legende  
and the ,alpensymphonie1 the young and  
fiery composer1 genius despite all the  
impurities of his style1 who composed   
,till ,eulenspiegel and ,don ,quixote2  
not easy1 even though the contours of   
his idiom have not radically altered1   
and though in the sleepy facile periods 
of his later style one catches sight at 
times of the broad1 simple diction of   
his earlier4 ,for the later ,strauss    
lacks pre-eminently and signally just   
the traits that made of the earlier so  
brilliant and engaging a figure4 ,behind
 the works of the earlier ,strauss there
 was visible an intensely fierily       

experiencing being1 a man who had       
powerful and poignant and beautiful     
sensations1 and the gift of expressing  
them richly4 ,behind the work of the    
latter there is all too apparent a man  
who for a long while has felt nothing   
beautiful or strong or full1 who no     
longer possesses the power of feeling   
anything at all1 and is inwardly wasted 
and dull and spent4 ,the one had a      
burning and wonderful pressure of       
speech4 ,the other seems unable to      
concentrate energy and interest         
sufficiently to create a hard and living
 piece of work4 ,the one seemed to blaze
 new pathways through the brain4 ,the   
other steps languidly in roadways well  
worn4 ,he is not even amusing any       
longer4 ,the contriver of wonderful     
orchestral machines1 the man who        
penetrated into the death-chamber and   
stood under the gibbet1 has turned to   
toying with his medium1 to imitating    
other composers1 ,mozart in ,der        
,rosenkavalier1 ,haendel in ,joseph's   

,legende1 ,offenbach and ,lully 7a      
coupling that only ,strauss has the lack
 of taste to bring about7 in ,ariadne   
auf ,naxos4 ,he has become increasingly 
facile and unoriginal1 has taken to     
quoting unblushingly ,mendelssohn1      
,tchaikowsky1 ,wagner1 himself1 even4   
,his insensitivity has waxed            
inordinately1 and led him to mix styles1
 to commingle dramatic and coloratura   
passages1 to jumble the idioms of three 
centuries in a single work1 to play all 
manner of pointless pranks with his art4
 ,his literary taste has grown          
increasingly uncertain4 ,he who was once
 so careful in his choice of lyrics1 and
 recognized the talents of such modern  
,german poets as ,birnbaum and ,dehmel  
and ,mackay1 accepts librettos as dull  
and inartistic and precious as those    
with which ,hofmannsthal is supplying   
him1 and lends his art to the boring    
buffooneries of ,der ,rosenkavalier and 
,ariadne auf ,naxos4 ,something in him  
has bent and been fouled4  ,one thing at

 least the ,strauss of the tone-poems   
indisputably was4 ,he was freely1       
dazzlingly1 daringly expressive4 ,and   
this is what the ,strauss of the last   
years thinly and rarely is4 ,it is not  
,oscar ,wilde's wax flowers of speech1  
nor the excessively stiff and           
conventionalized action of ,salome1 that
 bores one with the ,strauss opera of   
that name4 ,it is not even the libretto 
of ,der ,rosenkavalier1 essentially     
coarse and boorish and insensitive as it
 is beneath all its powdered preciosity1
 that wearies one with ,strauss's       
,musical ,comedy2 or the hybrid1 lame1  
tasteless form of ,ariadne auf ,naxos   
that turns one against that little      
monstrosity4 ,it is the generally       
inexpressive and insufficient music in  
which ,strauss has vested them4 ,the    
music of ,salome1 for instance1 is not  
even commensurable with ,wilde's drama4 
,it was the evacuation of an obsessive  
desire1 the revulsion from a pitiless   
sensuality that the poet had intended to

 procure through this representation4   
,but ,strauss's music1 save in such     
exceptional passages as the shimmering1 
restless1 nerve-sick opening page1 or   
the beginning of the scene with the     
head1 or certain other crimson patches1 
hampers and even negates the intended   
effect4 ,it emasculates the drama with  
its pervasive prettiness1 its lazy      
felicitousness where it ought to be     
monstrous and terrifying1 its           
reminiscences of ,mendelssohn1          
,tchaikowsky and ,little ,egypt4 ,the   
lascivious and hieratic dance1 the dance
 of the seven veils1 is represented by a
 valse lente4 ,oftentimes the score     
verges perilously on circus-music1      
recalls the sideshows at county fairs4  
,no doubt1 in so doing it weakens the   
odor exuded by ,wilde's play4 ,but if we
 must have an operatic ,salome1 it is   
but reasonable to demand that the       
composer in his music express the sexual
 cruelty and frenzy symbolized in the   
figure of the dancer4 ,and the ,salome  

of ,strauss's score is as little the    
,salome of ,wilde as she is the ,salome 
of ,flaubert or ,beardsley or ,moreau or
 ,huysmans4 ,one cannot help feeling her
 eminently a buxom1 opulent ,berliner1  
the wife1 say1 of the proprietor of a   
large department store2 a heavy lady a  
good deal less daemonisch and perverse  
than she would like to have it appear4  
,but there are moments when one feels as
 though ,strauss's heroine were not even
 a ,berliner1 or of the upper middle    
class4 ,there are moments when she is   
plainly ,kaethi1 the waitress at the    
,muenchner ,hofbrauehaus4 ,and though   
she declares to ,jokanaan that it is his
 mouth of which she is enamored1 she    
delivers the words in her own           
true-hearted1 unaffected brogue4  ,nor  
is ,elektra1 more sharp than ,salome1   
though it oftentimes is1 the musical    
equivalent for the massive and violent  
forms of archaic ,greek sculpture that  
,strauss intended it be4 ,elektra       
herself is perhaps more truly incarnate 

fury than ,salome is incarnate luxury2  
ugliness and demoniacal brooding1       
madness and cruelty are here more       
sheerly powerfully expressed than in the
 earlier score2 the scene of recognition
 between brother and sister is more     
large and touching than anything in     
,salome2 ,elektra's paean and dance1 for
 all its closeness to a banal cantilena1
 its tempo di valse so characteristic of
 the later ,strauss1 is perhaps more    
grandiosely and balefully triumphant    
than the dancer's scene with the head4  
,nevertheless1 the work is by no means  
realized4 ,it is formally impure1 a     
thing that none of the earlier          
tone-poems are4 ,neither style nor shape
 are deeply felt4 ,both are             
superficially and externally conceived2 
and nothing so conclusively demonstrates
 it as the extreme ineffectually of the 
moments of contrast with which ,strauss 
has attempted to relieve the dominant   
mood of his work4 ,just as in ,salome   
the more restless and sensual passages1 

lazily felt as they are1 are            
nevertheless infinitely more significant
 than the intensely contrasting silly   
music assigned to the ,prophet1 so1 too1
 in ,elektra1 the moments when ,strauss 
is cruel1 brutal1 ugly are of a much    
higher expressiveness than those in     
which he has sought to write            
beautifully4 ,for whereas in moments of 
the first sort the lions of the ,mycenae
 gates do at times snarl and glower1 in 
those of the second it is the ,teutonic 
beer-mug that makes itself felt4        
,elektra laments her father in a very   
pretty and undistinguished melody1 and  
entreats her sister to slay             
,klytemnaestra to the accompaniment of a
 sort of valse perverse4 ,it is also in 
tempo di valse that ,chrysothemis       
declares her need of wifehood and       
motherhood4 ,as an organism the work    
does not exist4  ,but even the          
expressiveness and considerability of   
,salome and ,elektra1 limited and       
unsatisfactory as they are1 are wanting 

in the more recent works4 ,with ,der    
,rosenkavalier1 ,strauss seems to have  
reached a condition in which it is      
impossible for him to penetrate a       
subject deeply4 ,no doubt he always was 
spotty1 even though in his golden days  
he invariably fixed the inner informing 
binding rhythm of each of his works4    
,but his last works are not only spotty1
 but completely spineless as well1      
invertebrate masses upon which a few    
jewels1 a few fine patches1 gleam dully4
 ,salome and ,elektra had at least a    
certain dignity1 a certain bearing4 ,der
 ,rosenkavalier1 ,ariadne auf ,naxos1   
,joseph's ,legende and ,eine            
,alpensymphonie are makeshift1 slack1   
slovenly despite all technical          
virtuosity1 all orchestral marvels4     
,every one knows what the score of      
,rosenkavalier should have been1 a gay1 
florid1 licentious thing1 the very image
 of the gallant century with its mundane
 amours and ribbons and cupids1 its     
petit-maitres and furbelows and         

billets-doux1 its light emotions and    
equally light surrenders4 ,but          
,strauss's music is singularly flat and 
hollow and dun1 joyless and soggy1 even 
though it is dotted with waltzes and    
contains the delightful introduction to 
the third act1 and the brilliant trio4  
,it has all the worst faults of the     
libretto4 ,hofmannsthal's comedy for    
music1 though gross and vulgar in       
spirit1 and unoriginal in design1 is    
full of a sort of clever preciosity1    
full of piquant details culled from     
eighteenth-century prints and memoirs4  
,the scene of the coiffing is a print of
 ,hogarth's translated to the stage2    
,rofrano's name ,octavian ,maria        
,ehrenreich ,bonaventura ,fernand       
,hyazinth is like an essay on the       
culture of the ,vienna of ,canaletto2   
the polite jargon of eighteenth-century 
aristocratic ,austria spoken by the     
characters1 with its stiff1 courteous   
forms and intermingled ,french1 must    
have been studied from old journals and 

gazettes4 ,and ,strauss's score is      
equally precious1 equally a thing of    
erudition and cleverness4 ,mozart turned
 the imbecilities of ,schickaneder to   
his uses2 ,weber triumphed over the     
ridiculous romancings of ,helmine von   
,chezy4 ,but ,strauss follows           
,hofmannsthal helplessly1 soddenly4     
,just as ,hofmannsthal imitates         
,hogarth1 so ,strauss imitates ,mozart1 
affects his style1 his turns1 his       
spirit2 inserts a syrupy air in the     
style of ,haendel or ,mehul in the first
 act2 and jumbles ,mozart with modern   
comic-opera waltzes1 ,haendel with      
post-,wagnerian incantations4 ,and like 
,hofmannsthal's libretto1 the score     
remains a superficial and formless      
thing4 ,the inner and coherent rhythm1  
the spiritual beat and swing1 the great 
unity and direction1 are wanting4 ,i    
have always wanted to write an opera    
like ,mozart's1 and now ,i have done it1
 ,strauss is reported to have said after
 the first performance of ,der          

,rosenkavalier4 ,but ,der ,rosenkavalier
 is almost antipodal to ,don ,giovanni  
or to ,falstaff or to ,die              
,meistersinger or to any of the great   
comic operas4 ,for it lacks just the    
thing the others possess abundantly1 a  
strong lyrical movement1 a warm emotion 
that informs the music bar after bar1   
scene after scene1 act after act1 and   
imparts to the auditor the joy1 the     
vitality1 the beauty of which the       
composers' hearts were full4 ,it is a   
long while since ,strauss has felt      
anything of the sort4  ,had the new time
 produced no musical art1 had no        
,debussy nor ,scriabine1 no ,strawinsky 
nor ,bloch1 put in appearance1 one might
 possibly have found oneself compelled  
to believe the mournful decadence of    
,richard ,strauss the inevitable        
development awaiting musical genius in  
the modern world4 ,there exists a group1
 international in composition1 which1   
above all other contemporary bodies1    
arrogates to itself the style of        

modernity4 ,it is the group1 tendrils of
 which reach into every great capital   
and center1 into every artistic movement
 and cause1 of the bored ones1 the      
spoilt ones4 ,the present system has    
lifted into a quasi aristocratic and    
leisurely state vast numbers of people  
without background1 without tradition or
 culture or taste4 ,by reason of its    
largeness and resources1 this group of  
people without taste1 without interest1 
without finesse1 has come to dominate in
 particular the world of art as the     
world of play1 has come to demand       
distraction1 sensation1 excitement which
 its unreal existence does not afford   
it4 ,indeed1 this band has come to give 
a cast to the whole of present-day life2
 its members pretend to represent       
present-day culture4 ,it is with this   
group with its frayed sensibilities and 
tired pulses that ,strauss has become   
increasingly identified1 till of late he
 has become something like its          
court-musician1 supplying it with       

stimulants1 awaking its curiosities1    
astonishing and exciting it with the    
superficial novelty of his works1 trying
 to procure it the experiences it is so 
lamentably unable to procure itself4 ,it
 is for it that he created the trumpery 
horrors1 the sweet erotics of the score 
of ,salome4 ,it is for it that he       
imitated ,mozart saccharinely in ,der   
,rosenkavalier2 mangled ,moliere's      
comedy2 committed the vulgarities and   
hypocrisies of ,joseph's ,legende4 ,and 
did no evidence roundly to the contrary 
exist1 one might suppose this group to  
really represent modern life2 that its  
modernity was the only true one2 and    
that in expressing it1 in conforming to 
it1 ,strauss was functioning in the only
 manner granted the contemporary        
composer4 ,but since such evidence      
exists aplenty1 since a dozen other     
musicians1 to speak only of the         
practitioners of a single art1 have     
managed to keep themselves immune and   
yet create beauty about them1 to remain 

on the plane upon which ,strauss began  
life1 to persevere in the direction in  
which he was originally set1 and yet    
live fully1 one finds oneself convinced 
that the deterioration of ,strauss1     
which has made him musical purveyor to  
this group1 has not been the result of  
the pressure of outward and hostile     
circumstances4 ,one finds oneself       
positively convinced that it was some   
inner weakness within himself that      
permitted the spoilt and ugly folk to   
seduce him from his road1 and use him   
for their purposes4  ,and in the end it 
is as the victim of a psychic           
deterioration that one is forced to     
regard this unfortunate man4 ,the thing 
that one sees happening to so many      
people about one1 the extinction of a   
flame1 the withering of a blossom1 the  
dulling and coarsening of the           
sensibilities1 the decay of the mental  
energies1 seems to have happened to him1
 too4 ,and since it happens in the lives
 of so many folk1 why should it surprise

 one to see it happening in the life of 
an artist1 and deflowering genius and   
ruining musical art8 ,all the hectic1   
unreal activity of the later ,strauss1  
the dissipation of forces1 points back  
to such a cause4 ,he declares himself in
 every action the type who can no longer
 gather his energies to the performance 
of an honest piece of work1 who can no  
longer achieve direct1 full1 living     
expression1 who can no longer penetrate 
the center of a subject1 an idea4 ,he is
 the type of man unfaithful to himself  
in some fundamental relation1 unfaithful
 to himself throughout his deeds4 ,many 
people have thought a love of money the 
cause of ,strauss's decay2 that for the 
sake of gain he has delivered himself   
bound hand and foot into the power of   
his publishers1 and for the sake of gain
 turned out bad music4 ,no doubt1 the   
love of money plays an inordinate role  
in the man's life1 and keeps on playing 
a greater and greater4 ,but it is       
probable that ,strauss's desire for     

incessant gain is a sort of perversion1 
a mania that has gotten control over him
 because his energies are inwardly      
prevented from taking their logical     
course1 and creating works of art4      
,luxury-loving as he is1 ,strauss has   
probably never needed money sorely4     
,some money he doubtlessly inherited    
through his mother1 the daughter of the 
,munich beer-brewer ,pschorr2 his works 
have always fetched large prices--his   
publishers have paid him as much as a   
thousand dollars for a single song2 and 
he has always been able to earn great   
sums by conducting4 ,no matter how lofty
 and severe his art might have become1  
he would always have been able to live  
as he chose4 ,there is no doubt that he 
would have earned quite as much money   
with ,salome and ,der ,rosenkavalier had
 they been works of high1 artistic merit
 as he has earned with them in their    
present condition4 ,the truth is that he
 has rationalized his unwillingness to  
go through the labor-pains of creation  

by pretending to himself a constant and 
great need of money1 and permitting     
himself to dissipate his energies in a  
hectic1 disturbed1 shallow existence1 in
 a tremor of concert-tours1             
guest-conductorships1 money-making      
enterprises of all sorts1 which leave   
him about two or three of the summer    
months for composition1 and probably rob
 him of his best energies4 ,so works    
leave his writing table half-conceived1 
half-executed4 ,the score of ,elektra he
 permits his publishers to snatch from  
him before he is quite finished with it4
 ,he commences composing ,der           
,rosenkavalier before having even seen  
the third act4 ,the third act arrives2  
,strauss finds it miserable4 ,but it is 
too late4 ,the work is half-finished1   
and ,strauss has to go through with it4 
,composition becomes more and more a    
mechanical thing1 the brilliant         
orchestration of sloppy1 undistinguished
 music1 the polishing up of details1 the
 play of superficial cleverness which   

makes a score like ,der ,rosenkavalier1 
feeble as it is1 interesting to many    
musicians4  ,and ,richard ,strauss1 the 
one living musician who could with      
greatest ease settle down to            
uninterrupted composition1 gets to his  
writing table in his apartment in       
,charlottenburg every evening at nine   
o'clock1 that is1 whenever he is not on 
duty at the ,berlin ,opera4  ,and always
 the excuses3 ,earning money for the    
support of wife and child is not        
shameful1 ,i am going to accumulate a   
large enough fortune so that ,i can give
 up conducting entirely and spend all my
 time composing4 ,but one can be sure   
that when ,strauss soliloquizes1 it is a
 different defense that he makes4 ,one  
can be sure1 then1 that he justifies    
himself cynically1 bitterly1 grossly1   
tells himself that the game is not worth
 the candle1 that greatness is a matter 
of advertisement1 that only the values  
of the commercial world exist1 that     
other success than the procurement of   

applause and wealth and notoriety       
constitutes failure4 ,why should you    
take the trouble to write good work that
 will bring you posthumous fame when    
without trouble you can write work that 
will bring you fame during your         
lifetime8 ,the whole world is sham and  
advertisement and opportunism1 is it    
not8 ,reputations are made by publishers
 and newspapers4 ,greatness is a matter 
determined by majorities4 ,but impress  
the public1 but compose works that will 
arouse universal comment1 but break a   
few academic formulas and get yourself  
talked about1 but write music that will 
surprise and seem wonderful at a first  
hearing1 and your fame is assured4 ,the 
important thing is to live luxuriously  
and keep your name before the public4   
,in so doing one will have lived life as
 fully as it can be lived4 ,and after   
one is dead1 what does it all matter8   
,yet1 though the world be full of men   
whose spiritual energies have been lamed
 in kindred fashions1 the terrible      

misadventure of ,richard ,strauss       
remains deeply affecting4 ,however far  
the millions of bright spirits who have 
died a living death have fallen1 their  
fall has been no farther than this      
man's4 ,there can be no doubt of the    
completeness of ,strauss's disaster4 ,it
 is a long while since he has been much 
besides a bore to his once fervent      
admirers1 an object of hatred to        
thousands of honest1 idealistic         
musicians4 ,he has completely1 in his   
fifty-sixth year1 lost the position of  
leadership1 of eminence that once he    
had4 ,even before the war his operas    
held the stage only with difficulty4    
,and it is possible that he will outlive
 his fame4 ,one wonders whether he is   
not one of the men whose inflated       
reputations the war has pricked1 and    
that a world will shortly wonder1 before
 his two new operas1 how it was possible
 that it should have been held at all by
 the man4 ,had he been the most         
idealistic1 the most uncompromising of  

musicians he could not be less          
respected4 ,perhaps his last chance lay 
in the ,alpensymphonie4 ,here was a     
ceremony that could have made him priest
 once again4 ,europe had reached a      
summit1 humanity had had a vision4      
,before it lay a long descent1 a        
cloudburst1 the sunset of a             
civilization1 another night4 ,could     
,strauss have once more girded himself1 
once more summoned the faith1 the       
energy1 the fire that created those     
first grand pages that won a world to   
him1 he might have been saved4 ,but it  
was impossible4 ,something in him was   
dead forever4 ,and so1 to us1 who should
 have been his champions1 his audiences1
 his work already seems old1 part of the
 past even at its best1 unreal except   
for a few of the fine symphonic works4  
,to us1 who once thought to see in him  
the man of the new time1 he seems only  
the brave1 sonorous trumpet-call that   
heralded a king who never put in his    
appearance1 the glare that in the ,east 

lights the sky for an instant and seems 
to promise a new day1 but extinguishes  
again4 ,he is indeed the false dawn of  
modern music4     ,moussorgsky   ,the   
music of ,moussorgsky comes up out of a 
dense and livid ground4 ,it comes up out
 of a ground that lies thickly packed   
beneath our feet1 and that is wider than
 the widest waste1 and deeper than the  
bottomless abysses of the sea4 ,it comes
 up from a soil that descends downward  
through all times and ages1 through all 
the days of humankind1 down to the very 
foundations of the globe itself4 ,for it
 grows from the flesh of the nameless1  
unnumbered multitudes of men condemned  
by life throughout its course to misery4
 ,it has its roots where death and      
defeat have been4 ,it has its roots in  
all bruised and maimed and frustrated   
flesh1 in all flesh that might have     
borne a god and perished barren4 ,it has
 its root in every being who has been   
without sun1 in every being who has     
suffered cold and hunger and disease1   

and pierces down and touches every      
voiceless woe1 every defeat that man has
 ever known4 ,and out of that sea of    
mutilated flesh it rises like low1      
trembling speech1 halting and           
inarticulate and broken4 ,it has no     
high1 compelling accent1 no eloquence4  
,and yet1 it has but to lift its poor   
and quavering tones1 and the splendor of
 the world is blotted out1 and the      
great1 glowing firmament is made a      
sorrowful gray1 and1 in a single        
instant1 we have knowledge of the stern 
and holy truth1 know the terrible floor 
upon which we tread1 know what man has  
ever suffered1 and what our own         
existences can only prove to be4  ,for  
it is the cry of one possessed and      
consumed in every fiber of his being by 
that single consciousness4 ,it is as    
though ,moussorgsky1 the great1         
chivalric ,russian1 the great1 sinewy   
giant with blood aflame for gorgeousness
 and bravery and bells and games and    
chants1 had been all his days the       

,prince in ,khovanchtchina to whom the  
sorceress foretells3 ,disgrace and exile
 await thee4 ,honors and power and      
riches will be torn from thee4 ,neither 
thy past glory nor thy wisdom can save  
thee4 ,thou wilt know what it is to     
want1 and to suffer1 and to weep the    
tears of the hopeless4 ,and so1 thou    
wilt know the truth of this world4 ,it  
is as though he had heard that cry      
incessantly from a million throats1 as  
though it had tolled in his ears like a 
bourdon until it informed him quite1 and
 suffused his youth and force and power 
of song4 ,it is as though his being had 
been opened entirely in orientation upon
 the vast1 sunless stretches of the     
world1 and distended in the agony of    
taking up into himself the knowledge of 
those myriad broken lives4 ,for it is   
the countless defeated millions that    
live again in his art4 ,it is they who  
speak with his voice4 ,better even than 
,walt ,whitman1 ,moussorgsky might have 
said3        ,through me1 voices long   

dumb1 many long dumb voices1            
,voices of the interminable generations 
of prisoners and slaves1      ,voices of
 the diseas'd and despairing and of     
thieves and dwarfs1      ,voices of     
cycles of preparation and accretion--   
,it is as though he had surrendered     
himself quite to them1 had relinquished 
to them his giant ,russian strength1 his
 zest of life1 his joy1 had given them  
his proud flesh that their cry and      
confession might reach the ears of the  
living4  ,sometimes1 ,moussorgsky is    
whole civilizations discarded by life4  
,sometimes1 he is whole cultures from   
under which the earth has rolled1 whole 
groups of human beings who stood        
silently and despairingly for an instant
 in a world that carelessly flung them  
aside1 and then turned and went away4   
,sometimes he is the brutal1 ignorant1  
helpless throng that kneels in the      
falling snow while the conquerors1 the  
great ones of this world1 false and true
 alike1 pass by in the torchlight amid  

fanfares and hymns and acclamations and 
speak the fair1 high words and make the 
kingly gestures that fortune has        
assigned to them4 ,sometimes he is even 
life before man4 ,he is the dumb beast  
devoured by another1 larger2 the plants 
that are crowded from the sunlight4 ,he 
knows the ache and pain of inanimate    
things4 ,and then1 at other moments1 he 
is a certain forgotten individual1 some 
obscure1 nameless being1 some creature1 
some sentient world like the monk ,pimen
 or the ,innocent in ,boris ,godounow1  
and out of the dust of ages an halting1 
inarticulate voice calls to us4 ,he is  
the poor1 the aging1 the half-witted2   
the drunken sot mumbling in his stupor2 
the captives of life to whom death sings
 his insistent1 luring songs2 the       
half-idiotic peasant boy who tries to   
stammer out his declaration of love to  
the superb village belle2 the wretched  
fool who weeps in the falling snowy     
night4 ,he is those who have never      
before spoken in musical art1 and now   

arise1 and are about us and make us one 
with them4  ,but it is not only as      
content that they are in this music4    
,this music is they1 in its curves and  
angles1 in its melody and rhythms1 in   
its style and shape4 ,there are times   
when it stands in relation to other     
music as some being half giant1 half    
day-laborer1 might stand in the company 
of scholars and poets and other highly  
educated and civilized men4 ,the        
unlettered1 the uncouth1 the humble1 the
 men unacquainted with eloquence are in 
this music in very body4 ,it pierces    
directly from their throats4 ,no film1  
no refinement on their speech1 no art of
 music removes them from us4 ,as        
,moussorgsky originally wrote these     
scores1 their forms are visible on page 
after page4 ,when his music laughs it   
laughs like barbarians holding their    
sides4 ,when it weeps1 it weeps like    
some little old peasant woman crouching 
and rocking in her grief4 ,it has all   
the boisterousness and hoarseness of    

voices that sound out of peasant-cabins 
and are lodged in men who wear          
birch-bark shoes and eat coarse food and
 suffer cold and hunger4 ,within its    
idiom there are the croonings and       
wailings of thousands of illiterate     
mothers1 of people for whom expression  
is like a tearing of entrails1 like a   
terrible birth-giving4 ,it has in it the
 voices of folk singing in fairs1 of    
folk sitting in inns2 exalted and       
fanatical and mystical voices2 voices of
 children and serving-maids and         
soldiers2 a thousand sorts of uncouth1  
grim1 sharp speakers4 ,the plaint of    
,xenia in ,boris ,godounow is scarcely  
more than the underlining of the words1 
the accentuation of the voice of some   
simple girl uttering her grief for some 
one recently and cruelly dead4 ,there   
are moments when the whole of ,boris    
,godounow1 machinery of opera and all1  
seems no more elegant1 more artful and  
refined than one of the simpler tunes   
cherished by common folk through        

centuries1 passed from generation to    
generation and assumed by each because  
in moments of grief and joy and longing 
and ease it brought comfort and solace  
and relief4 ,this music is common       
,russia singing4 ,it is ,russia speaking
 without the use of words4 ,for like the
 folk-song1 it has within it the genius 
and values of the popular tongue4       
,moussorgsky's style is blood-brother to
 the spoken language1 is indeed as much 
the ,russian language as music can be4  
,in the phrase of ,jacques ,riviere1 it 
speaks in words ending in ia and schka1 
in humble phrases1 in swift1 poor1      
suppliant terms4 ,indeed1 so            
unconventional1 so crude1 shaggy1       
utterly inelegant1 are ,moussorgsky's   
scores1 that they offend in polite      
musical circles even to-day4 ,it is only
 in the modified1 corrected and         
indubitably castrated versions of       
,rimsky-,korsakoff that ,boris and      
,khovanchtchina maintain themselves upon
 the stage4 ,this iron1 this granite and

 adamantine music1 this grim1 poignant1 
emphatic expression will not fit into   
the old conceptions4 ,the old ones speak
 vaguely of musical realism1 naturalism1
 seeking to find a pigeon-hole for this 
great quivering mass of life4  ,no doubt
 the music of ,moussorgsky is not       
entirely iron-gray4 ,just as1 in the    
midst of ,boris1 there occurs the gentle
 scene between the ,czar and his        
children1 so scattered through this     
stern body of music there are light and 
gay colors1 brilliant and joyous        
compositions4 ,homely and popular and   
naive his melodies and rhythms always   
are1 little peasant-girls with dangling 
braids1 peasant lads in gala garb1      
colored balls that are thrown about1    
singing games that are played to the    
regular accompaniment of clapping palms1
 songs about ducks and parrakeets1      
dances full of shuffling and leaping4   
,even the movements of the sumptuous    
,persian ,dances in ,khovanchtchina are 
singularly naive and simple and         

unpretentious4 ,sometimes1 however1 the 
full gorgeousness of ,byzantine art     
shines through this music1 and the      
gold-dusty modes1 the metallic flatness 
of the pentatonic scale1 the mystic     
twilit chants and brazen trumpet-calls  
make us see the mosaics of ,ravenna1 the
 black and gold ikons of ,russian       
churches1 the aureoled saints upon      
bricked walls1 the minarets of the      
,kremlin4 ,there is scarcely an operatic
 scene more magnificent than the scene  
of the coronation of ,tsar ,boris1 with 
its massive splendors of pealing bells  
and clarion blares and the caroling of  
the kneeling crowds4 ,then1 like ,boris 
himself1 ,moussorgsky sweeps through in 
stiff1 blazoned robes1 crowned with the 
domed1 flashing ,slavic tiara4 ,and yet 
through all these bright colors1 as     
through the darker1 sadder tones of the 
greater part of his work1 there comes to
 us that one anguished1 overwhelming    
sense of life1 that single great        
consciousness4 ,the gay rich spots are  

but part of it1 intensify the great     
somber mass4 ,their simplicity1 their   
childlikeness1 their innocence1 are     
qualities that are perceived only after 
suffering4 ,the sunlight in them is the 
gracious1 sweet1 kindly sunlight that   
falls only between nights of pain4 ,the 
bright and chivalric passages of ,boris1
 the music called forth by the memories 
of feudal ,russia1 and the glory of the 
,czars1 give a deeper1 stranger1 even   
more wistful tone to the great gray pile
 of which they are a part4              
,khovanchtchina is never so much the    
tragedy1 the monument to beings and     
cultures superseded and cast aside in   
the relentless march of life1 as in the 
scene when ,prince ,ivan ,khovansky     
meets his death4 ,for at the moment that
 the old boyar1 and with him the old    
order of ,russia1 goes to his doom1     
there is intoned by his followers the   
sweetest melody that ,moussorgsky wrote 
or could write4 ,and out of that hymn to
 the glory of the perishing house there 

seems to come to us all the pathos of   
eternally passing things1 all the       
wistfulness of the last sunset1 all the 
last greeting of a vanished happiness4  
,more sheerly than any other moment1    
more even than the infinitely stern and 
simple prelude that ushers in the last  
scene of ,boris and seems to come out of
 a great distance and sum up all the    
sadness and darkness and pitifulness of 
human existence1 that scene brings into 
view the great bleak monolith that the  
work of ,moussorgsky really is1 the     
great consciousness it rears silently1  
accusingly against the sky4 ,as         
collieries rear themselves1 grim and    
sinister1 above mining towns1 so this   
music rears itself in its ,russian      
snows1 and stands1 awful and beautiful4 
,and1 of late1 the single shaft has     
out-topped the glamorous ,wagnerian     
halls4 ,the operas of ,moussorgsky have 
begun to achieve the eminence that      
,wagner's once possessed4 ,to a large   
degree1 it is the change of times that  

has advanced and appreciated the art of 
,moussorgsky4 ,although ,boris saw the  
light at the same time as ,die          
,goetterdaemmerung1 and although        
,moussorgsky lies chronologically very  
near the former age1 he is far closer to
 us in feeling than is ,wagner4 ,the    
other generation1 with its pride of     
material power1 its sense of well-being1
 its surge toward mastery of the        
terrestrial forces1 its need of luxury1 
was unable to comprehend one who felt   
life a grim1 sorrowful thing1 who felt  
himself a child1 a crone1 a pauper1     
helpless in the terrible cold4 ,for that
 was required a less naive and confident
 generation1 a day more sophisticated   
and disabused and chastened4 ,and so    
,moussorgsky's music1 with its poor and 
uncouth and humble tone1 its revulsion  
from pride and material grandeur and    
lordliness1 its iron and cruelty and    
bleakness1 lay unknown and neglected in 
its snows4 ,indeed1 it had to await the 
coming of ,pelleas et ,melisande in     

order to take its rightful place4 ,for  
while ,moussorgsky may have influenced  
,debussy artistically1 it was ,debussy's
 work that made for the recognition and 
popularization of ,moussorgsky's4 ,for  
the music of ,debussy is the delicate   
and classical and voluptuous and        
aristocratic expression of the same     
consciousness of which ,moussorgsky's is
 the severe1 stark1 barbaric2 the caress
 as opposed to the pinch4 ,consequently1
 ,debussy's art was the more readily    
comprehensible of the two4 ,but1 once   
,pelleas produced1 the assumption of    
,boris was inevitable4 ,moussorgsky's   
generation had arrived4 ,the men who    
felt as he1 who recognized the truth of 
his spare1 metallic style1 his sober    
edifices1 had attained majority4 ,a     
world was able to perceive in the music 
of the dead man its symbol4  ,but it is 
by no means alone the timeliness of     
,moussorgsky that has advanced him to   
his present position4 ,it is the        
marvelous originality of his art4 ,he is

 one of the most completely and nobly   
original among composers1 one of the    
great inventors of form4 ,the music of  
,moussorgsky is almost completely       
treasure-trove4 ,it is not the          
development of any one thing1 the       
continuation of a line1 the logical     
outcome of the labors of others1 as the 
works of so many even of the greatest   
musicians are4 ,it is a thing that seems
 to have fallen to earth out of the     
arcana of forms like some meteorite4 ,at
 the very moment of ,wagner's triumph   
and of the full maturity of ,liszt and  
,brahms1 ,moussorgsky composed as though
 he had been born into a world in which 
there was no musical tradition1 a world 
where1 indeed1 no fine musical          
literature1 and only a few folk-songs   
and orthodox liturgical chants and      
,greek-,catholic scales existed4 ,toward
 musical theory he seems to have been   
completely indifferent4 ,only one rule  
he recognized1 and that was1 ,art is a  
means of speech between man and man1 and

 not an end4 ,he was self-taught1 and   
actually invented an art of music with  
each step of composition4 ,and what he  
produced1 though it was not great in    
bulk1 was novel with a newness that is  
one of the miracles of music4 ,scarcely 
a phrase in his operas and songs moves  
in a conventional or unoriginal curve4  
,the songs of ,moussorgsky are things   
that can be recognized in each of their 
moments1 so deeply and completely       
distinctive they are4 ,there is not a   
bar of the collection called ,sans      
soleil that is not richly and powerfully
 new4 ,the harmonies sound new1 the     
melodies are free and strange and       
expressive1 the forms are solid and     
weighty as bronze and iron4 ,they are   
like lumps dug up out of the earth4 ,the
 uttermost simplicity obtains4 ,and     
every stroke is decisive and meaningful4
 ,moussorgsky seems to have crept closer
 to life than most artists1 to have     
seized emotions in their nakedness and  
sharpness1 to have felt with the        

innocence of a child4 ,one of his       
collections is entitled ,la ,chambre    
d',enfants4 ,and that surprise and      
wonder at all the common facts of life1 
the sharpness with which the knowledge  
of death comes1 characterize not alone  
this group1 but all the songs4 ,he is   
throughout them the child who sees the  
beetle lie dead1 and who expresses his  
wonder and trouble directly from his    
heart with all the sharpness of         
necessary speech4 ,so much other music  
seems indirect1 hesitating1 timorous1   
beside these little forms of granite4   
,and then1 ,moussorgsky's operas1 ,boris
 in particular1 are dramatically swifter
 than most of ,wagner's4 ,he never made 
the mistake the master of ,bayreuth so  
frequently made1 of subordinating the   
drama to the music1 and arresting the   
action for the sake of a ,waldweben or a
 ,charfreitagszauber4 ,the little scenes
 of ,pushkin's play spin themselves off 
quickly through the music2 the action is
 reinforced by a skeleton-like form of  

music1 by swift vivid tonal etchings1 by
 the simplest1 directest picturings4    
,musical characterization is of the     
sharpest2 original ideas pile upon each 
other and succeed each other without    
ado4 ,the score of ,boris1 slim as it   
is1 is a treasure house of inventions1  
of some of the most perfect music       
written for the theater4 ,few operatic  
works are musically more important1 and 
yet less pretentious4 ,and              
,khovanchtchina1 fragmentary though it  
is1 is almost no less full of noble and 
lovely ideas4 ,these fragments1         
melodies1 choruses1 dances are each of  
them real inventions1 wonderful pieces  
caught up in nets1 the rarest sort of   
beauties4 ,a deep1 rich glow plays over 
these melodies4 ,their simplicity is the
 simplicity of perfectly felicitous     
inventions1 of things sprung from the   
earth without effort4 ,they are so much 
like folk-tunes that one wonders whether
 they were not produced hundreds of     
years ago and handed down by generations

 of ,russians4 ,one of them even1 the   
great chorus in the first scene1 might  
stand as a sort of national anthem for  
,russia4 ,others1 like the instrumental 
accompaniment to the first entrance of  
,prince ,ivan ,khovansky1 are some of   
those bits that represent a whole       
culture1 a whole tradition and race4    
,these pieces are the children of an    
infinitely noble mind4 ,there is        
something in those gorgeous melodies1   
those magnificent cries1 those proud and
 solemn themes of which both ,boris and 
,khovanchtchina are full1 that makes    
,wagner seem plebeian and bourgeois4    
,peasant-like though the music is1      
reeking of the soil1 rude and powerful1 
it still seems to refer to a mind of a  
prouder1 finer sort than that of the    
other man4 ,the reticence1 the          
directness1 the innocence of any        
theatricality1 the avoidance of all that
 is purely effective1 the dignity of    
expression1 the salt and irony1 the     
round1 full ring of every detail are    

good and fortifying after the scoriac   
inundations of ,wagner's genius4 ,the   
gaunt gray piles1 the metallic surfaces1
 the homelinesses of ,moussorgsky1 are  
more virile1 stronger1 more resisting   
than ,wagner's music4 ,only folk        
aristocratically sure of themselves can 
be as gay and light at will4 ,if there  
is anything in modern music to be       
compared with the sheer1 blunt1 powerful
 volumes of primitive art it is the work
 of ,moussorgsky4 ,and as the years     
pass1 the man's stature and mind become 
more immense1 more prodigious4 ,one has 
but to hearken to the accent of the     
greater part of modern music to gauge in
 whose shadow we are all living1 how far
 the impulse coming from him has        
carried4 ,the whole living musical      
world1 from ,debussy to ,bloch1 from    
,strawinsky to ,bartok1 has been        
vivified by him4 ,and1 certainly1 if any
 modern music seems to have the         
resisting power that beats back the     
centuries and the eons1 it is his pieces

 of bronze and ironware and granite4    
,what the world lost when ,modest       
,moussorgsky died in his forty-second   
year we shall never know4  ,but1        
chiefest of all1 his music has the      
grandeur of an essentially religious    
act4 ,it is the utterance of the        
profoundest spiritual knowledge of a    
people4 ,moussorgsky was buoyed by the  
great force of the ,russian charity1 the
 ,russian humility1 the ,russian pity4  
,it was that great religious feeling    
that possessed the man who had been a   
foppish guardsman content to amuse      
ladies by strumming them snatches of ,il
 ,trovatore and ,la ,traviata on the    
piano1 and gave him his profound sense  
of reality1 his knowledge of how simple 
and sad a thing human life is after all1
 and made him vibrate so exquisitely    
with the suffering inherent in the      
constitution of the world4 ,it gave his 
art its color1 its character1 its       
tendency4 ,it filled him with the       
unsentimental1 warm1 animal love that   

made him represent man faithfully and   
catch the very breath of his fellows as 
it left their bodies4 ,certainly1 it was
 from his race's dim1 powerful sense of 
the sacrament of pain that his music    
flows4 ,he himself confessed that it was
 the sense of another's inarticulate    
anguish1 sympathy with a half-idiotic   
peasant-boy stammering out his hopeless 
love1 that first stirred the poet within
 him and led him to compose4 ,the music 
of defeat1 the insistent cry of the     
world's pain1 sound out of his music    
because the ,russian folk has always    
known the great mystery and reality and 
good of suffering1 has known that only  
the humble1 only those who have borne   
defeat and pain and misfortune can see  
the face of life1 that sorrow and agony 
can hallow human existence1 and that    
while in the days of his triumph and    
well-being man is a cruel and evil      
being1 adversity often makes to appear  
in him divine and lovely traits4        
,dostoievsky was never more the ,russian

 prophet than when he wrote ,the ,idiot1
 and uttered in it his humble           
thanksgiving that through the curse of  
nature1 through the utter uselessness of
 his physical machine1 through sickness 
and foolishness and poverty1 he had been
 saved from doing the world's evil and  
adding to its death4 ,and ,moussorgsky  
is the counterpart of the great         
romancer4 ,like the other1 he comes in  
priestly and ablutionary office4 ,like  
the other1 he expresses the moving1     
lowly god1 the god of the low1 broad    
forehead and peasant garb1 that his     
people bears within it4 ,both prose and 
music are manifestations of the ,russian
 ,christ4 ,to ,europe in its late hour  
he came as emissary of the one religious
 modern folk1 and called on men to      
recognize the truth and reform their    
lives in accordance with it4 ,he came to
 wrest man from the slavery of the new  
gigantic body he had begotten1 to wean  
him from lust of power1 to pacify and   
humble him4 ,once more he came to fulfil

 the ,old ,testamentary prophets4 ,the  
evangel of ,tolstoy1 the novels of      
,dostoievsky1 the music of ,moussorgsky 
are the new gospels4 ,in ,moussorgsky1  
music has given the new world its       
priest4     ,liszt   ,oh1 magnificent   
and miserable ,abbe ,liszt6 ,strange and
 unnatural fusion of traits the most    
noble and the most mean6 ,one can       
scarcely say which was the stronger in  
you1 the grand seigneur or the base     
comedian4 ,for in your work they are    
equally1 inextricably commingled4 ,in   
your art it is the actor who thrones it 
in the palace hall1 the great lord of   
music who struts and capers on the      
boards of the itinerant theater4        
,nowhere1 in all music1 is grandeur     
nigher to the dust1 and nowhere does the
 dust reveal more grandiose traits4     
,your compositions are the most         
brilliant of bastards1 the most         
lamentable of legitimate things4 ,they  
smite us with both admiration and       
aversion1 affect us as though the       

scarlet satin robes of a patrician of   
,venice were to betray the presence     
beneath them of foul1 unsightly rags4   
,they remind us of the facades of the   
palaces of ,vicenza1 which1 designed by 
the pompous and classicizing ,palladio1 
are executed in stucco and other cheap  
materials4  ,and yet1 the many works in 
which you do not show yourself the      
artist reveal the plenitude of your     
powers almost as much as the few in     
which you do4 ,the most empty of your   
many ostentatious orchestral            
soliloquies1 the most feeble of your    
many piano-pyrotechnics1 the iciest of  
your bouquets of icy1 exploding stars1  
the brassiest of your blatant           
perorations1 the very falsest of your   
innumerable paste jewels1 declare that  
you were born to sit among the great    
ones of your craft4 ,for they reveal you
 the indubitable virtuosic genius4 ,the 
very cleverness of the imitation of the 
precious stone betrays how deep a sense 
of the beauty of the real gem you had1  

how expert you were in the trade of     
diamond cutter4 ,into the shaping of    
your bad works of art there went a      
temperament1 a playfulness1 a fecundity1
 a capriciousness1 a genius that many   
better artists have not possessed4  ,you
 were indeed profusely endowed1 showered
 with musical gifts as some cradled     
prince might be showered with presents  
and honors4 ,everything in your         
personality was grand1 seigneurial1     
immense in scale4 ,you were born musical
 ,king of ,cyprus and ,jerusalem and    
,armenia1 titular sovereign of vast1    
unclaimed realms4 ,few composers have   
been more inventive4 ,no composer has   
ever scattered abroad ideas with more   
liberal hand4 ,compositions like the    
,b-minor piano-sonata1 the tone-poem    
,mazeppa1 the ,dante symphony1 whatever 
their artistic value1 fairly teem with  
original themes of a high order1 are    
like treasure houses in which gold      
ornaments lie negligently strewn in     
piles4 ,indeed1 your inventive power    

supplied not only your own compositions 
with material1 but those of your        
son-in-law1 ,richard ,wagner1 as well4  
,as ,james ,huneker once so brightly put
 it1 ,wagner was indebted to you for    
much besides money1 sympathy1 and a     
wife4 ,for ,siegmund and ,sieglinde     
existed a long while in your ,dante     
symphony before ,wagner transferred them
 to ,die ,walkuere2 ,parsifal and       
,kundry a long while in your            
piano-sonata before he introduced them  
into his ,buehnenweihfestspiel4  ,you   
were equipped for piano-composition as  
was no other of your time4 ,for you the 
instrument was a newer1 stranger1 more  
virgin thing than it was for either     
,schumann or ,chopin4 ,you knew even    
better than they how to listen for its  
proper voice4 ,you were more deeply     
aware than they of its proper color and 
quality4 ,you seem to have come to it   
absolutely without preconceived ideas4  
,your ,b-minor sonata1 however          
unsatisfactory its actual quality1      

remains one of the magistral works of   
the sort4 ,for few works better exhibit 
the various ranges of the instrument1   
better contrast different volumes of    
piano-sound4 ,the sonata actually lies  
on different planes1 proceeds from      
various directions1 delimits a solid    
form1 makes even ,beethoven's seem flat 
and two-dimensional by contrast4 ,here1 
almost for the first time1 is a sonata  
that is distinctly music of the         
pianoforte4 ,and the modern achievements
 in pianoforte composition do not by any
 means lessen the wonder of your        
comprehension of the instrument's       
dynamics4 ,the new men1 ,scriabine and  
the composers of the modern ,french     
school1 may have penetrated more deeply 
than it was in your power to do1 may    
have achieved where you failed4         
,nevertheless1 they could not have      
progressed had it not been for your     
way-finding4 ,they are immeasurably     
indebted to you4  ,not even ,wagner had 
an influence on the new age greater than

 yours1 more largely prepared the way of
 the newest music4 ,you are indeed the  
good friend of all who dream of a new   
musical language1 a new musical syntax  
and balance and structure1 and set out  
to explore the vast1 vague regions1 the 
terra incognita of tone4 ,for you are   
their ancestor4 ,if1 in its general1    
homophonic nature1 your work belongs    
primarily to the romantic period1 your  
conviction that the content conditions  
the form of every piece makes you the   
link between classic and modern musical 
art4 ,the symphonic poem1 whether or not
 it originates in the overtures of      
,beethoven1 is mainly your handiwork1   
since although you yourself were not    
sufficiently free of the classic        
formulas to create a symphonic form     
entirely programmatic1 as ,strauss has  
subsequently done1 you nevertheless gave
 him the hint whereby he has profited   
most4 ,the impressionists1 too1 seem to 
stem from you4 ,the little piece called 
,les jeux d'eau de ,la ,villa d',este   

seems not a little to anticipate their  
style4 ,and although you were not       
responsible for the music of the        
nationalistic ,russian school1 the      
robust1 colorful barbarian in you       
nevertheless made you welcome and       
encourage their work4 ,it made you write
 to ,borodin and ,moussorgsky those     
cordial letters which pleased them so   
much4 ,for at that time they were but   
obscure workmen1 while you were the very
 prince of musicians4  ,indeed1 nothing 
is more princely1 nothing better reveals
 the amplitude1 the generosity of your  
spirit1 than your relations with your   
fellow craftsmen4 ,artists are          
oftentimes so petty in their conduct    
toward each other that it is indeed     
refreshing to read with what infallible 
kindness you treated so many composers  
less fortunately situated than yourself4
 ,and not only ,wagner and ,cesar       
,franck benefited by your good deeds4   
,many obscurer and younger men1 poor    
,edward ,mac,dowell1 for instance1 knew 

what it was to receive cordial and      
commendatory letters from you1 to be    
assisted by you in their careers1 to    
have their compositions brought to      
performance by the best ,german         
orchestras through your aid4 ,and you   
had no conceit in you1 smilingly        
referred to your symphonic poems as     
,gartenmusik1 and replied to ,wagner1   
when he informed you that he had stolen 
such and such a theme from you1 ,thank  
goodness1 now it will at least be heard6
 ,had you1 ,o ,liszt1 expressed the     
nobility of your nature as purely in    
your composition as you expressed it in 
your social relations1 we could have    
complained of no mountainous rubble1 no 
squalor marring the perfect splendor of 
your figure4  ,but1 unhappily1 the      
veritable grandeur of your endowment    
never begot itself a body of work really
 symbolic of itself4 ,for if your music1
 as a whole1 has any grandeur1 it is the
 hollow grandeur of inflation1 of       
ostentation1 of externality4 ,your music

 is almost entirely a monstrous decor de
 theatre4 ,it is forever seeking to     
establish tragical and satanic and      
passional atmospheres1 to suggest       
immense and regal and terrific things1  
to gain tremendous effects4 ,it is full 
of loud1 grandiloquent pronouncements1  
of whirlwinds1 thunderstorms1           
coronations on the ,capitoline1 ideals1 
lamentations1 cavalcades across half of 
,asia1 draperies1 massacres1 frescoes1  
facades1 magnificats1 lurid sunsets1    
scimitars1 miracles1 triumphs of the    
cross1 retreats from the world4 ,it is  
full of all the romantic properties4    
,like vast pieces of stage scenery the  
various passages and movements are towed
 before our eyes1 and we are bidden to  
feast our eyes on representations of    
titanic rocks and lowering skies and    
holy hermits' dwellings that remind us  
dangerously of the wonders displayed in 
the peepshows at gingerbread fairs4 ,the
 atmosphere of the compositions is so   
invariably sensational1 the gesture so  

calculated1 so theatrical1 that much of 
the truly impressive material1 the      
quantities of original ideas1 lose all  
substantiality1 and become indistinct   
components of these vast mountains of   
ennui1 these wastes of rhetorical and   
bombastic instruments1 these loud and   
prancing concertos of circus-music4     
,there is something almost insulting to 
the intelligence in these               
over-emphasized works1 these pretentious
 facades1 these vast1 pompous frescoes  
by ,kaulbach1 these ,byronic            
instrumental soliloquies1 these hollow1 
empty flourishes of the brass1 these    
foolishly satanic chromatics1 these     
inevitable triumphs of the cross and the
 ,gregorian modes4  ,no doubt1 much of  
your fustian and rhodomontade1 your     
diabolic attitudes1 your grandiose      
battles between the hosts of evil and   
the light of the ,tree1 your            
interminable fanfares1 was due the age  
in which you grew4 ,the externality1 the
 pompousness of intention1 the          

theatrical postures1 was part of the    
romantic constitution4 ,the desire to   
achieve sensational effects1 the        
tendency to externalize1 to assume      
theatrical postures and intend          
pompously1 was inborn in every single   
one of the men among whom you passed    
your youth4 ,for they had suddenly1     
painfully become aware that nature was  
supremely indifferent to their          
individual fates and sorrows4 ,so       
wounded were they in their amour-propre 
that they sought to restore their       
diminished sense of self-worth by       
exaggerating the importance and         
intensity of their sufferings and       
seeking to convince themselves of their 
satanic sins and dreadful dooms4        
,manfred1 posing darkly on an ,alpine   
crag and summoning                      
,nature to her feud      ,with bile     
buskin attitude1   was the type of you  
all4 ,you had to ward off consciousness 
of your own insignificance by conceiving
 yourselves amid stupendous             

surroundings1 lurid natural effects1    
flaming prairies1 pinnacles1 torrents1  
coliseums1 subterranean palaces1 moonlit
 ruins1 bandit dens1 and as laboring    
under frightful curses1 dire            
punishments1 ancestral sins1 etc41 etc4 
,but while we find the frenetic         
romanticism of a ,delacroix1 for        
instance1 attractive1 even1 because of  
the virtue of his painting1 and forgive 
that of a ,berlioz and a ,chateaubriand 
because of the many beauties1 the       
veritable grandeurs of their styles1 we 
cannot quite learn to love yours4 ,for  
in you the disease was aggravated by the
 presence of another powerful incentive 
to strut and posture and externalize and
 inflate your art4 ,for you were the    
virtuoso4 ,you were the man whose entire
 being was pointed to achieve an effect4
 ,you were the man whose life is lived  
on the concert-platform1 whose values   
are those of the concert-room1 who finds
 his highest good in the instantaneous  
effect achieved by his performance4     

,from childhood you were the idolized   
piano-virtuoso4 ,all your days you were 
smothered in the adulation showered upon
 you in very tangible form by the great 
ladies of every capital of ,europe4 ,and
 a virtuoso you remained all your       
existence4 ,you never developed out of  
that early situation into something more
 salutary to the artist4 ,on the        
contrary1 you came to require the       
atmosphere of the performance1 the      
exhibition1 about you continually1 to   
find the rose leaves and the clouds of  
perfume absolutely necessary4 ,most of  
your composition seems but the effort to
 perpetuate about you the admiration and
 the adulation1 the glowing eyes and    
half-parted lips and heaving bosoms4    
,everything in your piano-music is keyed
 for that effect4 ,the shameless        
sentimentalities1 the voluptuous        
lingerings over sweet chords and        
incisive notes1 the ostentatious        
recitatives1 the moist1 sensual         
climaxes1 the titillating figuration1   

the over-draperies1 were called into    
existence for the immediate1 the        
overwhelming effect at first hearing4   
,everything is broadened and peppered   
and directed to obtaining you the       
,pasha-power you craved4 ,besides being 
windy and theatrical1 your music is what
 ,nietzsche so bitterly called it1 ,die 
,schule der ,gelaeufichkeit--nach       
,frauen4  ,so your vast artistic        
endowment lies squandered1 your ideas   
shallowly set1 your science misused4    
,for while fate showered you            
magnificently with gifts1 it seems to   
have at the same time sought to negate  
its liberality by fusing in your        
personality the base alloy1 by decreeing
 that you should have enormous powers   
and yet abuse them4 ,it prevented you   
from often being completely genuine1    
completely incandescent1 completely     
fine4 ,it refused you for the greater   
part the true adamantine hardness of the
 artist1 the inviolability of soul1 the 
sense of style4 ,it made you1 the       

prodigiously fecund inventor1 the mine  
of thematic material1 prodigal2 unable  
to refine your ore1 to chase your ideas1
 and give them their full value4 ,wagner
 could have said of you1 had he so      
wished1 what ,haendel is reported to    
have said of the composer from whom he  
borrowed1 ,of what use is such a good   
idea to a man like him8 ,one must indeed
 go to ,wagner for the appreciation of  
many of the inventions1 the ,siegmund   
and ,sieglinde1 the ,parsifal and       
,kundry1 music1 which you cast from you 
so carelessly4 ,as for yourself1 you are
 too much the virtuosic genius2 too     
much1 at heart1 the actor4 ,your music  
is perhaps the most cunningly           
carpentered for effect1 the most        
artificial known to us4 ,you are perhaps
 the most brilliant artifex of music4   
,we always seem to see you sitting on   
the concert-platform before us1 immersed
 in the expression of your passion1 your
 disgust of passion1 your renunciation  
of passion4 ,but the absorption is not  

quite as complete as it would appear to 
be4 ,during the entire performance1 you 
have been secretly keeping one wicked   
little eye trained on the ladies of the 
audience4  ,sometimes you play the      
religious4 ,perhaps there truly was in  
you a vein of devotion and faith4 ,the  
fact that you took ,holy ,orders to     
escape marrying the ,princess of        
,sayn-,wittgenstein1 who pursued you    
those many years and doubtlessly bored  
you with her theological writings1 does 
not entirely disprove its existence4    
,indeed1 your ,dante symphony1 with its 
,hell full of impenitent sexual         
offenders1 its ,purgatory full of those 
who repent them of their excesses1 its  
,paradise represented by a hymn to the  
,virgin1 suggests what manner of role1  
and how real a one1 religion might have 
played in your luxurious existence4     
,but1 for the most part1 the religiosity
 of your music recalls overmuch the     
fashionable confessor's4 ,you bring     
consolation1 doubtlessly4 ,but you bring

 it by choice into the boudoir4 ,you    
speak sadly of the cruel winds of lust4 
,you dwell on the example of the pious  
,st4 ,elizabeth of ,hungary4 ,you spread
 your hands over fair penitents1 making 
a series of the most beautiful gestures4
 ,you whisper honeyed forgiveness for   
passional sins4 ,you always excite tears
 and gratitude4 ,but1 in the end1 your  
,consolation turns out only another     
,liebestraum4  ,no doubt1 you loved your
 native land4 ,but your patriotism      
recalls dangerously the restaurant      
,magyar1 the fiddler in the frogged     
coat4 ,you draw from your violin        
passionate laments4 ,in a sort of       
ecstasy you celebrate ,hungaria4 ,then1 
smiling brilliantly1 you pass the hat4  
,once1 only1 your eye did not wander    
liquidly to the gallery4 ,once1 only1   
your workmanship was not marred by      
schemes for titillating effects1 for    
sensational contrasts1 for grandiose and
 bombastic expression4 ,once1 only1 you 
were completely the artist1 impregnating

 your work with a fine glow of life1    
making it deeply dignified and          
impassioned1 sincere and firm1          
profoundly moving4 ,for you1 too1 there 
was the cardinal exception4 ,for you    
there was the ,faust ,symphony4 ,the    
work is romantic music1 the music of the
 ,byronic school par excellence4 ,here1 
too1 is the brooding and revolt1 the    
satanic cynicism1 the expert's language4
 ,but here the miracle has taken place1 
and your music1 generally so loose and  
shallow and theatrical1 has the point1  
the intensity1 the significance that it 
seems everywhere else to lack4 ,here1   
for once1 is a work of yours that moves 
by its own initiative1 that has an      
independent and marvelous life1 that is 
brilliant and yet substantial4 ,here you
 have materialized yourself4 ,we believe
 in your ,faust as we believe neither in
 your ,tasso nor in your ,mazeppa nor in
 your ,orpheus4 ,for he utters your own 
romantic brooding in touching and       
impressive terms4 ,in the theme that    

conjures up before us ,faust in         
ritterlicher ,hofkleidung des           
,mittelalters1 you have expressed your  
own seigneurial pride and daintiness4   
,goethe must have tapped with his       
tragedy1 his characters1 some vein long 
choked in you4 ,in each of the three    
movements1 the ,faust1 the ,marguerite  
and the ,mephisto1 you make your best   
music4 ,there is real drama in the      
first4 ,there is a warm1 fragrant hush  
in the second4 ,perhaps ,gretchen plucks
 her daisy a little too thoroughly4 ,but
 there is a rare sensitiveness and      
delicacy of feeling in her music4 ,it is
 all in pastels4 ,there is something    
very youthful and warm in it that       
perhaps no other composition of yours   
displays1 as though in composing it you 
had recaptured pristine emotions long   
since spoiled4  ,but it is the third    
movement1 the ,allegro ironico1 that    
opened your sluices and produced your   
genius4 ,for in the conception of       
,mephisto you found in ,goethe1 you     

found your own spiritual equation4 ,you1
 too1 were victim of a disillusioned    
intellect that played havoc with all you
 found pure and lovely and poured its   
sulphuric mockery over all your         
aspiration4 ,for all your mariolatry1   
you were full of der ,geist der stets   
verneint4 ,and so you were able to      
create a musical ,mephisto that will    
outlive your other work1 sonata and all1
 and express you to other times4 ,for   
here1 all that one senses dimly behind  
your sugared and pretentious            
compositions speaks out frankly4        
,listening to this mighty scherzo1 we   
know the cynicism that corroded your    
spirit4 ,we hear it surge and fill the  
sky4 ,we hear it pour its mocking       
laughter over grief and longing and     
pride1 over purity and tenderness in    
those outrageous orchestral arabesques  
that descend on the themes of the ,faust
 and ,marguerite movements1 and whip    
them into grinning distortions4 ,we hear
 it deny and stamp and curse1 topple the

 whole world over in ribald scorn4 ,the 
concluding chorus may seek to call in   
another emotion4 ,you may turn with all 
apparent fervor and pray das            
,ewig-,weibliche to save you4 ,the other
 expression remains the telling one4 ,it
 is one of the supreme pieces of musical
 irony4 ,it ranks with ,till            
,eulenspiegel and ,petrouchka4  ,it is  
also the saddest of your works4 ,for it 
makes us know1 once for all1 how        
infinitely much greater a musician you  
might have been1 ,o miserable and       
magnificent ,abbe ,liszt6     ,berlioz  
,the course of time1 that has made so   
many musicians recede from us and       
dwindle1 has brought ,berlioz the closer
 to us and shown him great4 ,the age in 
which he lived1 the decades that        
followed his death1 found him           
unsubstantial enough4 ,they recognized  
in him only the projector of gigantic   
edifices1 not the builder4 ,his music   
seemed scaffolding only4 ,though a      
generation of musicians learned from    

him1 came to listen to the proper voices
 of the instruments of the orchestra    
because of him1 though music became     
increasingly pictural1 ironic1 concrete 
because he had labored1 his own work    
still appeared ugly with unrealized     
intentions4 ,if he obtained at all as an
 artist1 it was because of his frenetic 
romanticism1 his bizarreness1 his       
,byronic postures1 traits that were     
after all minor and secondary enough in 
him4 ,for those were the only of his    
characteristics that his hour could     
understand4 ,all others it ignored4 ,and
 so ,berlioz remained for half a century
 simply the composer of the extravagant 
,symphonic ,fantastique and the         
brilliant ,harold in ,italy1 and1 for   
the rest1 a composer of brittle and arid
 works1 barren of authentic ideas1 a    
better litterateur than musician4       
,however1 with the departure of the     
world from out the romantic house1      
,berlioz has rapidly recovered4 ,music  
of his that before seemed ugly has      

gradually come to have force and        
significance4 ,music of his that seemed 
thin and gray has suddenly become       
satisfactory and red4 ,composers as     
eminent as ,richard ,strauss1 conductors
 as conservative as ,weingaertner1      
critics as sensitive as ,romain ,rolland
 have come to perceive his vast strength
 and importance1 to express themselves  
concerning him in no doubtful language4 
,it is as though the world had had to   
move to behold ,berlioz1 and that only  
in a day germane to him and among the   
men his kin could he assume the stature 
rightfully his1 and live4  ,for we exist
 to-day in a time of barbarian inroads4 
,we are beholding the old ,european     
continent of music swarmed over by      
,asiatic hordes1 ,scyths and ,mongols   
and ,medes and ,persians1 all the savage
 musical tribes4 ,once more the old     
arbitrary barrier between the continents
 is disappearing1 and the classic traits
 of the ,west are being mingled with    
those of the subtle1 sensuous1 spiritual

 ,east4 ,it is as if the art of music1  
with its new scales1 its new harmonies1 
its new coloring1 its new rhythmical    
life1 were being revolutionized1 as if  
it were returning to its beginnings4 ,it
 is as if some of the original impulse  
to make music were reawakening4 ,and so1
 through this confusion1 ,berlioz has   
suddenly flamed with significance4 ,for 
he himself was the rankest of           
barbarians4 ,a work like the ,requiem   
has no antecedents4 ,it conforms to no  
accepted canon1 seems to obey no logic  
other than that of the rude and powerful
 mind that cast it forth4 ,for the man  
who could write music so crude1 so      
sheerly strong1 so hurtling1 music      
innocent of past or tradition1 the world
 must indeed have been in the first day 
of its creation4 ,for such a one forms  
must indeed have had their pristine and 
undulled edge and undiminished bulk1    
must have insisted themselves sharply   
and compellingly4 ,the music has all the
 uncouthness of a direct and            

unquestioning response to such a vision4
 ,little wonder that it was unacceptable
 to a silver and romantic epoch4 ,the   
romanticists had aspired to paint vast  
canvases1 too4 ,but the vastness of     
their canvases had remained a thing of  
intention1 a thing of large and         
pretentious decoration4 ,berlioz's music
 was both too rude and too stupendous   
for their tastes4 ,and1 in truth1 to us 
as well1 who have felt the great cubical
 masses of the moderns and have heard   
the barbarian tread1 the sense of beauty
 that demanded the giant blocks of the  
,requiem music seems still a little a   
strange and monstrous thing4 ,it seems  
indeed an atavism1 a return to modes of 
feeling that created the monuments of   
other ages1 of barbarous and forgotten  
times4 ,well did ,berlioz term his work 
,babylonian and ,ninevitish6 ,certainly 
it is like nothing so much as the cruel 
and ponderous bulks1 the sheer1 vast    
tombs and ramparts and terraces of      
,khorsabad and ,nimroud1 bare and       

oppressive under the sun of ,assyria4   
,berlioz must have harbored some        
elemental demand for form inherent in   
the human mind but buried and forgotten 
until it woke to life in him again4 ,for
 there is a truly primitive and savage  
power in the imagination that could heap
 such piles of music1 revel in the      
shattering fury of trumpets1 upbuild    
choragic pyramids4 ,here1 before        
,strawinsky and ,ornstein1 before       
,moussorgsky1 even1 was a music         
barbarous and radical and revolutionary1
 a music beside which so much of modern 
music dwindles4  ,it has1 primarily1    
some of the nakedness1 some of the      
sheerness of contour1 toward which the  
modern men aspire4 ,in the most recent  
years there has evidenced itself a      
decided reaction from the vaporous and  
fluent contours of the musical          
impressionists1 from the style of       
,pelleas et ,melisande in particular4   
,men as disparate as ,schoenberg and    
,magnard and ,igor ,strawinsky have been

 seeking1 in their own fashion1 the one 
through a sort of mathematical          
harshness1 the second through a ,gothic 
severity1 the third through a           
machine-like regularity1 to give their  
work a new boldness1 a new power and    
incisiveness of design4 ,something of   
the same sharpness and sheerness was    
attained by ,berlioz1 if not precisely  
by their means1 at least to a degree no 
less remarkable than theirs4 ,he        
attained it through the nakedness of his
 melodic line4 ,the music of the        
,requiem is almost entirely a singularly
 powerful and characteristic line4 ,it  
is practically unsupported4 ,many       
persons pretend that ,berlioz wanted a  
knowledge of harmony and counterpoint4  
,certainly his feeling for harmony was a
 very rudimentary one1 in nowise refined
 beyond that of his predecessors1 very  
simple when compared to that of his     
contemporaries1 ,chopin and ,schumann4  
,and his attempts at creating           
counterpoint1 judged from the first     

movement of ,harold in ,italy1 are      
clumsy enough4 ,but it is questionable  
whether this ignorance did not stand him
 in good stead rather than in bad2 and  
whether1 in the end1 he did not make    
himself fairly independent of both these
 musical elements4 ,for the ,requiem    
attains a new sort of musical grandeur  
from its sharp1 heavy1 rectangular1     
rhythmically powerful melodic line4 ,it 
voices through it a bold1 naked1 immense
 language4 ,with ,baudelaire1 ,berlioz  
could have said1 ,l'energie c'est le    
grace supreme4 ,for the beauty of this  
his masterpiece lies in just the        
delineating power1 the characteristic of
 this crude1 vigorous1 unadorned melody4
 ,doubtless to those still baffled by   
its nudity1 his music appears thin4 ,but
 if it is at all thin1 its thinness is  
that of the steel cable4  ,and it has   
the rhythmical vivacity and plenitude   
that characterizes the newest musical   
art4 ,if there is one quality that      
unites in a place apart the ,strawinskys

 and ,ornsteins1 the ,blochs and        
,scriabines1 it is the fearlessness and 
exuberance and savagery with which they 
pound out their rhythms4 ,something long
 buried in us seems to arise at the     
vibration of these fierce1 bold1        
clattering1 almost convulsive strokes1  
to seek to gesticulate and dance and    
leap4 ,and ,berlioz possessed this      
elemental feeling for rhythm4 ,schumann 
was convinced on hearing the ,symphonie 
,fantastique that in ,berlioz music was 
returning to its beginnings1 to the     
state where rhythm was unconstrained and
 irregular1 and that in a short while it
 would overthrow the laws which had     
bound it so long4 ,so1 too1 it seems to 
us1 despite all the rhythmical          
innovations of our time4 ,the           
personality that could beat out         
exuberantly music as rhythmically       
various and terse and free must indeed  
have possessed a primitive naivete and  
vitality and spontaneity of impulse4    
,what manifestation of unbridled will in

 that freedom of expression6 ,berlioz   
must have been blood-brother to the     
savage1 the elemental creature who out  
of the dark and hidden needs of life    
itself invents on his rude musical      
instrument a mighty rhythm4 ,or1 he must
 have been like a powerful and excited  
steed1 chafing his bit1 mad to give his 
energy rein4 ,his blood must forever    
have been craving the liberation of     
turgid and angular and irregular beats1 
must forever have been crowding his     
imagination with new and compelling     
combinations1 impelling him to the      
movements of leaping and marching4 ,for 
he seems to have found in profusion the 
accents that quicken and lift and lance1
 found them in all varieties1 from the  
brisk and delicate steps of the ballets 
in ,la ,damnation de ,faust to the      
large1 far-flung momentum that drives   
the choruses of the ,requiem mountain   
high2 from the mad and riotous finales  
of the ,harold symphony and the         
,symphonie ,fantastique to the red1     

turbulent and canaille march rhythms1   
true music of insurgent masses1         
clangorous with echoes of tocsins and   
barricades and revolutions4  ,but it is 
in his treatment of his instrument that 
,berlioz seems most closely akin to the 
newest musicians4 ,for he was the first 
to permit the orchestra to dictate music
 to him4 ,there had1 no doubt1 existed  
skilful and sensitive orchestrators     
before him1 men who were deeply aware of
 the nature of their tools1 men who1    
like ,mozart1 could scarcely repress    
their tears at the sound of a favorite  
instrument1 and wrote marvelously for   
flutes and horns and oboes and all the  
components of their bands4 ,but matched 
with his1 their knowledge of the        
instrument was patently relative4 ,for1 
with them1 music had on the whole a     
general timbre4 ,phrases which they     
assigned1 say1 to violins or flutes can 
be assigned to other instruments without
 doing the composition utter damage4    
,but in the works of ,berlioz music and 

instruments are inseparable4 ,one cannot
 at all rearrange his orchestration4    
,though the phrases that he has written 
for bassoon or clarinet might imaginably
 be executed by other instruments1 the  
music would perish utterly in the       
substitution4 ,what instrument but the  
viola could appreciate the famous       
,harold theme8 ,for just as in a        
painting of ,cezanne's the form is      
inseparable from the color1 is1 indeed1 
one with it1 so1 too1 in the works of   
,berlioz and the moderns the form is    
part of the sensuous quality of the     
band4 ,when ,rimsky-,korsakoff uttered  
the pronouncement that a composition for
 orchestra could not exist before the   
orchestration was completed1 he was only
 phrasing a rule upon which ,berlioz had
 acted all his life4 ,for ,berlioz set  
out to learn the language of the        
orchestra4 ,not only did he call for new
 instruments1 instruments that have     
eventually become integral portions of  
the modern bands1 but he devoted himself

 to a study of the actual natures and   
ranges and qualities of the old1 and    
wrote the celebrated treatise that has  
become the textbook of the science of   
instrumentation4 ,the thinness of much  
of his work1 the feebleness of the      
overture to ,benvenuto ,cellini1 for    
instance1 results from his inexperience 
in the new tongue4 ,but he had not to   
practise long4 ,it was not long before  
he became the teacher of his very       
contemporaries4 ,wagner owes as much to 
,berlioz's instrumentation as he owes to
 ,chopin's harmony4  ,but for the new   
men1 he is more than teacher4 ,for them 
he is like the discoverer of a new      
continent4 ,through him they have come  
to find a new fashion of apprehending   
the world4 ,out of the paint-box that he
 opened1 they have drawn the colors that
 make us see anew in their music the    
face of the earth4 ,the tone-poems of   
,debussy and the ballets of ,ravel and  
,strawinsky1 the scintillating          
orchestral compositions of ,strauss and 

,rimsky and ,bloch1 could scarcely have 
come to be had not ,berlioz called the  
attention of the world to the           
instruments in which the colors and     
timbres in which it is steeped1 lie     
dormant4  ,and so the large and powerful
 and contained being that1 after all1   
was ,berlioz has come to appreciation4  
,for behind the fiery1 the volcanic     
,berlioz1 behind the ,byronic and       
fantastical composer1 there was always  
another1 greater man4 ,the history of   
the art of ,berlioz is the history of   
the gradual incarnation of that calm and
 majestic being1 the gradual triumph of 
that grander personality over the other1
 up to the final unclosing and real     
presence in ,romeo and the ,mass for the
 ,dead4 ,the wild romanticist1 the lover
 of the strange and the lurid and the   
grotesque who created the ,symphonic    
,fantastique1 never1 perhaps1 became    
entirely abeyant4 ,and some of the salt 
and flavor of ,berlioz's greater1 more  
characteristic works1 the tiny musical  

particles1 for instance1 that compose   
the ,queen ,mab scherzo in ,romeo1 or   
the bizarre combination of flutes and   
trombones in the ,requiem1 macabre as   
the ,orcagna frescoes in ,pisa1 are due 
his fantastical imaginings4 ,but1       
gradually1 the deeper ,berlioz came to  
predominate4 ,that deeper spirit was a  
being that rose out of a vast and lovely
 cavern of the human soul1 and was      
clothed in stately and in shining robes4
 ,it was a spirit that could not readily
 build itself out into the world1 so    
large and simple it was1 and had to wait
 long before it could find a worthy     
portal4 ,it managed only to express     
itself partially1 fragmentarily1 in     
various transformations1 till1 by       
change1 it found in the idea of the     
,mass for the ,dead its fitting         
opportunity4 ,still1 it was never       
entirely absent from the art of         
,berlioz1 and in the great clear sense  
of it gained in the ,requiem we can     
perceive its various and ever-present   

substantiations1 from the very beginning
 of his career4  ,it is in the overture 
to ,king ,lear already1 in that noble   
and gracious introduction4 ,from the    
very beginning1 ,berlioz revealed       
himself a proud and aristocratic spirit4
 ,even in his most helpless moments1 he 
is always noble4 ,he shows himself      
possessed of a hatred for all that is   
unjust and ungirt and vulgar4 ,there is 
always a largeness and gravity and      
chastity in his gesture4 ,the coldness  
is most often simply the apparent       
coldness of restraint2 the baldness1 the
 laconism of a spirit that abhorred     
loose1 ungainly manners of speech4 ,even
 the frenetic and orgiastic finales of  
the ,harold and ,fantastic symphonies   
are tempered by an athletic steeliness  
and irony1 are pervaded1 after all1 by  
the good dry light of the intellect4    
,the greater portion of the ,harold is  
obviously1 in its coolness and neatness 
and lightness1 the work of one who was  
unwilling to dishevel himself in the    

cause of expression1 who outlined his   
sensations reticently rather than       
effusively1 and stood always a little   
apart4 ,the ,corsair overture has not   
the wild1 rich balladry of that of the  
,flying ,dutchman1 perhaps4 ,but it is  
full of the clear and quivering light of
 the ,mediterranean4 ,it is1 in the     
words of ,hans von ,buelow1 as terse as 
the report of a pistol4 ,and it flies   
swiftly before a wind its own4 ,the     
mob-scenes in ,benvenuto ,cellini are   
bright and brisk and sparkling1 and     
compare not unfavorably with certain    
passages in ,petrouchka4 ,and1          
certainly1 ,romeo manifests             
unforgettably the fineness and nobility 
of ,berlioz's temper4 ,the music he     
writes for his love scenes1 some one has
 remarked1 is the best test of a        
musician's character4 ,for1 in truth1 no
 type of musical expression gives so    
ample an opportunity to all that is     
latently vulgar in him to produce       
itself4 ,and one has but to compare the 

,garden ,scene of ,romeo with two other 
pieces of music related to it in style1 
the second act of ,tristan and the      
,romeo of ,tchaikowsky1 to perceive in  
how gracious a light ,berlioz's music   
reveals him4 ,wagner's powerful music   
hangs over the garden of his lovers like
 an oppressive and sultry night4        
,foliage and streams and the very       
moonlight pulsate with the fever of the 
blood4 ,but there is no tenderness1 no  
youth1 no delicacy1 no grace in         
,wagner's love-passages4 ,tchaikowsky's1
 too1 is predominantly lurid and        
sensual4 ,and while ,wagner's at least  
is full of animal richness1             
,tchaikowsky's is morbid and hysterical 
and perverse1 sets us amid the couches  
and draperies and pink lampshades       
instead of out under the night-time sky4
 ,berlioz's1 however1 is full of a still
 and fragrant poesy4 ,his is the music  
of ,shakespeare's lovers indeed4 ,it is 
like the opening of hearts dumb with the
 excess of joy4 ,it has all the high    

romance1 all the ecstasy of the         
unspoiled spirit4 ,for ,berlioz seems to
 have possessed always his candor and   
his youth4 ,through three hundred years 
men have turned toward ,shakespeare's   
play1 with its ,italian night and its   
balcony above the fruit-tree tops1 in   
wonder at its youthful loveliness1 its  
delicate picture of first love4 ,in     
,berlioz's music1 at last1 it found a   
worthy rival4 ,for the musician1 too1   
had within him some of the graciousness 
and highness and sweetness of spirit the
 poet manifested so sovereignly4  ,but  
it is chiefly in the ,requiem that      
,berlioz revealed himself in all the    
grandeur and might of his being4 ,for in
 it all the aristocratic coolness and   
terseness of ,la ,damnation de ,faust   
and of ,harold en ,italie1 all the      
fresco-like calm of ,les ,troyens a     
,carthage1 find their freest1 richest   
expression4 ,were ,i to be threatened   
with the destruction of all that ,i have
 ever composed1 wrote ,berlioz on the   

eve of his death1 it would be for that  
work that ,i would beg life4 ,and he was
 correct in the estimation of its value4
 ,it is indeed one of the great edifices
 of tone4 ,for the course of events     
which demanded of ,berlioz the work had 
supplied him with a function            
commensurate with his powers1 and       
permitted him to register himself       
immortally4 ,he was called by his       
country to write a mass for a           
commemoration service in the church of  
the ,invalides4 ,that gold-domed        
building1 consecrated to the memory of  
the host of the fallen1 to the countless
 soldiers slain in the wars of the      
monarchy and the republic and the       
empire1 and soon to become the tomb of  
,napoleon1 had need of its officiant4   
,and so the genius of ,berlioz arose and
 came4 ,the ,requiem is the speech of a 
great and classic soul1 molded by the   
calm light and fruitful soil of the     
,mediterranean4 ,for all its ,babylonian
 and ,ninevitish bulk1 it is full of the

 ,latin calm1 the ,latin repose1 the    
,latin resignation4 ,the simple tone1   
quiet for all its energy1 the golden    
sweetness of the ,sanctus1 the naked    
acceptance of all the facts of death1   
are the language of one who had within  
him an attitude at once primitive and   
grand1 an attitude that we have almost  
come to ignore4 ,listening to the ,mass1
 we find ourselves feeling as though    
some vates of a ,mediterranean folk were
 come in rapt and lofty mood to offer   
sacrifice1 to pacify the living1 to     
celebrate with fitting rites the        
unnumbered multitudes of the heroic     
dead4 ,there are some compositions that 
seem to find the common ground of all   
men throughout the ages4 ,and to the    
company of such works of art1 the grand 
,mass for the ,dead of ,hector ,berlioz 
belongs4  ,still1 the commission to     
write the ,requiem was but a momentary  
welcoming extended to ,berlioz4 ,the age
 in which he lived was unprepared for   
his art4 ,it found itself better        

prepared for ,wagner4 ,for ,wagner's was
 nearer the older music1 summed it up1  
in fact4 ,so ,berlioz had to remain     
uncomprehended and unhoused4 ,and when  
there finally came a time for the music 
of ,wagner to retreat1 and another to   
take its place1 ,berlioz was still      
half-buried under the misunderstanding  
of his time4 ,and yet1 with the         
,kassandra of ,eulenberg1 ,berlioz could
 have said at the moment when it seemed 
as though eternal night were about to   
obscure him forever3        ,einst      
treibt der ,fruehling uns in neuer      
,bluethe      ,empor ans ,licht2 ,leben1
 wir scheiden nicht1      ,denn ewig    
bleibet1 was in uns ergluehte      ,und 
draengt sich ewig wieder auf zum ,licht6
   ,for the likeness so many of the new 
men bear him has provided us with a     
wonderful instance of the eternal       
recurrence of things4     ,franck       
,belgian of ,liege by birth1 and        
,parisian only by adoption1 ,cesar      
,franck nevertheless precipitated modern

 ,french music4 ,the group of musicians 
that1--at the moment when the great line
 of composers that has descended in     
,germany since the days of ,bach        
dwindled in ,strauss and ,mahler and    
,reger1--revived the high tradition of  
,french music1 created a fresh and      
original musical art1 and at present1 by
 virtue of the influence it exercises on
 the new talents of other nations1 has  
come well-nigh to dominate the          
international musical situation1 could  
scarcely have attained existence had it 
not been for him4 ,he assured the       
artistic success not only of the men    
like ,magnard and d',indy and ,dukas1   
whose art shows obvious signs of his    
influence4 ,composers like ,debussy and 
,ravel1 who appear to have arrived at   
maturity independently of him1 have     
nevertheless benefited immeasurably by  
his work4 ,it is possible that had he   
not emigrated from ,liege and labored in
 the heart of ,france1 they would not   
have achieved any of their fullness of  

expression4 ,for what ,berlioz was      
perhaps too premature and too eccentric 
and radical to bring about1--the        
dissipation of the torpor that had      
weighed upon the musical sense of his   
countrymen for a century1 the           
reawakening of the peculiarly ,french   
impulse to make music1 not alone in     
single and solitary individuals1 but in 
a large and representative group1 the   
revival of a truly musical life in      
,france1--this man1 by virtue of the    
peculiarities of his art1 and           
particularly by virtue of his           
timeliness1 succeeded in effecting4     
,for ,cesar ,franck overcame a false    
musical culture in the land of his      
adoption by showing it1 at the moment it
 was prepared to perceive it1 the face  
of a true4 ,the ,french are not an      
outstandingly musical race4 ,music plays
 a comparatively insignificant role in  
their civilization4 ,the mass of the    
people does not demand it1 has never    
demanded it as insistently as do        

,germans and ,russians1 and as did the  
mass of ,italians during the            
,renaissance1 the mass of ,english      
before the ,revolution4 ,something of a 
prejudice against its own musical       
impulse must exist in the race4 ,for    
though ,france has a very definite      
musical feeling1 a thing that varies    
little with the passing centuries and   
makes for the surprising similarities   
between the work of ,claude ,le ,jeune  
in the sixteenth century1 ,rameau in the
 eighteenth and ,debussy in the         
twentieth1 she has1 during her thousand 
years of culture1 and while producing a 
flood of illustrious authors1 and       
painters and sculptors1 borne not more  
than four or five composers of          
indisputably first rank4 ,germany in the
 course of two centuries produced at    
least eight or nine2 ,russia three      
within the last fifty years4 ,in ,france
 centuries elapse between the appearance
 of a ,josquin des ,pres in the         
fifteenth century1 a ,rameau in the     

eighteenth1 a ,debussy in the early     
twentieth4 ,and whenever the ,french    
have been given a musical art of their  
own1 whenever a composer comparable to  
the ,goujons and ,montaignes1 the       
,renoirs and the ,baudelaires has made  
his appearance among them1 they         
generally have been swift to turn from  
him and to prefer to him not only       
foreigners1 which would not necessarily 
be bad1 but oftentimes the least        
respectable of musicians4 ,the triumph  
of ,rameau was of the briefest4         
,scarcely had his magnificent lyric     
tragedies established themselves when   
the ,guerre des bouffons broke out1 and 
popular taste1 under the direction of   
,jean ,jacques ,rousseau and the other  
,encyclopedists1 discovered the light   
,italian music of the day more natural  
and infinitely preferable to the severe 
and noble forms of the greatest of      
,french composers4 ,the appearance of   
,gluck gave ,rameau's work a veritable  
coup de grace1 and banished the master  

from the operatic stage4 ,and for a     
century and a quarter1 ,french music1   
particularly the music of the theater1  
was completely unfaithful to the racial 
spirit4 ,during the greater part of the 
nineteenth century1 ,rossini and        
,meyerbeer dominated the operatic world4
 ,the native operatic composers1 ,auber 
and ,boieldieu1 ,adam and ,halevy1      
combined the slacknesses of both without
 achieving anything at all comparable to
 their flashy brilliance4 ,as far as the
 accent of their music went1 they       
floated cheerfully somewhere between    
,germany and ,italy4 ,and when something
 recognizably indigenous did put in its 
appearance in the operas of ,thomas and 
,gounod1 it did but the veriest         
lip-service to the racial genius1 and   
was a thing that walked lightly1        
dexterously1 warily1 and roused no      
sleeping dogs4  ,what the cause of this 
diffidence is1 what sort of rigidity it 
betokens1 one can only guess4 ,but of   
its presence there can be no doubt4     

,were there nothing else to demonstrate 
it1 the survival among the ,french of an
 institution named ,m4 ,camille         
,saint-,saens would amply do so4 ,for   
the work of this extraordinary          
personality1 or1 more correctly1        
impersonality1 who for twenty-five years
 of the ,third ,republic dominated the  
musical situation in his country1 got   
himself acclaimed everywhere1 not only  
in ,paris1 but also in ,berlin1 the     
modern ,french master1 and to-day at the
 ripe age of one hundred and forty still
 persists in writing string-quartets    
with the same frigid classicism that    
distinguished his first efforts1 is     
obviously a compromise resulting from   
the conflict of two equally strong      
impulses--that of making music and that 
of fending off musical expression4 ,for 
years this man has been going through   
all the gestures of the most serious    
sort of composition without adding one  
iota to musical art4 ,for years he has  
been writing music apparently logical1  

clear1 well-formed4 ,his opus-numbers   
mount well toward two hundred4 ,he has  
written symphonies1 concertos for piano 
and violin1 operas1 cantatas1 symphonic 
poems1 suites1 ballades1 fantasies1     
caprices4 ,he has written large numbers 
of each4 ,he has written impressions of 
,naples1 of ,algiers1 of the ,canary    
,islands1 of every portion of the globe 
he has visited4 ,but despite all this   
apparent activity1 ,m4 ,saint-,saens has
 really succeeded in effecting nothing  
at all4 ,his compositions are pretty    
well outside the picture of musical art4
 ,to-day they are already older than    
,mendelssohn's1 of which pale art they  
seem an even paler reflection4          
,mendelssohn1 too1 was a person inwardly
 at war with himself1 and perhaps       
,saint-,saens may be another example of 
the same conflict4 ,still1 the latter   
has achieved a sort of waxy coldness    
from which the amiable ,felix was after 
all saved4 ,elegant1 finished1 smooth1  
classicizing1 the music of ,m4 ,camille 

,saint-,saens leaves us in the          
completest of objectivity4 ,we are      
touched and moved not at all by it4     
,something1 we vaguely perceive1 is     
supposed to be taking place beneath our 
eyes4 ,faint frosty lights pass across  
the orchestra4 ,this1 we guess1 is      
supposed to be an inward and musing     
passage4 ,this is a finale1 this a      
dramatic climax4 ,but we are no more    
than languidly pleased with the         
cleverness and urbanity of the          
orchestration1 the pleasant shapeliness 
of certain melodies1 the neatness of    
composition4 ,in the end1 the man bores 
us thoroughly4 ,he has invented a new   
musical ennui4 ,it is that of being     
invariably pretty and impersonal and    
insignificant4  ,do you know the        
,phaeton of ,saint-,saens8 ,oh1 never   
think that this little symphonic poem   
recounts the history of brilliant youth 
and its sun-chariot1 the runaway steeds 
and the bleeding shattered frame6 ,the  
,phaeton of whom ,saint-,saens sings is 

not the arrogant son of ,phoebus4       
,whatever the composer may protest1 it  
is the low1 open-wheeled carriage that  
he is describing4 ,he shows it to us    
coursing through the ,bois de ,boulogne 
on a bright spring morning4 ,the new    
varnish of the charming vehicle gleams  
smartly1 the light1 rubber-tired wheels 
revolve swiftly1 the silver-shod        
harnesses glisten in the sunny air4     
,but1 alas1 the ponies are frightened by
 something1 doubtlessly the red dress of
 a singer of the ,opera ,comique4 ,there
 is a runaway1 and before the steeds can
 be reined the phaeton is upset4 ,no one
 is hurt1 and in a few minutes the      
equipage is restored4 ,nevertheless1 the
 composer cannot control in himself a   
few sighs for the new coat of varnish   
now so rudely scratched4  ,franck was of
 another temper4 ,the impulse that drove
 him to make music was not so weak and  
pliable4 ,it could not be barbered and  
dapperly dressed and taught to conduct a
 clouded cane elegantly in the rue de la

 ,paix or the allee des ,acacias4 ,it   
was too hot and wild and shy a thing1   
too passionately set in its course1 too 
homesick for the white fulgurant heights
 of ,heaven to negate itself at the     
behest of ,french society and conform to
 what the academicians declared to be la
 vielle tradition francaise4 ,franck was
 too much an artist in the spirit of ,la
 ,fontaine and ,germaine ,pillon and    
,poussin and the others who formed that 
tradition1 and who would be assailed in 
its name fiercely were they to reappear 
to-day4 ,moreover1 he was of the race of
 musicians who come to make music       
largely to free themselves of besetting 
demons1 of the sinister brood of doubts 
and fears and woes1 and win their way   
back again into the bosom of ,god4 ,he  
was the simple1 heart-whole believer1   
the poor little man lost in the         
shambles1 shaken and wounded by the     
terrible doubt of appearances and by the
 cruelty of things1 yearning to cry his 
despair and loneliness and grief to the 

ears of the ,god of his childhood1 and  
battling through long vigils for trust  
and belief and reconciliation4 ,again   
and again his music re-echoes the cry1  
,i will not let ,thee go unless ,thou   
bless me4 ,of modern composers ,bruckner
 alone had affair so steadily with the  
heights1 and ,franck is the gentler1    
sweeter1 tenderer of the two4 ,he set   
himself1 quite in the fashion of the    
composers of the dying renaissance1 to  
write an hundred hymns to the ,virgin4  
,he sought in his piano compositions to 
recapture the lofty1 spiritual tone1 the
 religious communion that informed the  
works of ,bach4 ,only once1 in the      
,variations ,symphoniques1 is he        
brilliant and virtuosic1 and then1 with 
what disarming naivete and joyousness6  
,oftentimes it is the gray and lonely   
air of the organ-loft at ,st4           
,clothilde1 the church where he played  
so many melancholy years1 that breathes 
through his work4 ,alone with his       
instrument and the clouded skies1 he    

pours out his sadness1 his bitterness1  
strives for resignation4 ,or1 his music 
is a bridge from the turmoiled present  
to some rarer1 larger1 better plane4 ,in
 symphony and quartet1 in sonata and    
oratorio1 he attains it4 ,the hellish   
brood is scattered2 the great bells of  
faith swing bravely out once more2 the  
world is full of ,sabbath sunshine and  
pied with simple field-flowers4 ,and he 
goes forth through it released and      
blessed and joyous1 and light and glad  
of heart4  ,how furious a battle the man
 had to wage to bring such a musical    
sense to fruition in the ,paris of      
,ambroise ,thomas and ,gounod and       
,massenet may be gauged from the fact   
that the compositions that assure       
,franck his position were almost all    
produced during the last ten years of   
his life1 after his fifty-eighth year   
had been passed4 ,for thirty years the  
man had to struggle with his medium and 
his environment before he was even able 
to do his genius justice4 ,indeed1 up to

 the year #ahej1 he produced little of  
importance at all4 ,the trios recall    
,meyerbeer2 the cantata ,ruth1 with     
which this his first period of          
composition closes1 has a sweetness of  
the sort afterward identified with the  
name of ,massenet4 ,the works of the    
second period1 which ends around #ahge  
with the re-editing of the recently     
composed oratorio ,redemption1 reveal   
him still in search of power and a      
personal manner4 ,no doubt a great      
improvement over the works of the first 
period is visible4 ,from this time there
 date the seraphic ,panis angelicus1 and
 the noble and delicate ,prelude1 fugue 
and variation for harmonium and piano4  
,but it was only with the composition of
 his oratorio ,les ,beatitudes1         
completed in #ahgi1 that ,franck's great
 period commences4 ,the man had finally 
been formed4 ,and1 in swift succession1 
there came from his worktable the series
 of compositions1 the ,prelude1 chorale 
et fugue for piano1 the sonata1 the     

symphonic poem ,psyche1 the symphony1   
the quartet and the three chorales for  
organ that fully disclose his genius4   
,there is scarcely another example in   
all musical history of so long retarded 
a flowering4  ,and it was a music almost
 the antithesis of ,saint-,saens' that  
finally disclosed itself through        
,franck4 ,in it everything is felt and  
necessary and expressive4 ,it is        
unadorned4 ,none of the light musical   
frosting that conceals the poverty and  
vulgarity of so many of the other's     
ideas is to be found here4 ,the designs 
themselves are noble and significant4   
,franck possessed a rare gift of sensing
 exactly what was to his purpose4 ,he   
had the artistic courage necessary to   
suppressing everything superfluous and  
insignificant4 ,his music says something
 with each note1 and when it has no more
 to say1 is silent4 ,he is concise and  
direct4 ,the ,symphony1 for instance1 is
 an unbroken curve1 an orderly          
progression by gentle and scarcely      

perceptible stages from the darkness of 
an aching1 gnawing introduction into the
 clarity of a healthy1 exuberant close4 
,and whereas ,saint-,saens' style is    
over-smooth and glacial1 a sort of      
musical counterpart of the sculpture of 
a ,canova or a ,thorwaldsen1 ,franck's  
is subtle1 mottled1 rich1 full of the   
play of light and shadow4 ,the chromatic
 style that ,wagner has developed in    
,tristan and in ,parsifal is built upon 
and further developed into a style      
almost characterized by its rich and    
subtle and incessant modulations4 ,old  
and mixed modes make their appearance in
 it4 ,the thematic material is          
originally turned1 oftentimes broad and 
churchly and magnificent2 the movement  
of the ,franckian themes being a        
distinct invention4 ,the harmony is full
 and varied and brilliant4 ,but it is   
pre-eminently the seraphic sweetness of 
,franck's style that distinguishes his  
music and sets it over against this     
other that is so hard of edge and thin  

of substance4 ,over it there plays a    
light and luminous tenderness1 an almost
 naive and reticent and virginal        
quality4 ,the music of ,psyche is       
executed with the lightest of musical   
brushes4 ,it is as sweet and lucent and 
gracious as a fresco of ,raphael's4 ,the
 lightest1 the silkiest of veils floats 
in the section marked ,le ,sommeil de   
,psyche2 the gentlest of zephyrs carries
 the maiden to her lord4 ,small wonder  
that devout commentators have discovered
 in this music1 so uncorporeal and      
diaphanous1 a ,christian intention1 and 
pretend that in ,franck's mind ,psyche  
was the believing soul and ,eros the    
divine lover6 ,tenderness1 seraphic     
sweetness were the man's characteristic1
 permeating everything he touched4 ,few 
composers1 certainly1 have invented     
music more divinely sweet than that of  
the third movement of the quartet1 more 
ecstatic and luminous than the ideas    
scattered all through his work1 that    
seem like records of some moment when   

the heavens opened over his head and the
 empyrean resounded with the hallelujahs
 of the angelic host4 ,and1 certainly1  
no composer1 ,mozart alone excepted1 has
 discovered such naively and innocently 
joyous themes as those that fill the    
close of the sonata and the symphonic   
variations with delicious vernal        
sunshine4  ,the career of one fated to  
serve the art of music in the ,paris of 
,franck's lifetime1 and to wait thirty  
years for the flowering of his genius1  
was of necessity obscure and sad4 ,the  
yeux menteurs1 l'hypocrisie             
,des serrements de mains1        ,la    
masque d'amitie cachant la jalousie1    
,les pales lendemains       ,de ces     
jours de triomphe444   of which ,m4     
,saint-,saens in his little volume of   
verse complains somewhat pompously1 were
 unknown to ,cesar ,franck4 ,for this   
man1 even in the years of his prime1    
there were only the humiliations1 the   
disappointments that are the lot of     
uncomprehended genius4 ,he had rich     

pupils1 among them the ,vicomte ,vincent
 d',indy1 but not one of them seems to  
have come forward to help him1 to secure
 him greater time for composition1 to   
save him from wasting his precious days 
in instructing a few amateurs4 ,all his 
life1 until the very last of his seventy
 years1 ,cesar ,franck was obliged to   
arise every morning at five o'clock in  
order to have a couple of hours in which
 to be free to compose before the waxing
 day obliged him to begin trotting from 
one end of ,paris to the other giving   
lessons4 ,during his lifetime he had to 
content himself with half-prepared      
performances of his works1 had to resign
 himself to having composers of         
operettas preferred to him when chairs  
at the ,conservatoire became vacant1 to 
receiving practically no recognition    
from a government pretending with hue   
and cry to protect and encourage the    
arts4 ,had it not been for the fervor   
and faithfulness with which ,ysaye      
labored to spread his renown1           

practically cramming down the throats of
 an unwilling public the violin sonata  
and the quartet1 the man would not have 
known any success at all even during the
 very last years of his career4 ,as it  
was1 his reputation spread only after he
 was dead4 ,then1 of course1 the        
inevitable monument was erected to him4 
,still1 the future was with ,cesar      
,franck as it has been with few artists4
 ,the timeliness of his art was almost  
miraculous4 ,without a doubt1 during the
 years of his labor1 the ,french were   
most ready for a musical renaissance4   
,the defeat of #ahgj had1 after all1    
braced the nation1 summoned its dormant 
energies4 ,it had not been severe enough
 to destroy1 and only fierce enough to  
force folk to shake off the torpor that 
had lain upon them during the two       
previous regimes4 ,people began to work 
again1 bellies were somewhat emptier and
 heads somewhat fuller than they had    
been under ,louis-,philippe and         
,louis-,napoleon4 ,above all1 the vapid 

and superficial life of the ,second     
,empire was ended4 ,people were more    
sober and inward and realistic than they
 had been4 ,there was an unusual        
activity in all the arts4 ,painting1    
fiction1 poetry1 sculpture had or were  
having new births4 ,a single creative   
spark was sure to set the very          
recalcitrant musicians ablaze4 ,vast    
talents such as those of ,bizet and     
,chabrier were making themselves felt4  
,but given a single powerful and        
constructive influence1 a single classic
 expression of the ,french musical      
feeling1 and a score of gifted musicians
 were ready to spring into life4 ,and   
that example was set by ,franck4 ,for1  
,belgian in part though his music       
indubitably is1 ,belgian of ,antwerp and
 ,brussels as well as of ,liege and the 
,walloon country1 ,flemish almost in its
 broad and gorgeous passages1 it is what
 the work of the superficially ,parisian
 ,saint-,saens never attains to being4  
,it is representative of the great      

classical tradition of ,france1 deeply  
expressive of the ,french spirit4 ,it   
must have been some profound kinship    
with the neighboring people1 deeper even
 than that he bore his own countrymen1  
that sent the youth ,franck from ,liege 
to ,paris1 held him fast in the city all
 his long and obscure life1 and made him
 flourish in the alien soil4 ,for his   
music has traits that are common to the 
representative ,french artists and have 
come to identify the ,french genius4    
,once again1 one caught sight in the    
music of the ,french clarity and        
orderliness1 logicality and conciseness4
 ,once again there were great1 sonorous 
edifices in the grand style temperate in
 tone4 ,the very diffidence that makes  
it so difficult for the race to express 
itself with ease in music was expressed 
in this work4 ,moreover1 along with the 
silveriness of ,rameau1 the simple      
solidity of ,french prose1 and some of  
the old jollity of the medieval ,french 
artists1 is in the music of ,franck4    

,old modes revive in it1 old peasant    
rhythms beat the ground once more4      
,but1 chiefest of all1 it expressed the 
people described in the section of      
,jean-,christophe significantly entitled
 ,dans la ,maison4 ,it expressed the    
essential ,france hidden by the glare of
 the ,third ,republic4 ,the music of    
,cesar ,franck is the music of the      
people driven into themselves by the    
conditions of modern life4 ,it is the   
music of the fine ones who stand        
hesitant on the threshold of the world1 
and have incessantly to struggle for the
 power to act1 for faith and hope4 ,it  
is the music of those who in the midst  
of millions feel themselves forsaken and
 alone and powerless1 and in whose      
obscure and laborious existence ,franck 
himself shared4 ,it is a thing turned   
away from the market-place1 full of the 
quiet of the inner chamber4 ,through so 
much of ,franck one feels the steady    
glow of the lamp in the warm room4 ,with
 its songs of loneliness and doubt and  

ruth1 its self-communings and vigils and
 prayers1 its struggle for the sunlight 
of perfect confidence and healthiness   
and zest1 it might come directly out of 
the lives of a half-dozen of the eminent
 persons whom ,france produced during   
the closing years of the nineteenth     
century4 ,romain ,rolland himself is of 
this sort4 ,it was for these people1    
self-distrustful1 disillusioned1        
doubtful1 that ,charles ,peguy wrote1   
bidding them remember the divine origin 
of the life and the institutions that   
seemed so false to them1 bidding them   
remember that the ,republic itself was  
the result of a mystical impulse in the 
human heart1 that the dead of a race    
live on in the bodies of the breathing1 
and that the members of a folk are one4 
,the mysticism and ,catholicism of ,paul
 ,claudel1 the revulsion from the       
scepticism of ,renan and ,anatole       
,france that has become so general in   
recent ,french thought1 the             
traditionalism1 nay1 the intellectual   

reaction1 of the latest ,france1 are all
 foreshadowed and outlined in the music 
of ,cesar ,franck4 ,he must have pulsed 
with the very heart of his adopted      
country4  ,confronted with such a piece 
of expression1 with such a modern       
standard1 the new generation could not  
but respond with all its forces1 and    
throng out of the aperture made in the  
,chinese ,wall4 ,and after ,franck there
 followed a generation of ,french       
musicians such as the world has not seen
 since the days of the clavecinists4    
,within ten years1 from one of the most 
moribund1 ,paris had become the most    
important and vivid of musical centers4 
,something that had been wanting in the 
air of ,paris a long while had swept    
largely into it again4 ,the musical     
imagination had been freed4 ,after      
,franck it was impossible for a ,french 
musician not to have the courage to     
express himself in his own idiom1 to    
dare develop the forms peculiarly       
,french1 to break with the foreign      

,german and ,italian standards that had 
oppressed the national genius so long4  
,for this man had done so4 ,and with the
 ,debussys and ,magnards and ,ravels1   
the d',indys and ,dukas and ,schmitts1  
the ,chaussons and ,ropartz's and the   
,milhauds that followed immediately on  
,cesar ,franck1 an institution like the 
,societe ,nationale de ,musique came to 
have a meaning4 ,once again1 ,french    
music was4     ,debussy   ,debussy's    
music is our own4 ,all artistic forms   
lie dormant in the soul1 and there is no
 work of art actually foreign to us1 nor
 can such a one appear1 in all the      
future ages of the world4 ,but the music
 of ,debussy is proper to us1 in our    
day1 as is no other1 and might stand    
before all time our symbol4 ,for it     
lived in us before it was born1 and     
after birth returned upon us like a     
release4 ,even at a first encounter the 
style of ,pelleas was mysteriously      
familiar4 ,it made us feel that we had  
always needed such rhythms1 such        

luminous chords1 such limpid phrases1   
that we perhaps had even heard them1    
sounding faintly1 in our imaginations4  
,the music seemed as old as our sense of
 selfhood4 ,it seemed but the exquisite 
recognition of certain intense and      
troubling and appeasing moments that we 
had already encountered4 ,it seemed     
fashioned out of certain ineluctable1   
mysterious experiences that had budded1 
ineffably sad and sweet1 from out our   
lives1 and had made us new1 and set us  
apart1 and that now1 at the music's     
breath1 at a half-whispered note1 at the
 unclosing of a rhythm1 the flowering of
 a cluster of tones out of the warm     
still darkness1 were arisen again in the
 fullness of their stature and become   
ours entirely4  ,for ,debussy is of all 
musicians the one amongst us most fully4
 ,he is here1 in our midst1 in the world
 of the city4 ,there is about him none  
of the unworldliness1 the aloofness1 the
 superhumanity that distances so many of
 the other composers from us4 ,we need  

not imagine him in exotic singing robes1
 nor in classical garments1 nor in any  
strange and outmoded and picturesque    
attire1 to recognize in him the poet4   
,he is the modern poet just because the 
modern civilian garb is so naturally    
his4 ,he is the normal man1 living our  
own manner of life4 ,we seem to know him
 as we know ourselves4 ,his experiences 
are but our own1 intensified by his     
poet's gift4 ,or1 if they are not       
already ours1 they will become so4 ,he  
seems almost ourselves as he passes     
through the city twilight1 intent upon  
some errand upon which we1 too1 have    
gone1 journeying a road which we        
ourselves have traveled4 ,we know the   
room in which he lives1 the windows from
 which he gazes1 the moments which come 
upon him there in the silence of the    
lamp4 ,for he has captured in his music 
what is distinguished in the age's      
delight and tragedy4 ,all the fine      
sensuality1 all the ,eastern pleasure in
 the infinite daintiness and warmth of  

nature1 all the sudden1 joyous discovery
 of color and touch that made men feel  
as though neither had been known before1
 are contained in it4 ,it1 too1 is full 
of images of the earth of the liquid and
 slumbering trees1 the earth of departed
 sunset1 the earth of the vitreous pour 
of the full moon just tinged with blue4 
,it is full of material loveliness1     
plies itself to innumerable dainty      
shells--to the somnolence of the        
,southern night1 to the hieratic gesture
 of temple dancers1 to the fall of      
lamplight into the dark1 to the         
fantastic gush of fireworks1 to the     
romance of old mirrors and faded        
brocades and ,saxony clocks1 to the     
green young panoply of spring4 ,and just
 as it gives again the age's            
consciousness of the delicious robe of  
earth1 so1 too1 it gives again its sense
 of weariness and powerlessness and     
oppression4 ,the nineteenth century had 
been loud with blare and rumors and the 
vibration of colossal movements1 and man

 had apparently traversed vast distances
 and explored titanic heights and       
abysmal depths4 ,and yet1 for all the   
glare1 the earth was darker4 ,the light 
was miasmic only4 ,the life of man      
seemed as ever a brief and sad and      
simple thing1 the stretching of impotent
 hands1 unable to grasp and hold2 the   
interlacing of shadows2 the unclosing1 a
 moment before nightfall1 of exquisite  
and fragile blossoms4 ,the sense of the 
infirmity of life1 the consciousness    
that it had no more than the            
signification of a dream with passing   
lights1 or halting steps in the snow1 or
 an old half-forgotten story1 had mixed 
a deep wistfulness and melancholy into  
the very glamour of the globe1 and      
become heavier itself for all the       
sweetness of earth4 ,and ,debussy has   
fixed the two in their confusion4  ,he  
has permeated music completely with his 
impressionistic sensibility4 ,his style 
is an image of this our                 
pointillistically feeling era4 ,with him

 impressionism achieves a perfect       
musical form4 ,structurally1 the music  
of ,debussy is a fabric of exquisite and
 poignant moments1 each full and        
complete in itself4 ,his wholes exist   
entirely in their parts1 in their atoms4
 ,if his phrases1 rhythms1 lyric        
impulses1 do contribute to the formation
 of a single thing1 they yet are        
extraordinarily independent and         
significant in themselves4 ,no chord1 no
 theme1 is subordinate4 ,each one exists
 for the sake of its own beauty1        
occupies the universe for an instant1   
then merges and disappears4 ,the        
harmonies are not1 as in other          
compositions1 preparations4 ,they are   
apparently an end in themselves1 flow in
 space1 and then change hue1 as a       
shimmering stuff changes4 ,for all its  
golden earthiness1 the style of ,debussy
 is the most liquid and impalpable of   
musical styles4 ,it is forever gliding1 
gleaming1 melting2 crystallizing for an 
instant in some savory phrase1 then     

moving quiveringly onward4 ,it is       
well-nigh edgeless4 ,it seems to flow   
through our perceptions as water flows  
through fingers4 ,the iridescent bubbles
 that float upon it burst if we but     
touch them4 ,it is forever suggesting   
water--fountains and pools1 the         
glistening spray and heaving bosom of   
the sea4 ,or1 it shadows forth the      
formless breath of the breeze1 of the   
storm1 of perfumes1 or the play of sun  
and moon4 ,his orchestration invariably 
produces all that is cloudy and         
diaphanous in each instrument4 ,he makes
 music with flakes of light1 with bright
 motes of pigment4 ,his palette glows   
with the sweet1 limpid tints of a ,monet
 or a ,pissaro or a ,renoir4 ,his       
orchestra sparkles with iridescent      
fires1 with divided tones1 with delicate
 violets and argents and shades of rose4
 ,the sound of the piano1 usually but   
the ringing of flat colored stones1 at  
his touch becomes fluid1 velvety and    
dense1 takes on the properties of satins

 and liqueurs4 ,the pedal washes new    
tint after new tint over the keyboard4  
,reflets dans l'eau has the quality of  
sheeny blue satin1 of cloud pictures    
tumbling in gliding water4 ,blue fades  
to green and fades back again to blue in
 the middle section of ,homage a        
,rameau4 ,bright1 cold moonlight slips  
through ,et la lune descend sur le      
temple que fut2 ruddy sparks glitter in 
,mouvement with its ,petruchka-like joy2
 the piano is liquid and luminous and   
aromatic in ,cloches a travers les      
feuilles4  ,yet there is no uncertainty1
 no mistiness in his form1 as there is  
in that of some of the other            
impressionists4 ,his music is           
classically firm1 classically precise   
and knit4 ,his lyrical1 shimmering      
structures are perfectly fashioned4 ,the
 line never hesitates1 never becomes    
lost nor involved4 ,it proceeds         
directly1 clearly1 passing through      
jewels and clots of color1 and fusing   
them into the mass4 ,the trajectory     

never breaks4 ,the music is always full 
of its proper weight and timbre4 ,it can
 be said quite without exaggeration that
 his best work omits nothing1 neglects  
nothing1 that every component element is
 justly treated4 ,his little pieces     
occupy a space as completely as the most
 massive and grand of compositions4 ,a  
composition like ,nuages1 the first of  
the three nocturnes for orchestra1 while
 taking but five minutes in performance1
 outweighs any number of compositions   
that last an hour4 ,l',apres-midi d'un  
faune is inspired and new1 marvelously1 
at every measure4 ,the three little     
pieces that comprise the first set of   
,images for piano will probably outlast 
half of what ,liszt has written for the 
instrument4 ,pelleas will some day be   
studied for its miraculous invention1   
its classical moderation and balance and
 truth1 for its pure diction and        
economical orchestration1 quite as the  
scores of ,gluck are studied to-day4    
,for ,debussy is1 of all the artists who

 have made music in our time1 the most  
perfect4 ,other musicians1 perhaps even 
some of the contemporary1 may exhibit a 
greater heroism1 a greater staying power
 and indefatigability4 ,nevertheless1 in
 his sphere he is every inch as perfect 
a workman as the greatest4 ,within his  
limits he was as pure a craftsman as the
 great ,john ,sebastian in his4 ,the    
difference between the two is the       
difference of their ages and races1 not 
the difference of their artistry4 ,for  
few composers can match with their own  
,debussy's perfection of taste1 his     
fineness of sensibility1 his poetic     
rapture and profound awareness of       
beauty4 ,few have been more graciously  
rounded and balanced than he1 have been1
 like him1 so fine that nothing which   
they could do could be tasteless and    
insignificant and without grace4 ,few   
musicians have been more nicely sensible
 of their gift1 better acquainted with  
themselves1 surer of the character and  
limitations of their genius4 ,few have  

been as perseverantly essential1 have   
managed to sustain their emotion and    
invention so steadily at a height4 ,the 
music of ,debussy is full of purest1    
most delicate poesy4 ,perhaps only ,bach
 and ,moussorgsky have as invariably    
found phrases as pithy and inclusive and
 final as those with which ,pelleas is  
strewn1 phrases that with a few simple  
notes epitomize profound and exquisite  
emotions1 and are indeed the word4      
,there are moments in ,debussy's work   
when each note opens a prospect4 ,there 
are moments when the music of ,pelleas1 
the fine fluid line of sound1 the       
melodic moments that merge and pass and 
vanish into one another1 become the     
gleaming rims that circumscribe vast    
darkling forms4 ,there are portions of  
the drama that are like the moments of  
human intercourse when single syllables 
unseal deep reservoirs4 ,the tenderness 
manifest here is scarcely to be         
duplicated in musical art4 ,and         
tenderness1 after all1 is the most      

intense of all emotions4  ,a thousand   
years of culture live in this fineness4 
,in these perfect gestures1 in this     
grace1 this certainty of choice1 this   
justice of values1 this simple1         
profound1 delicate language1 there live 
on thirty generations of gentlefolk4    
,thirty generations of cavaliers and    
dames who developed the arts of life in 
the mild and fruitful valleys of the    
pleasant land of ,france speak here4    
,the gentle sunlight and gentle shadow1 
the mild winters and mild summers of the
 ,ile de ,france1 the plentiful fruits  
of the earth1 the excitement of the     
vine1 contributed to making this being  
beautifully balanced1 reserved1 refined4
 ,the instruction and cultivation of the
 classic and ,french poets and thinkers1
 ,virgil and ,racine and ,marivaux1     
,catullus and ,montaigne and            
,chateaubriand1 the chambers of the     
,hotel de ,rambouillet1 the gardens and 
galleries of ,versailles1 the immense   
drawing-room of eighteenth-century      

,paris1 helped form this spirit4 ,in all
 this man's music one catches sight of  
the long foreground1 the long cycles of 
preparation4 ,in every one of his works1
 from the most imposing to the least1   
from the ,string ,quartet and ,pelleas  
to the gracile1 lissome little waltz1   
,le plus que lent1 there is manifest the
 ,latin genius nurtured and molded and  
developed by the fertile1 tranquil soil 
of ,france4  ,and in his art1 the gods  
of classical antiquity live again4      
,debussy is much more than merely the   
sensuous ,frenchman4 ,he is the man in  
whom the old ,pagan voluptuousness1 the 
old untroubled delight in the body1     
warred against so long by the black     
brood of monks and transformed by them  
during centuries into demoniacal and    
hellish forms1 is free and pure and     
sweet once more4 ,they once were nymphs 
and naiads and goddesses1 the ,quartet  
and ,l',apres-midi d'un faune and       
,sirenes4 ,they once wandered through   
the glades of ,ionia and ,sicily1 and   

gladdened men with their golden         
sensuality1 and bewitched them with the 
thought of the breast of the nymph in   
the brake4 ,for they are full of the    
wonder and sweetness of the flesh1 of   
flesh tasted deliciously and enjoyed not
 in closed rooms1 behind secret doors   
and under the shameful pall of the      
night1 but out in the warm1 sunny open1 
amid grasses and scents and the buzzing 
of insects1 the waving of branches1 the 
wandering of clouds4 ,the ,quartet is   
alive1 quivering with light1 and with   
joyous animality4 ,it moves like a young
 fawn2 spins the gayest1 most silken1   
most golden of spider webs2 fills one   
with the delights of taste and smell and
 sight and touch4 ,in the most          
glimmering1 floating of poems1          
,l',apres-midi d'un faune1 there is     
caught magically by the climbing1       
chromatic flute1 the drowsy pizzicati of
 the strings1 and the languorous sighing
 of the horns1 the atmosphere of the    
daydream1 the sleepy warmth of the      

sunshot herbage1 the divine apparition1 
the white wonder of arms and breasts and
 thighs4 ,the ,lento movement of ,iberia
 is like some drowsy1 disheveled gipsy4 
,even ,la plus que lent is full of the  
goodness of the flesh1 is like some     
slender young girl with unclosing bosom4
 ,and in ,sirenes1 something like the   
eternal divinity1 the eternal beauty of 
woman's body1 is celebrated4 ,it is as  
though on the rising1 falling1 rising1  
sinking tides of the poem1 on the waves 
of the glamorous feminine voices1 on the
 aphrodisiac swell of the sea1 the white
 ,anadyomene herself1 with her galaxy of
 tritons and naiads1 approached earth's 
shores once more4  ,if any musical task 
is to be considered as having been      
accomplished1 it is that of ,debussy4   
,for he wrote the one book that every   
great artist writes4 ,he established a  
style irrefragably1 made musical        
impressionism as legitimate a thing as  
any of the great styles4 ,that he had   
more to make than that one contribution 

is doubtful4 ,his art underwent no      
radical changes4 ,his style was mature  
already in the ,quartet and in ,proses  
lyriques1 and had its climax in         
,pelleas1 its orchestral deployment in  
,nocturnes and ,la ,mer and ,iberia1 its
 pianistic expression in the two volumes
 of ,images for pianoforte4 ,whatever   
the refinement of the incidental music  
to ,le ,martyre de ,saint-,sebastien1   
,debussy never really transgressed the  
limits set for him by his first great   
works4 ,and so1 even if his long illness
 caused the deterioration1 the          
hardening1 the formularization1 so      
evident in his most recent work1 the    
sonatas1 the ,epigrammes1 ,en blanc et  
noir1 and the ,berceuse heroique1 and   
deprived us of much delightful art1     
neither it nor his death actually robbed
 us of some radical development which we
 might reasonably have expected4 ,the   
chief that he had to give he had given4 
,what his age had demanded of him1 an   
art that it might hold far from the     

glare and tumult1 an art into which it  
could retreat1 an art which could       
compensate it for a life become too     
cruel and demanding1 he had produced4   
,he had essentially fulfilled himself4  
,the fact that ,pelleas is the most     
eloquent of all ,debussy's works and his
 eternal sign does not1 then1 signify   
that he did not grow during the         
remainder of his life4 ,a complex of    
determinants made of his music-drama the
 fullest expression of his genius1      
decreed that he should be living most   
completely at the moment he composed it4
 ,the very fact that in it ,debussy was 
composing music for the theater made it 
certain that his artistic sense would   
produce itself at its mightiest in the  
work4 ,for it entailed the statement of 
his opposition to ,wagner4 ,the fact    
that it was music conjoined with speech 
made it certain that ,debussy1 so full  
of the ,french classical genius1 would  
through contact with the spoken word1   
through study of its essential quality1 

be aided and compelled to a complete    
realization of a fundamentally ,french  
idiom4 ,and then ,maeterlinck's little  
play offered itself to his genius as a  
unique auxiliary4 ,it1 too1 is full of  
the sense of the shadowiness of things  
that weighed upon ,debussy1 has not a   
little of the accent of the time4 ,this 
vieille et triste legende de la foret is
 alive with images1 such as the old and 
somber castle inhabited by aging people 
and lying lost amid sunless forests1 the
 rose that blooms in the shadow         
underneath ,melisande's casement1       
,melisande's hair that falls farther    
than her arms can reach1 the black tarn 
that broods beneath the castle-vaults   
and breathes death1 ,golaud's anguished 
search for truth in the prattle of the  
child1 that could not but call a        
profound response from ,debussy's       
imagination4 ,but1 above all1 it was the
 figure of ,melisande herself that made 
him pour himself completely into the    
setting of the play4 ,for that figure   

permitted ,debussy to give himself      
completely in the creation of his ideal 
image4 ,the music is all ,melisande1 all
 ,debussy's love-woman4 ,it is she that 
the music reveals from the moment       
,melisande rises from among the rocks   
shrouded in the mystery of her golden   
hair4 ,it is she the music limns from   
the very beginning of the work4 ,the    
entire score is but what a man might    
feel toward a woman that was his1 and   
yet1 like all women1 strange and        
mysterious and unknown to him4 ,the     
music is like the stripping of some     
perfect flower1 petal upon petal4 ,there
 are moments when it is all that lies   
between two people1 and is the fullness 
of their knowledge4 ,it is the perfect  
sign of an experience4  ,and so1 since  
,debussy's art could have no second     
climax1 it was in the order of things   
that the works succeeding upon his      
masterpiece should be relatively less   
important4 ,nevertheless1 the ensuing   
poems and songs and piano-pieces1 with  

the exception of those written during   
those years when ,debussy could have    
said with ,rameau1 his master1 ,from day
 to day my taste improves4 ,but ,i have 
lost all my genius1 are by little less  
perfect and astounding pieces of work4  
,his music is like the peaks of a       
mountain range1 of which one of the     
first and nearest is the highest1 while 
the others appear scarcely less high4   
,and they are some of the bluest1 the   
loveliest1 the most shining that stretch
 through the region of modern music4 ,it
 will be long before humankind has      
exhausted their beauty4     ,ravel      
,ravel and ,debussy are of one lineage4 
,they both issue from what is deeply1   
graciously temperate in the genius of   
,france4 ,across the span of centuries1 
they touch hands with the men who first 
expressed that silver temperance in     
tone1 with ,claude ,le ,jeune1 with     
,rameau and ,couperin and the other     
clavecinists4 ,undiverted by the changes
 of revolutionary times1 they continue1 

in forms conditioned by the modern      
feeling for color1 for tonal complexity1
 for supple and undulant rhythm1 the    
high tradition of the elder music4      
,claude ,le ,jeune wrote motets2 the    
eighteenth-century masters wrote        
gavottes and rigadoons1 forlanas and    
chaconnes1 expressed themselves in      
courtly dances and other set and severe 
forms4 ,ravel and ,debussy compose in   
more liberal and naturalistic fashion4  
,and yet1 the genius that animates all  
this music is single4 ,it is as though  
all these artists1 born so many hundred 
years apart from each other1 had        
contemplated the pageant of their       
respective times from the same point of 
view4 ,it is as though they faced the   
problems of composition with essentially
 the same attitudes1 with the same      
demands and reservations4 ,the new      
music1 like the old1 is the work of men 
above all reverent of the art of life   
itself4 ,it is the work of men of the   
sort who crave primarily in all conduct 

restraint1 and who insist on poise and  
good sense4 ,they regard all things     
humanly1 and bring their regard for the 
social values to the making of their    
art4 ,indeed1 the reaction of ,debussy  
from ,wagnerism was chiefly the reaction
 of a profoundly socialized and         
aristocratic sensibility outraged by    
over-emphasis and unrestraint4 ,the men 
of whom he is typical throughout the    
ages never forget the world and its     
decencies and its demands4 ,and yet they
 do not eschew the large1 the grave1 the
 poignant4 ,the range of human passions 
is present in their music1 too1 even    
though many of them have not had        
gigantic powers1 or entertained emotions
 as grand and intense as the            
world-consuming1 world-annihilating     
mysticism of a ,bach1 for instance4 ,but
 it is shadowed forth more than stated4 
,if many of them have been deeply       
melancholy1 they have nevertheless taken
 counsel with themselves1 and have said1
 with ,baudelaire3        ,sois sage1 o 

ma douleur1 et tiens-toi plus           
tranquille4   ,all expression is made in
 low1 aristocratic tone1 in grisaille4  
,most often it achieves itself through a
 silvery grace4 ,it is normal for these 
men to be profound through grace1 to be 
amusing and yet artistically upright4   
,it is normal for them to articulate    
nicely4 ,high in their consciousness    
there flame always the commandments of  
clarity1 of delicacy1 of precision4     
,indeed1 so repeatedly have temperaments
 of this character appeared in ,france1 
not only in her music1 but also in her  
letters and other arts1 from the time of
 the ,pleiade1 to that of ,charles      
,louis ,philippe and ,andre ,gide and   
,henri de ,regnier1 that it is difficult
 not to hold theirs the centrally1      
essentially ,french tradition1 and not  
to see in men like ,rabelais only the   
,frank1 and in men like ,berlioz only   
the atavism to ,gallo-,roman times4     
,but it is not only the spirit of       
,french classicism that ,ravel and      

,debussy inherit4 ,in one respect their 
art is the continuation of the music    
that came to a climax in the works of   
,haydn and ,mozart4 ,it is subtle and   
intimate1 and restores to the auditor   
the great creative role assigned to him 
by so much of the music before          
,beethoven4 ,the music of ,haydn and    
,mozart defers to its hearer4 ,it seeks 
deliberately to enlist his activity4 ,it
 relies for its significance largely    
upon his contribution4 ,the music itself
 carries only a portion of the          
composer's intention4 ,it carries only  
enough to ignite and set functioning the
 auditor's imagination4 ,to that person 
is reserved the pleasure of fathoming   
the intention1 of completing the idea   
adumbrated by the composer4 ,for ,haydn 
and ,mozart did not desire that the     
listener assume a completely passive    
attitude4 ,they had too great a love and
 respect of their fellows4 ,they were   
eager to secure their collaboration1 had
 confidence that they could comprehend  

all that the music intimated1 regarded  
them as equals in the business of       
creation4 ,but the music written since  
their time has forced upon the hearer a 
more and more passive role4 ,the        
composers arrogated to themselves1 to   
varying extents1 the greater part of the
 activity2 insisted upon giving all1 of 
doing the larger share of the labor4    
,the old intimacy was lost2 with ,wagner
 the intellectual game of the leit-motif
 system was substituted for the creative
 exercise4 ,the art of ,ravel and       
,debussy returns to the earlier         
strategy4 ,it makes the largest effort  
to excite the creative imagination1 that
 force which ,william ,blake identified 
with the ,saviour ,himself4 ,it strives 
continually to lure it into the most    
energetic participation4 ,and because   
,ravel and ,debussy have this incitement
 steadily in view1 their music is a     
music of few strokes1 comparable indeed 
to the pictural art of ,japan which it  
so often recalls4 ,it is the music of   

suggestion1 of sudden kindlings1 brief  
starts and lines1 small forms4 ,it never
 insists4 ,it only pricks4 ,it          
instigates1 begins1 leaves off1 and then
 continues1 rousing to action the       
hearer's innate need of an aim and an   
order and meaning in things4 ,its subtle
 gestures1 its brief1 sharp1 delicate   
phrases1 its quintessentiality1 are like
 the thrusting open of doors into the   
interiors of the conscience1 the opening
 of windows on long vistas1 are like the
 breaking of light upon obscured        
memories and buried emotions4 ,they are 
like the unsealing of springs long      
sealed1 suffering them to flow again in 
the night4 ,and for a glowing instant1  
they transform the auditor from a       
passive receiver into an artist4  ,and  
there is much besides that ,ravel and   
,debussy have in common4 ,they have each
 been profoundly influenced by ,russian 
music1 ,daphnis et ,chloe showing the   
influence of ,borodin1 ,pelleas et      
,melisande that of ,moussorgsky4 ,both  

have made wide discoveries in the field 
of harmony4 ,both have felt the power of
 outlying and exotic modes4 ,both have  
been profoundly impressed by the        
artistic currents of the ,paris about   
them4 ,both1 like so many other ,french 
musicians1 have been kindled by the     
bright colors of ,spain1 ,ravel in his  
orchestral ,rhapsody1 in his one-act    
opera ,l',heure espagnol and in the     
piano-piece in the collection ,miroirs  
entitled ,alborada del ,graciozo1       
,debussy in ,iberia and in some of his  
preludes4 ,indeed1 a parallelism exists 
throughout their respective works4      
,debussy writes ,homage a ,rameau2      
,ravel ,le ,tombeau de ,couperin4       
,debussy writes ,le ,martyre de         
,saint-,sebastien2 ,ravel projects an   
oratorio1 ,saint-,francois d',assise4   
,ravel writes the ,ondine of the        
collection entitled ,gaspard de la nuit2
 ,debussy follows it with the ,ondine of
 his second volume of preludes4 ,both1  
during the same year1 conceive and      

execute the idea of setting to music the
 lyrics of ,mallarme entitled ,soupir   
and ,placet futile4 ,nevertheless1 this 
fact constitutes ,ravel in no wise the  
imitator of ,debussy4 ,his work is by no
 means1 as some of our critics have made
 haste to insist1 a counterfeit of his  
elder's4 ,did the music of ,ravel not   
demonstrate that he possesses a         
sensibility quite distinct from         
,debussy's1 in some respects less fine1 
delicious1 lucent1 in others perhaps    
even more deeply engaging2 did it not   
represent a distinct development from   
,debussy's art in a direction quite its 
own1 one might with justice speak of a  
discipleship4 ,but in the light of      
,ravel's actual accomplishment1 of his  
large and original and attractive gift1 
of the magistral craftsmanship that has 
shown itself in so many musical forms1  
from the song and the sonatine to the   
string-quartet and the orchestral poem1 
of the talent that has revealed itself  
increasingly from year to year1 and that

 not even the war and the experience of 
the trenches has driven underground1 the
 parallelism is to be regarded as       
necessitated by the spiritual kinship of
 the men1 and by their contemporaneity4 
,and1 certainly1 nothing so much reveals
 ,ravel the peer of ,debussy as the fact
 that he has succeeded so beautifully in
 manifesting what is peculiar to him4   
,for he is by ten years ,debussy's      
junior1 and were he less positive an    
individuality1 less original a          
temperament1 less fully the genius1 he  
could never have realized himself4      
,there would have descended upon him the
 blight that has fallen upon so many of 
the younger ,parisian composers less    
determinate than he and like himself    
made of one stuff with ,debussy4 ,he1   
too1 would have permitted the art of the
 older and well-established man to      
impose upon him4 ,he1 too1 would have   
betrayed his own cause in attempting to 
model himself upon the other man4 ,but  
,debussy has not swerved nor hampered   

,ravel any more than has his master1    
,gabriel ,faure4 ,he is too sturdily set
 in his own direction4 ,from the very   
commencement of his career1 from the    
time when he wrote the soft and         
hesitating and nevertheless already very
 personal ,pavane pour une ,infante     
defunte1 he has maintained himself      
proudly against his great collateral1   
just as he has maintained himself       
against what is false and epicene in the
 artistic example of ,faure4 ,within    
their common limits1 he has realized    
himself as essentially as ,debussy has  
done4 ,their music is the new and double
 blossoming of the classical ,french    
tradition4 ,from the common ground1 they
 stretch out each in a different        
direction1 and form the greater contrast
 to each other because of all they have 
in common4  ,the intelligence that      
fashioned the music of ,debussy was one 
completely aware1 conscious of itself1  
flooded with light in its most secret   
places1 set four-square in the whirling 

universe4 ,few artists have been as sure
 of their intention as ,debussy always  
was4 ,the man could fix with precision  
the most elusive emotions1 could        
describe the sensations that flow on the
 borderland of consciousness1 vaguely1  
and that most of us cannot grasp for    
very dizziness4 ,he could write music as
 impalpable as that of the middle       
section of ,iberia1 in which the very   
silence of the night1 the caresses of   
the breeze1 seem to have taken musical  
flesh4 ,before the body of his work1 so 
clear and lucid in its definition1 so   
perfect in its organization1 one thinks 
perforce of a world created out of the  
flying chaos beneath him by a god4 ,we  
are given to know precisely of what     
stuff the soul of ,debussy was made1    
what its pilgrimages were1 in what      
adventure it sought itself out4 ,we know
 precisely wherein it saw reflected its 
visage1 in water stilled at even1 in the
 angry gleam of sunset on wet leaves1 in
 wild and headlong gipsy rhythms1 in    

moonfire1 shimmering stuffs and flashing
 spray1 in the garish lights and odors  
of the ,peninsula1 in rain fallen upon  
flowering parterres1 in the melancholy  
march of clouds1 the golden pomp and    
ritual of the church1 the pools and     
gardens and pavilions reared for its    
delight by the delicate ,chinese soul1  
in earth's thousand scents and shells   
and colors4 ,for ,debussy has set these 
adventures before us in their fullness4 
,before he spoke1 he had dwelt with his 
experiences till he had plumbed them    
fully1 till he had seen into and around 
and behind them clearly4 ,and so we     
perceive them in their essences1 in     
their eternal aspects4 ,the designs are 
the very curve of the ecstasy4 ,they are
 sheerly delimited4 ,the notes appear to
 bud one out of the other1 to follow    
each other out of the sheerest          
necessity1 to have an original timbre1  
to fix a matter never known before1 that
 can never live again4 ,every moment in 
a representative composition of         

,debussy's is logical and yet new4 ,few 
artists have more faultlessly said what 
they set out to say4  ,ravel is by no   
means as perfect an artist4 ,he has not 
the clear self-consciousness1 the       
perfect recognition of limits4 ,his     
music has not the absolute completeness 
of ,debussy's4 ,it is not that he is not
 a marvelous craftsman1 greatly at ease 
in his medium4 ,it is that ,ravel dares1
 and dares continually2 seeks           
passionately to bring his entire body   
into play2 aspires to plenitude of      
utterance1 to sheerness and rigidity of 
form4 ,ravel always goes directly       
through the center4 ,but compare his    
,rapsodie espagnol with ,debussy's      
,iberia to perceive how direct he is4   
,debussy gives the circumambient        
atmosphere1 ,ravel the inner form4      
,between him and ,debussy there is the  
difference between the apollonian and   
the dionysiac1 between the smooth1      
level1 contained1 perfect1 and the      
darker1 more turbulent1 passionate1 and 

instinctive4 ,for ,ravel has been       
vouchsafed a high grace4 ,he has been   
permitted to remain1 in all his manhood1
 the child that once we all were4 ,in   
him the powerful and spontaneous flow of
 emotion from out the depths of being   
has never been dammed4 ,he can still    
speak from the fullness of his heart1   
cry his sorrows piercingly1 produce     
himself completely4 ,gracious and urbane
 as his music is1 proper to the world of
 modern things and modern adventures and
 modern people1 there is still a gray1  
piercing lyrical note in it that is     
almost primitive1 and reflects the      
childlike singleness and intensity of   
the animating spirit4 ,the man who      
shaped not only the deliberately        
infantine ,ma ,mere l',oye1 but also    
things as quiveringly simple and        
expressive and songful as ,oiseaux      
tristes1 as ,sainte1 as ,le ,gibet1 or  
the ,sonatine1 as the passacaglia of the
 ,trio or the vocal interlude in        
,daphnis et ,chloe1 has a pureness of   

feeling that we have lost4 ,and it is   
this crying1 passionate tone1 this      
directness of expression1 this largeness
 of effort1 even in tiny forms and      
limited scope1 that1 more than his      
polyphonic style or any other of the    
easily recognizable earmarks of his art1
 distinguishes his work from ,debussy's4
 ,the other man has a greater           
sensuousness1 completeness1             
inventiveness perhaps4 ,but ,ravel is   
full of a lyricism1 a piercingness1 a   
passionateness1 that much of the music  
of ,debussy successive to ,pelleas      
wants4 ,we understand ,ravel's music1 in
 the famous phrase of ,beethoven1 as    
speech vom ,herz--zu ,herzen4  ,and we  
turn to it gratefully1 as we turn to all
 art full of the sense of tears in      
mortal things1 and into which the pulse 
of human life has passed directly4 ,for 
there are times when he is close to the 
bourne of life1 when his art is         
immediately the orifice of the dark1    
flowering1 germinating region where lie 

lodged the dynamics of the human soul4  
,there are times when it taps vasty     
regions4 ,there are times when ,ravel   
has but to touch a note1 and we unclose2
 when he has but to let an instrument   
sing a certain phrase1 and things which 
lie buried deep in the heart rise out of
 the dark1 like the nymph in his        
piano-poem1 dripping with stars4 ,the   
music of ,daphnis1 from the very moment 
of the introduction with its softly     
unfolding chords1 its far1 glamorous    
fanfares1 its human throats swollen with
 songs1 seems to thrust open doors into 
the unplumbed caverns of the soul1 and  
summon forth the stuff to shape the     
dream4 ,little song written since ,weber
 set his horns a-breathing1 or ,brahms  
transmuted the witchery of the ,german  
forest into tone1 is more romantic4     
,over it might be set the invocation of 
,heine3        ,steiget auf1 ihr alten  
,traueme6      ,oeffne dich1 dur        
,herzenstor6   ,like the passage that   
ushers in the last marvelous scene of   

his great ballet1 it seems to waken us  
from the unreal world to the real1 and  
show us the face of the earth1 and the  
overarching blue once more4  ,and ,ravel
 is at once more traditional and more   
progressive a composer than ,debussy4   
,one feels the past most strongly in    
him4 ,debussy1 with his thoroughly      
impressionistic style1 is more the time4
 ,no doubt there is a certain almost    
,hebraic melancholy and sharp lyricism  
in ,ravel's music which gives some color
 to the rumor that he is ,jewish4 ,and  
yet1 for all that1 one feels ,rameau    
become modern in his sober1 gray1 dainty
 structures1 in the dryness of his      
black4 ,in ,le ,tombeau de ,couperin1   
,ravel is the old clavecinist become    
contemporary of ,scriabine and          
,strawinsky1 the old clavecinist who had
 seen the projectiles fall at ,verdun   
and lost a dozen friends in the         
trenches4 ,he finds it easy1 as in some 
of his recent songs1 to achieve the     
folktone4 ,if it is true that he is a   

,jew1 then his traditionalism is but one
 more brilliant instance of the power of
 ,france to adopt the children of alien 
races and make them more intensely her  
own than some of her proper offspring4  
,in no other instance1 however1 not in  
that of ,lully nor in that of ,franck1  
has the transfusion of blood been so    
successful4 ,ravel is in no wise        
treacherous to himself4 ,there must be  
something in the character of the       
,french nation that makes of every ,jew1
 if not a son1 yet the happiest and most
 faithful of stepchildren4  ,and as one 
feels the past more strongly in ,ravel1 
so1 too1 one finds him in certain       
respects even more revolutionary than   
,debussy4 ,for while the power of the   
latter flagged in the making of         
strangely ,mac,dowellesque preludes1 or 
in the composition of such ghosts as    
,gigues and ,jeux and ,karma1 ,ravel has
 continued increasingly in power1 has   
developed his art until he has come to  
be one of the leaders of the musical    

evolution4 ,if there is a single modern 
composition which can be compared to    
,petruchka for its picture of           
mass-movement1 its pungent naturalism1  
it is the ,feria of the ,rapsodie       
espagnol4 ,if there is a single modern  
orchestral work that can be compared to 
either of the two great ballets of      
,strawinsky for rhythmical vitality1 it 
is ,daphnis et ,chloe1 with its flaming 
dionysiac pulses1 its pipes and         
timbrels1 its wild ecstasy4 ,the same   
delicate clockwork mechanism            
characterizes ,l',heure espagnol1 his   
opera bouffe1 that characterizes        
,petruchka and ,le ,rossignol4 ,a       
piano-poem like ,scarbo rouses the full 
might of the piano1 and seems to bridge 
the way to the music of ,leo ,ornstein  
and the age of steel4 ,and ,ravel has   
some of the squareness1 the sheerness   
and rigidity for which the ultra-modern 
are striving4 ,the liquescence of       
,debussy has given away again to        
something more metallic1 more solid and 

unflowing4 ,there is a sort of new      
stiffness in this music4 ,and in the    
field of harmony ,ravel is steadily     
building upon ,debussy4 ,his chords grow
 sharper and more biting2 in ,le        
,tombeau de ,couperin and the minuet on 
the name of ,haydn there is a harmonic  
daring and subtlety and even bitterness 
that is beyond anything attained by     
,debussy1 placing the composer with the 
,strawinskys and the ,schoenbergs and   
the ,ornsteins and all the other        
barbarians4  ,and then his ironic humor1
 as well1 distinguishes him from        
,debussy4 ,the humor of the latter was1 
after all1 light and whimsical4 ,that of
 ,ravel1 on the other hand1 is extremely
 bitter4 ,no doubt1 the icy ,ravel1 the 
artist a qui l'absence de sensibilite   
fait encore une personalite1 as one of  
the quirites termed him1 never existed  
save in the minds of those unable to    
comprehend his reticence and delicacy   
and essentiality4 ,nevertheless1 besides
 his lyrical1 dreamy1 romantic temper1  

he has a very unsentimental vein1       
occurring no doubt1 as in ,heine1 as a  
sort of corrective1 a sort of           
compensation1 for the pervading         
sensibleness4 ,and so we find the tender
 poet of the ,sonatine and the          
string-quartet and ,miroirs writing the 
witty and mordant music of ,l',heure    
espagnol2 setting the bitter little     
,histoires naturelles of ,jules ,renard 
for chant1 writing in ,valses nobles et 
sentimentales a slightly ironical and   
disillusioned if smiling and graceful   
and delicate commentary to the season of
 love1 projecting a music-drama on the  
subject of ,don ,quixote4 ,over his     
waltzes ,ravel maliciously sets a       
quotation from ,henri de ,regnier3 ,le  
plaisir delicieux et toujours nouveau   
d'une occupation inutile4 ,with         
,casella1 he writes a musical ,a la     
maniere de1 parodying ,wagner1 d',indy1 
,chabrier1 ,strauss and others most     
wittily4 ,something of ,eric ,satie1 the
 clown of music1 exists in him1 too4    

,and probably nothing makes him so      
inexplicable and irritating to his      
audiences as his ironic streak4 ,people 
are willing to forgive an artist all1   
save only irony4  ,what the future holds
 for ,maurice ,ravel is known only to   
the three norns4 ,but1 unless some      
unforeseen accident occur and interrupt 
his career1 it can only hold the most   
brilliant rewards4 ,the man seems surely
 bound for splendid shores4 ,he is only 
in the forty-fifth year of his life1 and
 though his genius was already fresh and
 subtle in the ,quartet1 written as     
early as #aijc1 it has grown beautifully
 in power during the last two decades4  
,the continued exploration of musical   
means has given his personality         
increasingly free play1 and has unbound 
him4 ,the gesture of the hand has grown 
swifter and more commanding4 ,the       
instruments have become more obedient4  
,he has matured1 become virile and even 
magistral4 ,the war has not softened    
him4 ,he speaks as intimately as ever in

 ,le ,tombeau de ,couperin4 ,already one
 can see in him one of the most         
delightful and original musical geniuses
 that have been nourished by the teeming
 soil of ,france4 ,it is possible that  
the future will refer to him in even    
more enthusiastic tone4     ,borodin    
,borodin's music is a reading of        
,russia's destiny in the book of her    
past4 ,i live1 the composer of ,prince  
,igor wrote to a friend one summer1 on a
 steep and lofty mountain whose base is 
washed by the ,volga4 ,and for thirty   
versts ,i can follow the windings of the
 river through the blue of the          
immeasurable distance4 ,and his music1  
at least those rich fragments that are  
his music1 make us feel as though that  
summer sojourn had been symbolic of his 
career1 as though in spirit he had ever 
lived in some high1 visionary place     
overlooking the sweep of centuries in   
which ,russia had waxed from infancy to 
maturity4 ,it is as though the chiming  
of the bells of innumerable ,russian    

villages1 villages living and villages  
dead and underground a thousand years1  
had mounted incessantly to his ears1    
telling him of the progress of a thing  
round which sixty generations had risen 
and fallen like foam4 ,it is as though  
he had followed the ,volga1 flowing     
eastward1 not alone for thirty1 but for 
thirty hundred versts through plains    
reverberant with the age-long combat and
 clashing1 the bleeding and fusing of   
,slav and ,tartar2 had followed it until
 it reached the zone where ,asia1 with  
her caravans and plagues and shrill     
,mongolian fifes1 comes out of endless  
wastes4 ,and it is as though1 piercing  
further into the bosom of the eternal   
mother1 ,asia1 his eye had rested       
finally upon a single spot1 a single    
nucleus2 that it had watched that       
nucleus increase into a tribe2 had      
watched that tribe commence its westward
 march1 wandering1 spawning1 pushing    
ever westward1 battling and groping1    
advancing slowly1 patiently1 steadily   

into power and manhood1 until it had    
come into possession of the wildest and 
fairest land of eastern ,europe1 until  
it had joined with other stocks and     
swelled into a vast nation1 a gigantic  
empire2 and that then1 in that moment of
 fulfilment1 ,borodin had turned in     
prophetic ecstasy upon modern ,russia   
and bade it ring its bells and sound its
 chants1 bade it push onward with its   
old faith and vigor1 since the ,slavonic
 grandeur and glory were assured4 ,for  
through the savage trumpet-blasts and   
rude and lumbering rhythms1 through the 
cymbal-crashing ,mongol marches and     
warm1 uncouth peasant chants that are   
his music1 there surges that vision1    
that sense of immanent glory1 that      
fortifying asseveration4  ,it rises to  
us for the reason that although his     
music is an evocation of past times1 a  
conjuring up of the buried ,muscovy1 it 
is a glad and exuberant one4 ,it has the
 tone neither of those visions of       
departed days inspired by yearnings for 

greener1 happier ages1 nor of those out 
of which there speaks1 as there speaks  
out of the ,salammbo of ,flaubert1 for  
instance1 a horror of man's everlasting 
filth and ferocity4 ,a fresh and joyous 
and inspiriting wind blows from these   
pages4 ,the music of ,prince ,igor1 with
 its epical movement and                
counter-movement1 its shouting1         
wandering1 savage hordes1 its brandished
 spears and flashing ,slavic helms1 its 
marvelous parade of warrior pride and   
woman's flesh1 its evocation of the     
times of the ,tartar inundations1 is    
full of a rude1 chivalric lustiness1 a  
great barbaric zest and appetite1 a     
childlike laughter4 ,the ,b-minor       
symphony makes us feel as though the    
very pagan joy and vigor that had once  
informed the assemblies and jousts and  
feasting of the boyartry of medieval    
,russia1 and made the guzli and bamboo  
flute to sound1 had waked again in      
,borodin2 and in this magnificent and   
lumbering music1 these crude and massive

 forms1 lifted its wassail and its gold 
and song once more4 ,for the composer of
 such works1 such evocations1 it is     
patent that the past was the wonderful  
warrant of a wonderful future4 ,for this
 man1 indeed1 the reliques1 the         
trappings1 the minaret-crowned          
monuments1 the barbaric chants and gold 
ornaments1 all the thousand rich things 
that recalled ,muscovy and the buried   
empire to him1 and that he loved so     
dearly1 were valuable chiefly because   
they were the emblems of the time that  
bore the happy present4  ,he was one of 
the famous five who in the decade after 
#ahgj found ,russia her modern musical  
speech4 ,the group1 which comprised     
,moussorgsky1 ,balakirew1 ,cui1         
,rimsky-,korsakoff and ,borodin1 was    
unified by an impulse common to all the 
members4 ,all were in revolt against the
 grammar of classical music4 ,all felt  
the tradition of western ,european music
 to be inimical to the free expression  
of the ,russian sensibility1 and for the

 first time opposed to the musical ,west
 the musical ,east4 ,for these young    
composers1 the plans and shapes of      
phrases1 the modes1 the rhythms1 the    
counterpoint1 the ,rules1 the entire    
musical theory and science that had been
 established in ,europe by the practice 
of generations of composers1 was a      
convention2 the ,russian music1         
particularly that of ,rubinstein and    
,tchaikowsky1 which had sought to ply   
itself in accord with it1 an artificial 
and sophisticated thing1 as artificial  
and sophisticated a thing as the        
pseudo-,parisian culture of the         
,petrograd salons4 ,it was their firm   
conviction that for the ,russian        
composer only one model existed1 and    
that was the ,russian folk-song4 ,only  
in the folk-song were to be found the   
musical equivalents of the spoken       
speech4 ,only in the folk-song were to  
be found the musical accents and turns  
and inflections1 the phrases and rhythms
 and colors that expressed the national 

temper4 ,and to the popular and to the  
liturgical chants they went in search of
 their proper idiom4 ,but it was not    
only to the musical heritage that they  
went4 ,in search of their own selves    
they sought out every vestige of the    
past1 every vestige of the fatherland   
that ,peter the ,great and ,catherine   
had sought to reform1 and that persists 
in every ,russian underneath the coating
 of convention4 ,together with the      
others1 ,borodin steeped himself in the 
lore and legends of the buried empire1  
familiarized himself with the customs of
 the ,slavs of the eleventh and twelfth 
centuries1 searched libraries for the   
missals illuminated by the old monks of 
the ,greek church1 deciphered epics and 
ballads and chronicles1 assimilated the 
songs and incantations of the peasants  
and savage tribes of the steppes1       
collected the melodies of ,european and 
,asiatic ,russia from the ,ukraine to   
,turkestan4  ,and he and his companions 
were right4 ,their instincts had not    

misled them4 ,the contact with real     
,russia loosed them all4 ,through that  
new musical orientation1 they arose1    
each full of his own strength4  ,it was 
the contact of like with like that made 
them expressive4 ,for what they inwardly
 were was close akin to the breath1 the 
spirit1 the touch1 that had invented    
those chants1 and built those minarets  
and wrought that armor and composed     
those epics4 ,the accent of ,moussorgsky
 was in the grave and popular melodies1 
in the liturgical incantations1 before  
he was born4 ,his most original passages
 resemble nothing so much as the rude1  
stark folk-song bequeathed to the world 
by medieval ,russia4                    
,rimsky-,korsakoff's love of brilliant1 
gay materials had been in generations   
and generations of peasant-artists1 in  
every peasant who on a holiday had      
donned a gaudy1 beribboned costume1     
centuries before the music of           
,scheherazade and ,le ,coq d'or was     
conceived4 ,so1 too1 the temperaments   

and sensibilities of the others4 ,they  
had but to touch these emblems and      
reliques and rhythms to become          
self-conscious4  ,it must have been in  
particular the old warrior1 the         
chivalric1 perhaps even the ,tartar     
imprint in the emblems of the ,russian  
past that liberated ,borodin4 ,for he is
 the old ,tartar1 the old savage boyar1 
of modern music4 ,in very person he was 
the son of military feudal ,russia4 ,his
 photographs that exhibit the great     
chieftain head1 the mane and the savage1
 long ,mongolian mustache in all their  
flat contradiction of the conventional  
nineteenth-century dress1 the black and 
star and ribbon of court costume1 make  
one half credit the legend that his     
family was of pure ,circassian descent1 
and had flowed down into the great      
,russian maelstrom from out a ,georgian 
stronghold4 ,his idiom bears strongly   
the imprint of that body2 suggests      
strongly that heredity4 ,it is patently 
the expression of a personality who     

desired exuberant bright sound and      
color1 needed the brandishing of blades 
and the shrilling of ,tartar fifes and  
the leaping dance of ,tartar archers1   
had nostalgia for the savage life that  
had spawned upon the steppes4 ,and as   
such it is distinct from that of the    
other composers of the group4 ,his music
 has none of the piercingness and       
poignancy and irony1 none of the deep   
humility and grim resignation1 so       
characteristic of ,moussorgsky's4 ,it   
has none of the brilliant ,orientalism  
of ,balakirew and ,cui1 none of         
,rimsky-,korsakoff's soft felicity and  
lambency and light sensuousness4 ,it is 
rude and robust and male1 full of       
angular movements and vigorous blows and
 lusty1 childlike laughter1 and1 at the 
same time1 of a singularly fine romantic
 fervor4 ,it is almost the contrary of  
that of the neurotic1 sallow            
,tchaikowsky of the hysterical frenzies 
and hysterical self-pity and the habits 
of morose delectation4 ,if there is any 

symphony that can be called             
pre-eminently virile and ,russian1 it is
 assuredly ,borodin's second1 the great 
one in ,b-minor4 ,and in ,prince ,igor  
and the symphonic poem ,on the ,steppes1
 for the first time1 continental ,asia1 
with its sharp beat of savage drums and 
its oceanic wastes of grass1 its strong 
,kurdish beverages and jerked steaks1   
comes into modern music4  ,and was not  
this restatement of the national        
character ,borodin's great contribution 
to his age's life8 ,for has not the most
 recent time of all beheld a resurgence 
of the ,russian spirit in the political 
field1 an attempted reconstitution of   
society in the light of the just and    
fraternal and religious spirit with     
which this folk has ever been endowed1  
and of which1 in all its misery1 it has 
ever been aware8 ,if there is any       
teacher who dominates ,russian thought  
and ,russian affairs to-day1 it is      
,tolstoy4 ,and from whom did ,tolstoy   
learn more than from that conserver of  

the pristine and dominating ,russian    
traits1 the moujik8 ,and so men like    
,borodin who sought out the racial      
character and reflected it in their     
music seem to us almost like outriders1 
like the tribesmen who are sent on ahead
 of wandering folks to spy out the land1
 to find the passes1 and guide their    
fellows on4 ,their art is a summons to  
individual life4 ,borodin in particular 
came upon the ,russian people at a      
moment when1 like a tribe that has quit 
its fields in search of better          
pasturage1 and has wandered far and     
found itself in barren and difficult and
 almost impassable ground1 it was       
bewildered and despondent1 and felt     
itself lost and like to perish in the   
wilderness4 ,and while his folk lay     
prone1 he had arisen and mounted the    
encircling ridge4 ,and with a joyous    
cry1 and the flaunting of a banner1 he  
called them to the way they had to      
traverse1 and told them the road was    
found4  ,his work is not large in bulk4 

,in a comparatively long life1 long at  
least by the side of that of a ,mozart  
or a ,moussorgsky1 he succeeded in      
producing only a single opera1 ,prince  
,igor1 two symphonies and the torso of a
 third1 a symphonic sketch1 ,on the     
,steppes1 two string quartets1 and a    
score of songs4 ,and many of these works
 are incomplete4 ,prince ,igor is a     
fragmentary composition1 a series of not
 quite satisfactorily conjoined numbers1
 a golden mosaic from which whole groups
 of enameled bits are missing4 ,indeed1 
,borodin had not even notated the       
overture when he died1 and we know it   
thanks only to a pupil who had heard him
 play it on the piano and recollected it
 well enough to reconstruct it4 ,other  
of his works that are complete are      
spotty1 commingled dross and gold4 ,he  
was a curiously uneven workman4 ,there  
appear to have been whole regions of his
 personality that remained unsensitized4
 ,part of him seems to have gone out    
toward a new free ,russian music2 part  

of him seems to have been satisfied with
 the style of the ,italian operas in    
vogue in ,russia during his youth4 ,he  
who in the dances from ,prince ,igor    
wrote some of the most pungent1 supple1 
wild of music could also write airs     
sweetly ,italian and conventional4 ,the 
most free and ruddy and brave of his    
pages are juxtaposed with some of the   
most soft and timid4 ,in his opera a    
recitative of clear1 passionate accent  
serves to introduce a pretty cavatina2  
,prince ,igor's magnificent scene1 so   
original and contained and vigorous1 is 
followed by a cloying duet worthy of a  
,tchaikowsky opera4 ,the adagio of the  
,b-minor ,symphony1 lovely as it is1 has
 not quite the solidity and weight of   
the other movements4 ,the happy1 popular
 and brilliantly original themes and    
ideas of the first quartet are organized
 with a distinct unskilfulness1 while   
the artistic value of the second is     
seriously damaged by the cheapness of   
its cavatina4 ,his workmanship          

continually reminds one that ,borodin   
was unable to devote himself entirely to
 composition2 that he could come to his 
writing table only at intervals1 only in
 hours of recreation2 and that the      
government of the ,tsar left him to     
support himself by instructing in       
chemistry in the ,college of ,medicine  
and ,surgery in ,moscow1 and kept him   
always something of an amateur4 ,borodin
 the composer is after all only the     
composer of a few fragments4  ,but      
sometimes1 amid the ruins of an ,eastern
 city1 men find a slab of porphyry or   
malachite so gorgeously grained1 that   
not many whole and perfect works of art 
can stand undimmed and undiminished     
beside it4 ,such is the music of        
,borodin4     ,rimsky-,korsakoff   ,the 
music of ,rimsky-,korsakoff is like one 
of the books1 full of gay pictures1     
which are given to children4 ,it is     
perhaps the most brilliant of them all1 
a picture-book illuminated in crude and 
joyous colors--bright reds1 apple       

greens1 golden oranges and yellows--and 
executed with genuine verve and fantasy4
 ,the ,slavonic and ,oriental legends   
and fairy tales are illustrated         
astonishingly1 with a certain humor in  
the matter-of-fact notation of grotesque
 and miraculous events4 ,the personages 
in the pictures are arrayed in bizarre  
and shimmering costumes1 delightfully   
inaccurate2 and if they represent kings 
and queens1 are set in the midst of a   
fabulous pomp and glitter1 and wear     
crowns incrusted with large and         
impossible stones4 ,framing the         
illustrations are border-fancies of     
sunflowers and golden cocks and wondrous
 springtime birds1 fashioned            
boisterously and humorously in the      
manner of ,russian peasant art4 ,indeed1
 the book is executed so charmingly that
 the parents find it as amusing as do   
the children4  ,more than the loveliest1
 the gleefullest1 of picture-books the  
music is not4 ,one must not go to       
,rimsky-,korsakoff for works of another 

character4 ,for1 at heart1 he ignored   
the larger sort of speech1 and was      
content to have his music picturesque   
and colorful4 ,the childish1 absurd     
,tsar in ,le ,coq d'or1 who desires only
 to lie abed all day1 eat delicate food1
 and listen to the fairy tales of his   
nurse1 is1 after all1 something of a    
portrait of the composer4 ,for all its  
gay and opulent exterior1 its pricking  
orchestral timbres1 his work is         
curiously objective and crystallized1 as
 though the need that brought it forth  
had been small and readily satisfied4   
,none of ,rimsky's scores is really     
lyrical1 deeply moving4 ,the music of   
,tsar ,saltan1 for instance1 for all its
 evocations of magical cities and       
wonder-towers and faery splendor1       
impresses one as little more than       
theatrical scenery of a high            
decorativeness4 ,it sets us lolling in a
 sort of orchestra-stall1 wakes in us   
the mood in which we applaud amiably the
 dexterity of the stage-decorator4 ,how 

quickly the aerial tapestry woven by the
 orchestra of ,le ,coq d'or wears thin6 
,how quickly the subtle browns and      
saffrons and vermilions fade6 ,how      
pretty and tame beside that of ,borodin1
 beside that of the ,persian ,dances of 
,moussorgsky1 beside that of ,balakirew1
 even ,rimsky's ,orientalism appears6   
,none of his music communicates an      
experience really high1 really poetic4  
,there is no page of his that reveals   
him straining to formulate such a one4  
,his composition is never more than a   
graceful arrangement of surfaces1 the   
cunning and pleasing presentation of    
matter chosen for its exotic rhythms and
 shapes1 its ,oriental and peasant tang1
 its pungency4 ,the form is ever a thing
 of two dimensions4 ,the musical ideas  
are passed through the dye-vats of      
various timbres and tonalities1 made to 
undergo a series of interesting         
deformations1 are contrasted1           
superficially1 with other ideas after   
the possibilities of technical          

variations have been exhausted4 ,there  
is no actual development in the sense of
 volumnear increase4 ,in ,scheherazade1 
for instance1 the climaxes are purely   
voluntary1 are nothing other than the   
arbitrary thickening and distention of  
certain ideas4 ,and it is only the      
spiciness of the thematic material1 the 
nimbleness and suavity of the           
composition1 and1 chiefly1 the piquancy 
of the orchestral speech1 that saves the
 music of ,rimsky-,korsakoff from utter 
brittleness1 and gives it a certain     
limited beauty4  ,it is just this       
essential superficiality which makes the
 place of the music in the history of   
,russian art so ambiguous4              
,intentionally1 and to a certain extent1
 ,rimsky's work is autochthonous4 ,he   
was one of those composers who1 in the  
middle of the last century1 felt descend
 upon them the need of speaking their   
own tongue and gave themselves heartily 
to the labor of discovering a music     
entirely ,russian4 ,his material1 at its

 best1 approximates the idiom of the    
,russian folk-song1 or communicates     
certain qualities--an ,oriental         
sweetness1 a barbaric lassitude and     
abandon--admittedly racial4 ,his music  
is full of elements--wild and headlong  
rhythms1 exotic modes--abstracted from  
the popular and liturgical chants or    
deftly molded upon them4 ,for there was 
always within him the idea of creating  
an art1 particularly an operatic art1   
that would be as ,russian as ,wagner's1 
for instance1 is ,german4 ,the texts of 
his operas are adopted from ,russian    
history and folklore1 and he continually
 attempted to find a musical idiom with 
the accent of the old ,slavonic         
chronicles and fairy tales4 ,certain of 
his works1 particularly ,le ,coq d'or1  
are deliberately an imitation of the    
childish and fabulous inventions of the 
peasant artists4 ,and certainly none of 
the other members of the nationalist    
group associated with                   
,rimsky-,korsakoff--not ,moussorgsky1   

for all his emotional profundity2 nor   
,borodin1 for all his sumptuous         
imagination--had so firm an intellectual
 grasp of the common problem1 nor was   
technically so well equipped to solve   
it4 ,none of them1 for instance1 had as 
wide an acquaintance with the folk-song1
 the touchstone of their labors4 ,for   
,rimsky-,korsakoff was something of a   
philosophical authority on the music of 
the many peoples of the ,empire1 made   
collections of chants1 and could draw on
 this fund for his work4 ,nor did any of
 the others possess his technical       
facility4 ,moussorgsky1 for instance1   
had to discover the art of music        
painfully with each step of composition1
 and orchestrated faultily all his life1
 while ,rimsky-,korsakoff had a natural 
sense of the orchestra1 wrote treatises 
on the science of instrumentation and on
 the science of harmony1 and developed  
into something of a doctor of music4    
,indeed1 when finally there devolved    
upon him1 as general legatee of the     

nationalist school1 the task of         
correcting and editing the works of     
,borodin and ,dargomijsky and           
,moussorgsky1 he brought to his labor an
 eruditeness that bordered dangerously  
on pedantry4 ,nor was his learning only 
musical4 ,he had a great knowledge of   
the art and customs that had existed in 
,russia before the influences of western
 ,europe repressed them1 of the dances  
and rites and sun worship that survived1
 despite ,christianity1 as popular and  
rustic games4 ,and he could press them  
into service in his search for a        
national expression4 ,like the ,sultana 
in his symphonic poem1 he drew on the   
poets for their verses1 on the          
folk-songs for their words1 and         
intermingled tales and adventures one   
with another4  ,yet there is no score of
 ,rimsky-,korsakoff's1 no one of his    
fifteen operas and dozen symphonic      
works1 which has1 in all its mass1 the  
living virtue that informs a single page
 of ,boris ,godounow1 the virtue of a   

thing that satisfies the very needs of  
life and brings to a race release and   
formulation of its speech4 ,there is no 
score of his1 for all the tang and      
luxuriousness of his orchestration1 for 
all the incrustation of bright1 strange 
stones on the matter of his operas1 that
 has the deep1 glowing color of certain 
passages of ,borodin's work1 with their 
magical evocations of terrestrial ,asia 
and feudal ,muscovy1 their              
,timbres d'or des mongoles orfevreries  
,et vieil or des vieilles nations4      
,for he was in no sense as nobly human  
of stature1 as deeply aware of the life 
about him1 as ,moussorgsky4 ,nor did he 
feel within himself ,borodin's rich and 
vivid sense of the past4 ,cui was right 
when he accused ,rimsky of wanting nerve
 and passionate impulse4 ,he was1 after 
all1 temperamentally chilly4 ,the people
 are the creators1 ,glinka had told the 
young nationalist composers1 you are but
 the arrangers4 ,it was precisely the   
vital and direct contact with the source

 of all creative work that              
,rimsky-,korsakoff lacked4 ,there is a  
fault of instinct in men like him1 who  
can feel their race and their           
environment only through the conscious  
mind4 ,just what in ,rimsky's education 
produced his intellectualism1 we do not 
know4 ,certainly it was nothing         
extraordinary1 for society produces     
innumerable artists like him1 who are   
fundamentally incapable of becoming the 
instrument every creative being is1 and 
of discovering through themselves the   
consciousness of their fellows4         
,whatever its cause1 there is in such   
men a fear of the unsealing of the      
unconscious mind1 the depository of all 
actual and vital sensations1 which no   
effort of their own can overcome4 ,it is
 for that reason that they have so      
gigantic and unshakable a confidence in 
all purely conscious processes of       
creation1 particularly in the           
incorporation of a priori theories4 ,so 
it was with ,rimsky4 ,there is patent in

 all his work a vast love of erudition  
and a vast faith in its efficacy4 ,he is
 always attempting to incarnate in the  
flesh of his music law abstracted from  
classical works4 ,even ,tchaikowsky1 who
 was a good deal of an intellectualist  
himself1 and dubbed perfect1 in a       
characteristically servile letter1 every
 one of the thirty practice fugues that 
,rimsky composed in the course of a     
single month1 complained that the latter
 worshiped technique and that his work  
was ,full of contrapuntal tricks and all
 the signs of a sterile pedantry4 ,it   
was not that ,rimsky was pedantic from  
choice1 out of a wilful perversity4 ,his
 obsession with intellectual formulas   
was after all the result of a fear of   
opening the dark sluices through which  
surge the rhythms of life4  ,if         
,rimsky-,korsakoff was not absolutely   
sterile1 it was because his intellectual
 quality itself was vivacious and       
brilliant4 ,though he remained ever a   
stranger to ,russia and his fellows1 as 

he did to himself1 he became the most   
observant of travelers4 ,though as the  
foreigner he perceived only the         
superficial and picturesque elements of 
the life of the land--its ,orientalism1 
its barbaric coloring--and found his    
happiest expression in a fantasy after  
the ,thousand ,nights and a ,night1 he  
noted his impressions skilfully and     
vividly1 with an almost virtuosic sense 
of his material4 ,if he could not paint 
the spring in music1 he could at least  
embroider the score of ,sniegourochka   
delightfully with birdcalls and all     
manner of vernal fancies4 ,if he could  
not recreate the spirit of peasant art1 
he could at least1 as in ,le ,coq d'or1 
imitate it so tastefully that1 listening
 to the music1 we seem to have before us
 one of the pictures beloved by the     
,russian folk--a picture with bright and
 joyous dabs of color1 with clumsy but  
gleeful depictions of battles and       
cavalcades and festivities and          
banqueting tables loaded with fruits1   

meats and flagons4 ,it is indeed        
curious1 and not a little pathetic1 to  
observe how keen ,rimsky-,korsakoff's   
intelligence ever was4 ,the satirization
 of the demoniacal women of ,parsifal   
and ,salome in the figure and motifs of 
the ,princess of ,samarcand is          
deliciously light and witty4 ,indeed1   
not only ,le ,coq d'or1 but most of his 
work reveals his dry1 real sense of     
humor4 ,and how often does he not point 
the direction in which ,russian music   
has subsequently advanced6 ,his latter  
style1 with its mottled chromatic and   
,oriental modes1 its curious and        
bewildering intervals1 is the veritable 
link between the music of the older     
,russian group to which he1 roughly1    
belongs and that of the younger1 newer  
men1 of ,strawinsky in particular4      
,indeed1 the works of ,strawinsky reveal
 incessantly how much the master taught 
the pupil4  ,but if they reveal         
,rimsky's keenness1 they reveal his     
limitations as well4 ,they bring into   

sharpest relief the difference between  
poetic and superficial expressiveness4  
,for ,strawinsky has in many instances  
successfully handled materials which    
,rimsky not quite satisfactorily        
employed4 ,the former's early works1 in 
particular ,l',oiseau de feu1 and the   
first act of the opera ,le ,rossignol1  
related to ,rimsky's in style as they   
are1 have yet a faery and wonder and    
flittergold that the master never       
succeeded in attaining4 ,the music of   
,l',oiseau de feu is really a fantastic 
dream-bird4 ,petrouchka has a brilliance
 and vivacity and madness that makes    
,rimsky's scenes from popular life1 his 
utilizations of vulgar tunes and dances 
scarcely comparable to it4 ,nowhere in  
any of ,rimsky's reconstructions of     
ethnological dances and rites1 neither  
in ,mlada nor in ,sniegourochka1 is     
there anything at all comparable to the 
naked power manifest in ,le ,sacre du   
printemps4 ,but it is particularly in   
his science of orchestration1 the sense 

of the instruments that makes him appear
 to defer to them rather than to impose 
his will on them1 that ,strawinsky has  
achieved the thing that his teacher     
failed of achieving4 ,for ,rimsky1      
despite all his remarkable sense of the 
chemistry of timbres1 despite his fine  
intention to develop further the science
 which ,berlioz brought so far1 was     
prevented from minting a really new     
significant orchestral speech through   
the poverty of his invention4 ,his      
orchestration is full of tricks and     
mannerisms that pall4 ,one hears the    
whistling parabolas of the flutes and   
clarinets of ,scheherazade in ,mlada1 in
 ,sadko1 in a half-dozen works4 ,the    
orchestra that paints the night-sky of  
,mlada rolls dangerously like that which
 paints the sea of ,scheherazade and    
,tsar ,saltan4 ,the famous ,chanson     
indou seems to float vaguely through    
half his ,oriental evocations4 ,but the 
originality and fecundity and           
inventiveness that he lacked1           

,strawinsky to great degree possesses4  
,and so it was given to the pupil to    
enter the chamber outside of which the  
master stood all his life1 and could not
 enter1 and saw only by peering         
furtively through the chinks of the     
door4     ,rachmaninoff   ,it was in an 
interview given at the beginning of his 
recent ,american tour that ,m4 ,sergei  
,rachmaninoff styled himself a musical  
evolutionist4 ,the phrase1 doubtless    
uttered half in jest1 is scarcely nice4 
,it is one of those terms that are so   
loose that they are well-nigh           
meaningless4 ,nevertheless1 there was   
significance in ,m4 ,rachmaninoff's use 
of it4 ,for he employed it as an apology
 for his work4 ,his music is evidently  
wanting in boldness4 ,on the whole it is
 cautious and traditional4 ,even those  
who are not professionally on the side  
of the musical anarchs find it somewhat 
unventuresome1 too smooth and soft and  
elegantly elegiac1 too dull4 ,and in    
substituting for revolutionism a formula

 for musical progress less suggestive of
 violent change1 more suggestive of a   
process like the tranquil1 gradual and  
orderly unfolding of bud into blossom1  
was not ,m4 ,rachmaninoff very lightly  
and cleverly discrediting the apparently
 revolutionary work of certain of his   
fellows1 and seeking to reveal a        
hitherto unsuspected solidity in his    
own8  ,however1 it is questionable      
whether he was successful1 whether the  
implications of the phrase do quite     
manage to manoeuver his work into       
genuine importance4 ,no doubt1 music    
does not invariably reform itself       
through the process we call             
revolutionary4 ,it is a commonplace that
 there have been many composers of      
primary rank who have originated no new 
syntax1 no new system of chords and     
key-relationships4 ,it is said that ,j4 
,s4 ,bach himself did not invent a      
single harmony4 ,there have been        
composers of genius who have done little
 to enlarge the physical boundaries of  

their art1 have accepted the grammar of 
music from others1 and have rounded an  
epoch instead of initiating a new one4  
,nevertheless1 ,m4 ,rachmaninoff cannot 
quite be included in their company4     
,there is as great a difference between 
him and composers of this somewhat      
conservative type as there is between   
him and the radical sort4 ,for though   
the recomposition of music does not     
necessarily consist in the establishment
 of a new system1 and can be fairly     
complete without it1 it does consist in 
the impregnation of tone with new       
character and virtue4  ,doubtless1 ,m4  
,rachmaninoff is an accomplished and    
charming workman4 ,he is almost         
uniformly suave and dexterous4 ,the     
instances when he writes badly are not  
frequent4 ,the ,c-sharp minor ,prelude  
is1 after all1 something of a sport4 ,no
 doubt1 there are times1 as in so many  
of the passages of the new version of   
his first piano concerto1 when he seeks 
to dazzle with the opulence and clangor 

and glare of tones4 ,however1 as a rule1
 he writes politely4 ,if the second     
concerto is a trifle too soft and       
elegiac and sweet1 a little too much    
like a mournful banqueting on jam and   
honey1 it is still most deftly and      
ingratiatingly made4 ,on the whole1 even
 though his music touches us only       
superficially it rarely fails to awaken 
some gratitude for its elegance4 ,but   
there is an essential that his music    
wants4 ,it wants the imprint of a       
decided and important individuality4 ,in
 all the elaborate score of ,the ,island
 of the ,dead1 in the very one of ,m4   
,rachmaninoff's works that is generally 
deemed his best1 there are few accents  
that are either very large or very      
poignant or very noble4 ,the music lacks
 distinction1 lacks vitality4 ,the style
 is strangely soft and unrefreshing4    
,emotion is communicated1 no doubt4 ,but
 it is emotion of a second or even third
 order4 ,nor is the music of ,m4        
,rachmaninoff ever quite completely     

new-minted4 ,has it a melodic line quite
 properly its own8 ,one doubts it4 ,many
 of the melodies of ,m4 ,rachmaninoff   
have a ,mendelssohnian cast1 for all    
their ,russian sheen4 ,others are of the
 sort of sweet1 spiritless silken tune  
generally characteristic of the ,russian
 salon school4 ,nor can one discover in 
this music a distinctly original sense  
of either rhythm of harmony or          
tone-color4 ,the ,e-minor ,symphony1 for
 all its competence and smoothness1 is  
full of the color and quality and       
atmosphere of ,tchaikowsky4 ,it is      
,tchaikowsky without the hysteria1      
perhaps1 but also without the energy4   
,in all the music of ,m4 ,rachmaninoff  
there is something strangely twice-told4
 ,from it there flows the sadness       
distilled by all things that are a      
little useless4  ,there are to be found 
in every picture gallery canvases       
attributed1 not to any single painter1  
but to an atelier1 to the school of some
 great master4 ,one finds charming      

pieces among them4 ,nor are they        
invariably the work of pupils who       
painted under the direction of some     
famous man4 ,quite as often they are the
 handiwork of artists who appeared      
independent enough to their patrons and 
to themselves4 ,their names and their   
persons were familiar to those who      
ordered pictures from them4 ,it is only 
that in the course of time their names  
have come to be forgotten4 ,for there is
 in their canvases little trace of the  
substance that causes people to cherish 
an individuality1 and makes a name to be
 remembered4 ,other personalities have  
transpired through their brush-strokes1 
and have made it evident that behind the
 man who held the brush in his hand     
there was another who directed the      
strokes--the man upon whom the artist   
had modeled himself1 the personality he 
preferred to his own4 ,it is this       
reflectiveness that has caused the      
attribution of the work to ateliers4    
,and had ,m4 ,rachmaninoff instead of   

being a musician been a painter1 would  
not a like destiny await his            
compositions8 ,for do they not proceed  
from the point of departure of the      
entire brilliant school of              
piano-compositions8 ,are they not a sort
 of throwback to the salon school1 the  
school of velocity1 of effect1 of       
whatever ,rubinstein and ,liszt could   
desire8 ,are not the piano-pieces of ,m4
 ,rachmaninoff the result of a          
relationship to the instrument that is  
fast becoming outmoded8 ,there was some 
slight justification for the pompous and
 empty work of his models4 ,the         
concerti1 the often flashy and tinselly 
pianoforte compositions of ,liszt and   
,rubinstein were the immediate and      
surface result of that deeper sense of  
the instrument which arrived during the 
nineteenth century1 and intoxicated folk
 with the piano timbres1 and made them  
eager to hear its many voices in no     
matter how crude a form4 ,a whole school
 of facile virtuosi arose in response to

 the demand4 ,since then1 however1 we   
have gotten a subtler sense of the      
instrument4 ,we no longer require so    
insensitive a display4 ,and together    
with those rather gross piano-works the 
piece par excellence characteristic of  
the period1 the brilliant piano-concerto
 with its prancing instrument embedded  
in the pomp and clangor and ululation of
 the band1 has lost in favor steadily4  
,the modern men no longer write         
concerti4 ,when they introduce a        
pianoforte into the orchestra1 they     
either1 like ,brahms1 treat it as the   
premier instrument1 and write           
symphonies1 or1 like ,scriabine and     
,strawinsky1 reduce it to the common    
level4 ,but ,m4 ,rachmaninoff has not   
participated in this change of attitude4
 ,he is still content with music that   
toys with the pianoforte4 ,and he writes
 concerti of the old type4 ,he writes   
pieces full of the old astounding       
musical dislocation4 ,phrases of an     
apparent intensity and lyricism are     

negated by frivolous and tinkling       
passage-work4 ,take away the sound and  
fury signifying nothing from the third  
concerto1 and what is left8 ,there was a
 day1 perhaps1 when such work served4   
,but another has succeeded to it4 ,and  
so ,m4 ,rachmaninoff comes amongst us   
like a very charming and amiable ghost4 
,for that1 however1 let us not fail to  
be duly grateful4 ,let us not fail to   
give thanks for the fact that setting   
forever is the conception of music as an
 after-dinner cordial1 a box of assorted
 bonbons1 bric-a-brac1 a titillation1 a 
tepid bath1 a performance that amuses   
and caresses and whiles away a          
half-hour1 an enchantment for           
boarding-school misses1 an opportunity  
for virtuosi to glorify themselves4     
,one of the curious things about ,m4    
,rachmaninoff's season is the fact that 
it has not only brought him into        
prominence amongst us1 but that it has  
brought into relief other composers     
through him4 ,it has brought into relief

 the entire group of ,russian musicians 
to which he belongs4 ,it has evaluated  
the pretensions of the two conflicting  
schools of ,russian music nicely4 ,the  
school of which ,m4 ,rachmaninoff is    
perhaps the chief living representative1
 and which was represented at various   
times by ,rubinstein and ,tchaikowsky   
and ,arensky1 is usually dubbed         
universal by its partisans4 ,it is      
supposed to have its traditions in      
general ,european music1 and to be a    
continuation of the art of the          
romanticists1 in particular of the art  
of ,chopin and ,schumann4 ,but for the  
men of the opposing faction1 the men who
 accepted only the ,russian folk-song as
 their touchstone1 and sought in their  
work to find a modern equivalent for it1
 the music of this school was alien and 
sophisticated1 as sophisticated as the  
pseudo-,french culture of the ,petrograd
 drawing-rooms4 ,for them1 the music of 
,tchaikowsky1 even1 was the result of   
the manipulation of themes of ,slavic   

color according to formulas abstracted  
from classical music4 ,without regard1  
however1 for any question of musical    
theory2 apart from all question of the  
value for us of the science of the      
classical masters1 one finds oneself of 
this opinion4 ,for the music brought    
forward by the visit of the composer who
 is at present in this country as envoy 
of his school1 convinces us that the    
work of the men of his party1 elegant   
and brilliant as it often is1 is the    
work of men essentially unresponsive to 
the appeal of their compatriots4 ,for   
them1 as it is for every ,russian       
musician1 ,russia was without their     
windows1 appealing dumbly for expression
 of its wild1 ungoverned energy1 its    
misery1 its rich and childish laughter1 
its deep1 great ,christianity4 ,it      
wanted a music that would have the      
accents of its rude1 large-hearted      
speech1 and that would1 like its speech1
 express its essential reactions1 its   
consciousness4 ,and some men there were1

 ,moussorgsky and ,borodin1 who were    
quick enough of imagination to become   
the instruments of their folk and       
respond to its need4 ,and so1 when we   
would hear ,russian speech1 we go to    
them as we go to ,dostoievsky and to    
,tolstoy4 ,it is in ,boris and ,prince  
,igor as richly as it is in any work4   
,but the men of the other school did not
 hear the appeal4 ,they sat in their    
luxurious and ,parisian houses behind   
closed windows4     ,scriabine   ,there 
are solemn and gorgeous pages in the    
symphonic poems of ,scriabine4 ,and yet1
 despite their effulgence1 their        
manifold splendors1 their hieratic      
gestures1 these works are not his most  
individual and significant4 ,save only  
the lambent ,prometheus1 they each      
reveal to some degree the influence of  
,wagner4 ,the ,idyl of the ,second      
,symphony1 for instance1 is dangerously 
close to the ,waldweben in ,siegfried1  
although1 to be sure1 ,scriabine's      
forest is rather more the perfumed and  

rose-lit woodland1 ,wagner's the fresh  
primeval wilderness4 ,the ,poeme de     
l'extase1 with its oceanic tides of     
voluptuously entangled bodies1 is a sort
 of ,tannhaeuser ,bacchanale modernized1
 enlarged1 and intensely sharpened4     
,for1 in spite of the fact that at      
moments he handled it with rare         
sympathy1 the orchestra was not his     
proper medium4 ,the piano was his       
instrument4 ,it is only in composition  
for that medium that he expressed       
indelibly his exquisite1 luminously     
poetic1 almost disquieting temper1 and  
definitely recorded himself4  ,there    
have been few composers more finely     
conscious of the piano4 ,there have been
 few who have more fully plumbed its    
resources1 few who have held it in      
greater reverence1 few who have         
hearkened more solicitously to its voice
 that is so different from the voices of
 other instruments4 ,of all piano music1
 only that of ,debussy and ,ravel seems 
as thoroughly steeped in the essential  

color of the medium1 seems to lie as    
completely in the black and white keys1 
part of them1 not imposed on them4 ,and 
,scriabine1 the barbarian and           
romanticist1 is even more free of the   
hues of the keyboard than they1 the     
,latins1 the classicists4 ,his works    
make one keenly aware of the rhythmical1
 the formalistic limitations of         
,chopin's piano pieces1 of the          
steeliness of much of ,brahms'1 of the  
shallow brilliancy1 the theatricality1  
of ,liszt's4 ,they even make us feel at 
moments as though in them had been      
realized the definitive pianistic style1
 that the hour of transition to the new 
keyboard of quarter tones was nigh4 ,for
 ,scriabine appears to have wakened in  
the piano all its latent animality4     
,under his touch it loses its old       
mechanical being1 cries and chants like 
a bird1 becomes at instants cat1        
serpent1 flower1 woman4 ,it is as if the
 currents of the man's life had set with
 mysterious strength toward the         

instrument1 till it became for him an   
eternally fresh and marvelous           
experience1 till between him and the    
inanimate thing there came to be an     
interchange of life4 ,there is the      
rarest of science in his style1         
especially in that of his last period1  
when his own individuality broke so     
marvelously into flower4 ,he wrote for  
it as one of two persons who had shared 
life together might address the other1  
well aware with what complexity and     
profundity a smile1 a gesture1 a brief  
phrase1 would reverberate4 ,no one has  
caressed it more lightly1 more tenderly1
 more voluptuously4 ,no one has made of 
the piano-trill1 for instance1 more     
luminous and quivering a thing4 ,and    
because he was so sensitive to his      
medium1 the medium lured from out him   
his creative strength4  ,he grew to his 
high poetic stature from an elegant and 
aristocratic craftsman of the school of 
,chopin4 ,more than that of any modern  
master1 his art is rooted in the great  

romantic tradition as it comes to us    
through ,chopin1 ,wagner1 ,liszt and    
,strauss2 and develops almost logically 
out of it4 ,and in the compositions of  
his first period1 the period that ends1 
roughly1 with the piano concerto1 the   
allegiance is marked1 the discipleship  
undeniable4 ,the influence of ,chopin is
 ubiquitous4 ,scriabine writes mazurkas1
 preludes1 etudes1 nocturnes and waltzes
 in his master's cool1 polite1          
fastidious general manner4 ,these       
pieces1 too1 might seem to have been    
written in order to be played in noble  
salons lit by massive candelabra1 to    
countesses with bare shoulders4 ,the    
twenty-four preludes ,opus #aa1 for     
instance1 are full of ,chopinesque      
turns1 of ,chopinesque morbidezza1 of   
,chopinesque melodies4 ,the harmonic    
scheme rarely transgresses the limits   
which ,chopin set himself4 ,the pieces  
are obviously the work of one who in the
 course of concert-playing has come to  
discover the finesses of the ,pole's    

workmanship4 ,and yet1 ,cesar ,cui's    
caustic description of the preludes as  
,bits filched from ,chopin's trousseau1 
is eminently unjust4 ,for even in those 
days1 when ,scriabine was a member of   
the ,russian salon school1 there were   
attractive original elements in his     
compositions4 ,there is real poetry and 
freshness in these soft-colored pieces4 
,the treatment of the instrument is     
bold1 and1 at moments1 more satisfactory
 than ,chopin's4 ,scriabine1 for        
instance1 gives the left hand a greater 
independence and significance than does 
as a rule his master4 ,nor does he      
indulge in the repetitions and          
recapitulations that mar so many of the 
latter's works4 ,his sense of form is   
already alert4 ,and through the silken  
melodic line1 the sweet1 rich harmonies1
 there already makes itself felt        
something that is to ,chopin's spirit as
 ,russian iron is to ,polish silver4    
,it is perhaps only in the compositions 
subsequent to ,opus #ej that ,scriabine 

emerges in the fullness of his stature4 
,for it is only in them that he finally 
abandoned the major-minor system to     
which he had hitherto adhered1 and      
substituted for it the other that       
permitted his exquisite delicious sense 
of pianistic color1 his infinitely      
delicate gift of melody1 his gorgeous1  
far-spreading harmonic feeling1 free    
play4 ,and it is only in these later    
pieces that he achieved the perfection  
of form1 particularly of the sonata     
form1 of which the ,ninth ,sonata is the
 magistral example1 and which makes his 
craft comparable to ,bach's in its      
mastery of a medium1 and enables one to 
mention the ,chromatic ,fantasy and     
,fugue and the ,ninth ,sonata justly in 
a single breath4 ,and yet1 the          
compositions of the middle period1 the  
one that follows immediately the early1 
immature1 ,chopinesque period1 are      
scarcely less rich and refined1 scarcely
 less important4 ,no doubt the influence
 of ,scriabine's masters1 though        

considerably on the wane1 is still      
evident4 ,the ,poeme satanique refines  
on ,liszt4 ,the ,third ,sonata1 despite 
its lambent andante1 is patently the    
work of one who has studied his ,liszt  
and loves his ,chopin4 ,and yet1 these  
works are characteristically male and   
raging and proud4 ,and in all the works 
of this period there appears something  
new and magnificent that has scarcely   
before informed piano music4 ,there is a
 truly ,russian depth and vehemence and 
largeness in this now languid1 now      
mystical1 now leonine music1 that lifts 
it entirely out of the company of the   
works of the ,petrograd salon school    
into that of those composers who made   
orchestra and opera speak in the        
national tongue4 ,the rhythms are       
joyously1 barbarically1 at times almost 
frenetically1 free4 ,they are finely    
various and depart almost entirely from 
the one-two1 one-two1 the one-two-three1
 one-two-three that makes monotonous so 
much of ,chopin4 ,at moments1 the tones 

of the piano march with some of the now 
festive1 now majestic1 now solemn1      
movement of the orchestral processionals
 of a ,moussorgsky and a ,borodin4 ,and 
one has the sense of having encountered 
only in sumptuous ,eastern stuffs1 in   
silken carpets and golden mosaics1 or in
 the orchestral faery of some of the    
,russian composers1 in the orchestral   
chemistry of1 say1 a ,rimsky-,korsakoff1
 such brimming1 delicious colors4       
,nevertheless1 the voluptuousness and   
vehemence are held in fastidious        
restraint4 ,scriabine is always the fine
 gentleman1 intolerant1 for all the     
splendor of his style1 of any excess1 of
 any exaggeration1 of any breach of     
taste4 ,and throughout the work1 there  
is evidence of the steady1 restless     
bourgeoning of the exquisite1           
disquieting1 almost ,chinese delicacy   
which in the work of the last period    
attains its marvelous efflorescence4    
,these final works1 these last sonatas  
and poems and preludes of ,scriabine are

 but the essentialization of the        
personal traits adumbrated by the       
compositions of the earlier periods4 ,it
 is as if in adopting the system based  
on the mystic chord that persisted in   
his imagination1 the chord built up in  
fourths from the tones c1 d1 e1 f-sharp1
 a1 b1 he had managed to rid himself of 
all the influence of the classic        
masters1 to give every note that he     
employs an intense1 poignant1 new value1
 and through that revolution to achieve 
form comparable to the most eminent4    
,his fantasy ranges over the keyboard   
with complete freedom2 he creates new   
rhythms1 new combinations of tones that 
cause the hands of the performer to     
become possessed of a new and curious   
intelligence1 to make significant       
gestures1 and to move with a delightful 
life4 ,and these latter compositions are
 entirely structure1 entirely bone4     
,there is a complete economy4 ,there is 
not a note in the ,ninth ,sonata1 for   
instance1 that is not necessary1 and    

does not seem to have great             
significance4 ,here everything is       
speech4 ,the work actually develops out 
of the quavering first few bars4 ,the   
vast resonant peroration only gathers   
into a single1 furious1 tragic          
pronouncement the material deployed in  
the body of the work4 ,scarcely ever has
 the binary form1 the combat between two
 contradictory themes1 been more        
essentialized4 ,scarcely ever has the   
prelude-form been reduced to simpler    
terms than in the preludes of           
,scriabine4 ,these works are indeed     
radical4 ,for they give us a fresh      
glimpse of the archetype of their forms4
  ,and yet1 how strange1 how infinitely 
complex and novel a thing they are4     
,there is indeed little music that      
throws into sharper relief the miracle  
of communication through material form4 
,a few sounds1 broken and elusive1 are  
struck out of an instrument1 die away   
again4 ,and yet1 through those          
vibrations1 life for an instant is made 

incandescent4 ,it is as though much that
 has hitherto been shy and lonely       
experience has undergone a sudden change
 into something clarified and universal4
 ,it is as though performer and auditor 
have themselves been transformed into   
more sensitive instruments1 and prepared
 to participate more graciously in the  
common experience4 ,it is as though in  
each one the ability to feel beauty has 
been quickened1 that each for an instant
 becomes the man who has never before   
seen the spring come over the land1 and 
who1 glancing upward1 for the first time
 beholds an apple-bough flowering       
against the blue4 ,and ,scriabine fills 
one with the need of making wonderful   
and winged gestures4 ,it is as if for   
instants he transforms one into strange 
and radiant and ecstatic beings1 into   
new and wonderful things4  ,for this    
music is full of the wizardry of perhaps
 the most exquisite sensibility that has
 for a long while disclosed itself in   
music4 ,perhaps only in the ,far ,east1 

perhaps only among the ,chinese1 have   
more delicious and dainty and ecstatic  
tempers uttered themselves in music4    
,beside this man1 with his music that is
 like clustering flowers breaking       
suddenly from the cool and shadowy      
earth1 or like the beating of luminous  
wings in the infinite azure1 or like the
 whispers of one sinking from the world 
in mortal illness1 ,debussy1 even1 seems
 cool1 silvered by the fine temperance  
of ,france4 ,for ,scriabine must have   
suffered an almost inordinate           
subjugation to the manifestations of    
beauty1 must have been consumed with a  
passion for communicating his burningly 
poignant adventures4 ,there are moments 
when he seems scarcely able to speak1 so
 intense1 so enrapturing1 is his        
voluptuous sensation4 ,indeed1 the      
sensuality is at times so intensely     
communicated that it almost excites pain
 as well as pleasure4 ,if there is any  
music that seems to hover on the        
borderland between ecstasy and          

suffering1 it is this4 ,one shrinks from
 it as from some too poignant           
revelation4 ,one cannot breathe for long
 in this ether4 ,small wonder that      
,scriabine sought all his life to flee  
into states of transport1 to invent a   
religion of ecstasy4 ,for one weighed   
with the terrible burden of so vibrant a
 sensibility1 there could be no other   
means of existence4  ,and the gesture of
 flight is present throughout his music4
 ,throughout it1 one hears the beating  
of wings4 ,sometimes1 it is the light   
flutter of glistening ephemeridae that  
wheel and skim delightfully through the 
limpid azure4 ,sometimes it is the      
passionate fanning of wings preparing   
themselves for swift sharp ascents4     
,sometimes1 it is the drooping of       
pinions that sink brokenly4 ,for all    
these pieces are ,poemes ailes1 flights 
toward some island of the blest4 ,they  
are all aspirations vers la flamme1     
toward the spiritual fire of joy1 toward
 the paradise of divine pleasure and    

divine activity4 ,the ,fifth ,sonata is 
like the marshaling of forces1 the      
mighty spring of some radiant flyer     
launching himself into the empyrean4    
,white gleaming pinions wheel and hover 
in the godlike close of the ,poeme      
divine4 ,impotent caged wings poise     
themselves for flight in the mystic     
,seventh ,sonata1 beat for an instant1  
are ominously still4 ,sometimes1 as in  
the ,eighth ,sonata1 ,scriabine is like 
a gorgeous tropical bird preening       
himself in the quivering river light4   
,sometimes he is a seraphic creature    
outspreading his mighty pinions to greet
 some tremendous spirit sunrise4 ,and in
 those last1 bleeding1 agonizing        
preludes1 there is still the breath of  
flight4 ,but this time it is another    
motion4 ,is it the wind of death's      
imperishable wing8 ,is it the blind     
hovering of the spirit that has quit its
 earthly habitation in the moment of    
dissolution8 ,one cannot tell4  ,and it 
was the flight of ecstasy that he sought

 to achieve in his symphonic poems4 ,he 
had made for himself a curious personal 
religion1 a bizarre mixture of theosophy
 and neoplatonism and ,bergsonian       
philosophy1 a faith that prescribed     
transport2 and these works were in part 
conceived as rituals4 ,they were planned
 as ceremonies of elevation and         
deification by ecstasy1 in which        
performers and auditors engaged as      
active and passive celebrants4 ,together
 they were to ascend from plane to plane
 of delight1 experiencing divine        
struggle and divine bliss and divine    
creativity4 ,the music was to call the  
soul through the gate of the sense of   
hearing1 to lead it1 slowly1            
hieratically1 up through circle after   
circle of heaven1 until the mystical    
gongs boomed and the mass emotion       
reached the ,father of ,souls1 and was  
become ,god4 ,with ,jules ,romains1     
,scriabine would have cried to his      
audiences3        ,tu vas mourir tantot1
 sous le poids de tes heures3      ,les 

hommes1 delies1 glisseront par les      
portes1      ,les ongles de la nuit     
t'arracheront la chair4                 
,qu'importe6                  ,tu es    
mienne avant que tu sois morte2         
,les corps qui sont ici1 la ville peut  
les prendre2      ,ils garderont au     
front comme une croix de cendre      ,le
 vestige du dieu que tu es maintenant6  
,in ,prometheus he introduces a clavier 
a lumiere into his orchestra1 vainly    
hoping to induce the ecstasy through    
color as well as sound1 and after his   
death there was found among his papers a
 sketch for a ,mysteria in which the    
music was to be conjoined not only with 
light1 but with dance and perfume as    
well4 ,it is a pity it was not granted  
him to achieve this work4 ,the          
theosophic programs of his orchestral   
works are1 after all1 innocuous4 ,much  
of the half-mystical1 half-sensual      
coloration of his orchestra is due them4
 ,and had the score of the ,mysteria    
been as much an improvement over that of

 ,prometheus as ,prometheus is over the 
other symphonic works1 ,scriabine might 
indeed have proved himself as eminent a 
writer for the orchestra as for the     
piano4  ,it is indeed likely that       
to-morrow the world will find in his    
piano-works its new ,chopin1 that       
,scriabine will shortly be given the    
place once occupied by the other4 ,for  
not only is he in many ways the artistic
 superior of the man who once was his   
master4 ,he is1 as well1 one of the     
beings in which the age that is slowly  
expiring about us became conscious and  
articulate4 ,russia bore him1 it is     
true1 elemented him1 gave him her       
childlike tenderness and barbaric       
richness and mystic light4 ,but in      
developing out of the ,russian universal
 school into perfect liberty and        
individuality1 he became indeed a       
universal expression1 the first really  
produced by the group4 ,he became1 like 
the intensely national ,strawinsky1 one 
of those men into whom an age enters4   

,he is symbolic of his time4 ,he seems  
to have felt his age's life in its      
intensest form4 ,the hour that created  
him was an hour in which the power of   
feeling had waxed inordinately1 almost  
to the point of hampering action1 when  
an ,asiatic delicacy had begun to be    
manifest in ,western character1 when the
 fusion of ,europe and ,asia was        
commencing to make itself felt4 ,and in 
,scriabine1 that new intensity of       
sensation attained something near to    
heroic supernatural stature4 ,what was  
beautiful and sick in his age entered   
into his art4 ,through it1 we learn1 not
 a little1 how we feel4  ,his music was 
a thing created in the flesh of a man1  
out of his agony4 ,eine ,entwicklung ist
 ein ,schicksal1 ,thomas ,mann once     
wrote4 ,for ,scriabine1 the awakening of
 that aerial palpitant sensibility was  
such4 ,it devoured him like a fire4 ,one
 shudders as well as marvels at the     
destiny of one who came to feel life as 
it is felt in those last quivering      

poems--,guirlandes1 ,flammes sombres1 he
 entitles them1--or in the mysterious   
,tenth ,sonata1 that glows with the     
feverish light of the dream1 or in those
 last haunted preludes4 ,existence for  
the man who could write such music1 in  
which unearthly rapture contrasts with  
unearthly suffering1 must have been a   
sort of exquisite martyrdom4 ,the man   
must have been indeed a nerve exposed4  
,and1 like a fragile thing suddenly     
ignited1 he flared up1 fiercely1        
magnificently1 and went out4            
,strawinsky   ,the new steel organs of  
man have begotten their music in ,le    
,sacre du printemps4 ,for with          
,strawinsky1 the rhythms of machinery   
enter musical art4 ,with this his       
magistral work a new chapter of music   
commences1 the spiritualization of the  
new body of man is manifest4 ,through   
,debussy1 music had liquified1 become   
opalescent and impalpable and fluent4   
,it had become1 because of his sense1   
his generation's sense1 of the infirmity

 of things1 a sort of symbol of the     
eternal flux1 the eternal momentariness4
 ,it had come to body forth all that    
merges and changes and disappears1 to   
mirror the incessant departures and     
evanescences of life1 to shape itself   
upon the infinitely subtle play of      
light1 the restless1 heaving1 foaming   
surface of the sea1 the impalpable racks
 of perfume1 upon gusts of wind and     
fading sounds1 upon all the ephemeral   
wonder of the world4 ,but through       
,strawinsky1 there has come to be a     
music stylistically well-nigh the       
reverse of that of the impressionists4  
,through him1 music has become again    
cubical1 lapidary1 massive1 mechanistic4
 ,scintillation is gone out of it4 ,the 
delicate1 sinuous melodic line1 the     
glamorous sheeny harmonies1 are gone out
 of it4 ,the elegance of ,debussy1 the  
golden sensuality1 the quiet1 classic   
touch1 are flown4 ,instead1 there are   
come to be great1 weighty1 metallic     
masses1 molten piles and sheets of steel

 and iron1 shining adamantine bulks4    
,contours are become grim1 severe1      
angular4 ,melodies are sharp1 rigid1    
asymmetrical4 ,chords are uncouth1      
square clusters of notes1 stout and     
solid as the pillars that support roofs1
 heavy as the thuds of triphammers4     
,above all1 there is rhythm1 rhythm     
rectangular and sheer and emphatic1     
rhythm that lunges and beats and        
reiterates and dances with all the      
steely perfect tirelessness of the      
machine1 shoots out and draws back1     
shoots upward and shoots down1 with the 
inhuman motion of titanic arms of steel4
 ,indeed1 the change is as radical1 as  
complete1 as though in the midst of     
moonlit noble gardens a giant machine   
had arisen swiftly from the ground and  
inundated the night with electrical     
glare and set its metal thews and organs
 and joints relentlessly whirring1      
relentlessly functioning4  ,and yet1 the
 two styles1 ,debussy's and             
,strawinsky's1 are related4 ,indeed1    

they are complementary4 ,they are the   
reactions to the same stimulus of two   
fundamentally different types of mind4  
,no doubt1 between the two men there    
exist differences besides those of their
 general fashions of thinking4 ,the     
temper of ,debussy was profoundly       
sensuous and aristocratic and contained4
 ,that of ,strawinsky is nervous and    
ironic and violent4 ,the one man issued 
from an unbroken tradition1 was produced
 by generations and generations of      
gentlemen4 ,the other is one of those   
beings who seem to have been called into
 existence solely by the modern way of  
life1 by express trains and ocean       
greyhounds1 by the shrinkage of         
continents and the vibration of the     
twentieth-century world4 ,but the chief 
difference1 the difference that made ,le
 ,sacre du printemps almost antithetical
 to ,pelleas et ,melisande1 is          
essentially the divergence between two  
cardinal manners of apprehending life4  
,debussy1 on the one hand1 seems to be  

of the sort of men in whom the center of
 conscience is1 figuratively1 sunken2   
one of those who have within themselves 
some immobility that makes the people   
and the things about them appear        
fleeting and unreal4 ,for such1 the     
world is a far distant thing1 lying out 
on the rims of consciousness1 delicate  
and impermanent as sunset hues or the   
lights and gestures of the dream4 ,the  
music of ,debussy is the magistral and  
classic picture of this distant and     
glamorous procession1 this illusory and 
fantastical and transparent show1 this  
thing that changes from moment to moment
 and is never twice the same1 and flows 
away from us so quickly4 ,but           
,strawinsky1 on the other hand1 is in   
the very midst of the thing so distant  
from the other man4 ,for him1 the       
material world is very real1 sharp1     
immediate4 ,he loves it1 enjoys it1 is  
excited by its many forms4 ,he is       
vividly responsive to its traffic4      
,things make an immediate and biting    

impression on him1 stimulate in him     
pleasure and pain4 ,he feels their edge 
and knows it hard1 feels their weight   
and knows it heavy1 feels their motion  
in all its violence4 ,there is in       
,strawinsky an almost frenetic delight  
in the processes that go on about him4  
,he goes through the crowded            
thoroughfares1 through cluttered places1
 through factories1 hotels1 wharves1    
sits in railway trains1 and the glare   
and tumult and pulsation1 the engines   
and locomotives and cranes1 the whole   
mad phantasmagoria of the modern city1  
evoke images in him1 inflame him to     
reproduce them in all their weight and  
gianthood and mass1 their blackness and 
luridness and power4 ,the most vulgar   
things and events excite him4 ,the      
traffic1 the restlessness of crowds1 the
 noise of vehicles1 of the clatter of   
horses on the asphalt1 of human cries   
and calls sounding above the            
street-bass1 a couple of organ grinders 
trying to outplay each other1 a brass   

band coming down the avenue1 the thunder
 of a railway train hurling itself over 
leagues of steel1 the sirens of         
steamboats and locomotives1 the         
overtones of factory whistles1 the roar 
of cities and harbors1 become music to  
him4 ,in one of his early orchestral    
sketches1 he imitates the buzzing of a  
hive of bees4 ,one of his miniatures for
 string-quartet bangs with the beat of  
the wooden shoes of peasants dancing to 
the snarling tones of a bagpipe4        
,another reproduces the droning of the  
priest in a little chapel1 recreates the
 scene almost cruelly4 ,and the score of
 ,petruchka is alive marvelously with   
the rank1 garish life of a cheap fair4  
,its bubbling flutes1 seething          
instrumental caldron1 concertina-rhythms
 and bright1 gaudy colors conjure up the
 movement of the crowds that surge about
 the amusement booths1 paint to the life
 the little flying flags1 the gestures  
of the showmen1 the bright balloons1 the
 shooting-galleries1 the gipsy tents1   

the crudely stained canvas walls1 the   
groups of coachmen and servant girls and
 children in their holiday finery4 ,at  
moments one can even smell the sausages 
frying4  ,for ,strawinsky is one of     
those composers1 found scattered all    
along the pathway of his art1 who       
augment the expressiveness of music     
through direct imitation of nature4 ,his
 imagination seems to be free1 bound in 
nowise by what other men have adjudged  
music to be1 and by what their practice 
has made it seem4 ,he comes to his art  
without prejudice or preconception of   
any kind1 it appears4 ,he plays with its
 elements as capriciously as the child  
plays with paper and crayons4 ,he amuses
 himself with each instrument of the    
band careless of its customary uses4    
,there are times when ,strawinsky comes 
into the solemn conclave of musicians   
like a gamin with trumpet and drum4 ,he 
disports himself with the infinitely    
dignified string-quartet1 makes it do   
light and acrobatic things4 ,there is   

one interlude of ,petruchka that is     
written for snare-drums alone4 ,his work
 is incrusted with cheap waltzes and    
barrel-organ tunes4 ,it is gamy and racy
 in style2 full of musical slang4 ,he   
makes the orchestra imitate the         
quavering of an old hurdy-gurdy4 ,of    
late he has written a ballet for eight  
clowns4 ,and he is reported to have     
said1 ,i should like to bring it about  
that music be performed in street-cars1 
while people get out and get in4 ,for he
 finds his greatest enemy in the        
concert-room1 that rut that limits the  
play of the imagination of audiences1   
that fortress in which all of the       
intentions of the men of the past have  
established themselves1 and from which  
they dominate the musical present4 ,the 
concert-room has succeeded in making    
music a drug1 a sedative1 has created a 
musical attitude in folk that is false1 
and robbed musical art of its power4    
,for ,strawinsky music is either an     
infection1 the communication of a       

lyrical impulse1 or nothing at all4 ,and
 so he would have it performed in       
ordinary places of congregation1 at     
fairs1 in taverns1 music-halls1         
street-cars1 if you will1 in order to   
enable it to function freely once again4
 ,his art is pointed to quicken1 to     
infect1 to begin an action that the     
listener must complete within himself4  
,it is a sort of musical shorthand4 ,on 
paper1 it has a fragmentary look4 ,it is
 as though ,strawinsky had sought to    
reduce the elements of music to their   
sharpest and simplest terms1 had hoped  
that the development would be made by   
the audience4 ,he seems to feel that if 
he cannot achieve his end1 the          
communication of his lyrical impulse1   
with a single strong motif1 a single    
strong movement of tones1 a single      
rhythmic start1 he cannot achieve it at 
all4 ,so we find him writing songs1 the 
three ,japanese lyrics1 for instance1   
that are epigrammatic in their brevity2 
a piece for string-quartet that is      

played in fifty seconds2 a three-act    
opera that can be performed in thirty   
minutes4  ,but it is no experiment in   
form that he is making4 ,he seems to    
bring into music some of the power of   
the ,chinese artists who1 in the        
painting of a twig1 or of a pair of     
blossoms1 represent the entire          
springtide4 ,he has written some of the 
freshest1 most rippling1 delicate music4
 ,scarcely a living man has written more
 freshly or humorously4 ,april1 the     
flowering branches1 the snowing petals1 
the clouds high in the blue1 are really 
in the shrilling little orchestra of the
 ,japanese lyrics1 in the green1        
gurgling flutes and watery violins4     
,none of the innumerable ,spring        
,symphonies1 ,spring ,overtures1 ,spring
 ,songs1 are really more vernal1 more   
soaked in the gentle sunshine of spring1
 are more really the seed-time1 than the
 six naive piping measures of melody    
that introduce the figure of the ,sacre 
entitled ,rondes printanieres4 ,no      

doubt1 in venturing to write music so   
bold and original in esthetic1          
,strawinsky was encouraged by the       
example of another musician1 another    
,russian composer4 ,moussorgsky1 before 
him1 had trusted in his own innocence   
instead of in the wisdom of the fathers 
of the musical church1 had dared obey   
the promptings of his own blood and set 
down chords1 melodies1 rhythms1 just as 
they sang in his skull1 though all the  
world rise up to damn him4 ,but the     
penning of music as jagged1 cubical1    
barbarous as the prelude to the third   
act of ,strawinsky's little opera1 ,the 
,nightingale1 or as naked1 uncouth1     
rectangular1 rocklike1 polyharmonic1    
headlong1 as some of that of ,le ,sacre 
du printemps required no less perfect a 
conviction1 no less great a             
self-reliance4 ,the music of ,strawinsky
 is the expression of an innocence      
comparable indeed to that of his great  
predecessor4 ,le ,sacre du printemps is 
what its composer termed it4 ,it is an  

act of faith4  ,and so1 free of         
preconceptions1 ,strawinsky was able to 
let nature move him to imitation4 ,just 
as ,picasso brings twentieth-century    
nature into his still lives1 so the     
young composer brings it into his music4
 ,it is the rhythm of machinery that has
 set ,strawinsky the artist free4 ,all  
his life he has been conscious of these 
steel men4 ,mechanical things have      
influenced his art from the beginning4  
,it is as though machinery had revealed 
him to himself1 as though sight of the  
functioning of these metal organisms1   
themselves but the extension of human   
bones and muscles and organs1 had       
awakened into play the engine that is   
his proper body4 ,for1 as ,james        
,oppenheim has put it in the            
introduction to ,the ,book of ,self1    
,man's body is just as large as his     
tools1 for a tool is merely an extension
 of muscle and bone2 a wheel is a       
swifter foot1 a derrick a greater hand4 
,consequently1 in the early part of the 

century1 the race found itself with a   
new gigantic body4 ,it is as though the 
infection of the dancing1 lunging1      
pumping piston-rods1 walking beams1     
drills1 has awakened out of ,strawinsky 
a response and given him his power to   
beat out rhythm4 ,the machine has always
 fascinated him4 ,one of his first      
original compositions1 written while he 
was yet a pupil of ,rimsky-,korsakoff's1
 imitates fireworks1 distinguishes what 
is human in their activity1 in the      
popping1 hissing1 exploding1 in the     
hysterical weeping of the fiery         
fountains1 the proud exhibitions and    
sudden collapses of the pin-wheels4 ,it 
is the machine1 enemy of man1 that is   
pictured by ,the ,nightingale1 that     
curious work of which one act dates from
 #aiji1 and two from #aiad4 ,strawinsky 
had the libretto formed on the tale of  
,hans ,christian ,andersen which        
recounts the adventures of the little   
brown bird that sings so beautifully    
that the ,emperor of ,china bids it to  

his court4 ,strawinsky's nightingale1   
too1 comes to the palace and sings1 and 
all the ladies of the entourage fill    
their mouths with water in the hopes of 
better imitating the warbling of the    
songster4 ,but then there enter envoys  
bearing the gift of the ,emperor of     
,japan1 a mechanical nightingale that   
amuses the court with its clockwork     
antics4 ,once more the emperor commands 
the woodland bird to sing4 ,but it is   
flown4 ,in his rage the emperor banishes
 it from his realm4 ,then ,death comes  
and sits at the emperor's bedside1 and  
steals from him crown and scepter1 till1
 of a sudden1 the ,nightingale returns1 
and sings1 and makes ,death relinquish  
his spoils4 ,and the courtiers who come 
into the imperial bedchamber expecting  
to find the monarch dead1 find him well 
and glad in the morning sunshine4  ,and 
in his two major works1 ,petruchka and  
,le ,sacre du printemps1 ,strawinsky    
makes the machine represent his own     
person4 ,for the actions of machinery   

woke first in the human organism1 and   
,strawinsky intensifies consciousness of
 the body by referring these motions to 
their origin4 ,petruchka is the         
man-machine seen from without1 seen     
unsympathetically1 in its comic aspect4 
,countless poets before ,strawinsky have
 attempted to portray the puppet-like   
activities of the human being1 and      
,petruchka is but one of the recent of  
innumerable stage-shows that expose the 
automaton in the human soul4 ,but the   
puppet-show of ,strawinsky is singular  
because of its musical accompaniment4   
,for more than even the mimes on the    
stage1 the orchestra is full of the     
spirit of the automaton4 ,the angular1  
wooden gestures of the dolls1 their     
smudged faces1 their entrails of        
sawdust1 are in the music ten times as  
intensely as they are upon the stage4   
,in the score of ,petruchka music itself
 has become a little mannikin in        
parti-colored clothes1 at which         
,strawinsky gazes and laughs as a child 

laughs at a funny doll1 and makes dance 
and tosses in the air1 and sends        
sprawling4 ,the score is full of the    
revolutions of wheels1 of delicate      
clockwork movements1 of screws and      
turbines4 ,beneath the music one hears  
always the regular1 insistent1 maniacal 
breathing of a concertina4 ,and what in 
it is not purely mechanistic            
nevertheless completes the picture of   
the world as it appears to one who has  
seen the man-machine in all its comedy4 
,the stage pictures1 the trumpery little
 fair1 the tinsel and pathetic finery of
 the crowds1 the dancing of the human   
ephemeridae a moment before the snow    
begins to fall1 are stained marvelously 
deeply by the music4 ,the score has the 
colors of crudely dyed1 faded bunting4  
,it has indeed a servant girl grace1 a  
coachman ardor1 a barrel-organ1 tintype1
 popcorn1 fortune-teller flavor4  ,le   
,sacre1 on the other hand1 is the       
man-machine viewed not from without1 and
 unsympathetically1 but from within4 ,so

 far1 it is ,strawinsky's masterwork1   
the completest and purest expression of 
his genius4 ,for the elements that make 
for the originality of style of         
,petruchka and the other of             
,strawinsky's representative            
compositions1 in this work attain a     
signal largeness and powerfulness4 ,the 
rhythmic element1 already fresh and free
 in the scherzo of ,l',oiseau de feu and
 throughout ,petruchka1 attains virile  
and magistral might in it1 surges and   
thunders with giant vigor4 ,the         
instrumentation1 magical with all the   
magic of the ,russian masters in the    
earlier ballets1 here is informed by the
 sharpness1 hardness1 nakedness which is
 originally ,strawinsky's4 ,besides1 the
 latter work has the thing hitherto     
lacking somewhat in the young man's     
art--grandeur and severity and ironness 
of language4 ,in it he stands completely
 new1 completely in possession of his   
powers4 ,and in it the machine operates4
 ,ostensibly1 the action of the ballet  

is laid in prehistoric times4           
,ostensibly1 it figures the ritual with 
which a tribe of stone-age ,russians    
consecrated the spring4 ,something of   
the sort was necessary1 for an actual   
representation of machines1 a ballet of 
machines1 would not have been as grimly 
significant as the angular1 uncouth     
gestures of men1 would by no means have 
as nakedly revealed the human engine4   
,here1 in the choreography1 every fluid1
 supple1 curving motion is suppressed4  
,everything is angular1 cubical1        
rectilinear4 ,the music pounds with the 
rhythm of engines1 whirls and spirals   
like screws and fly-wheels1 grinds and  
shrieks like laboring metal4 ,the       
orchestra is transmuted to steel4 ,each 
movement of the ballet correlates the   
rhythms of machinery with the human     
rhythms which they prolong and repeat4  
,a dozen mills pulsate at once4 ,steam  
escapes2 exhausts breathe heavily4 ,the 
weird orchestral introduction to the    
second scene has all the oppressive     

silence of machines immobile at night4  
,and in the hurtling finale the music   
and the dancers create figure that is at
 once the piston and a sexual action4   
,for ,strawinsky has stripped away from 
man all that with which specialization1 
differentiation1 have covered him1 and  
revealed him again1 in a sort of cruel  
white light1 a few functioning organs4  
,he has shown him a machine to which    
power is applied1 and which labors in   
blind obedience precisely like the      
microscopic animal that eats and        
parturates and dies4 ,the spring comes2 
and life replenishes itself2 and man1   
like seed and germ1 obeys the promptings
 of the blind power that created him1   
and accomplishes his predestined course 
and takes in energy and pours it out    
again4 ,but1 for a moment1 in ,le ,sacre
 du printemps1 we feel the motor forces1
 watch the naked wheels and levers and  
arms at work1 see the dynamo itself4    
,the ballet was completed in #aiac1 the 
year ,strawinsky was thirty-one years   

old4 ,it may be that the work will be   
succeeded by others even more original1 
more powerful4 ,or it may be that       
,strawinsky has already written his     
masterpiece4 ,the works that he has     
composed during the war are not1 it     
appears1 strictly new developments4     
,whatever enlargement of the field of   
the string quartet the three little     
pieces which the ,flonzaleys played here
 in #aiae created1 there is no doubt    
that it was nothing at all to compare   
with the innovation in orchestral music 
created by the great ballet4 ,and1      
according to rumor1 the newest of       
,strawinsky's work1 the music-hall      
ballet for eight clowns1 and the work   
for the orchestra1 ballet and chorus    
entitled ,les ,noces villageoises1 are  
by no means as bold in style as ,le     
,sacre1 and resemble ,petruchka more    
than the later ballet4 ,but1 whatever   
,strawinsky's future accomplishment1    
there can be no doubt that with this one
 work1 if not also with ,petruchka1 he  

has secured a place among the true      
musicians4 ,it is doubtful whether any  
living composer has opened new musical  
land more widely than he4 ,for he has   
not only minted music anew4 ,he has     
reached a point ahead of us that the    
world would have reached without him4   
,that alone shows him the genius4 ,he   
has brought into music something for    
which we had long been waiting1 and     
which we knew must one day arrive4 ,to  
us1 at this moment1 ,le ,sacre du       
printemps appears one of those          
compositions that mark off the musical  
miles4     ,mahler   ,almost            
simultaneously with the rise of ,russian
 music and the new birth of ,french     
music1 that of ,germany has             
deteriorated4 ,the great line of        
composers which descended from ,bach and
 ,haendel for two centuries has wavered 
and diminished visibly during the last  
three decades4 ,the proud tradition     
seems to have reached a temporary halt  
in ,wagner and ,bruckner and ,brahms4   

,it may be that modern ,germany is a    
difficult terrain1 that the violent     
change in conditions of life1 the       
furious acceleration1 has created1 for  
the time being1 a soil unusually        
inimical to the disclosure of perfect   
works of art4 ,the blight on the entire 
new generation of composers would seem  
to point to some such common cause4     
,there is1 no doubt1 a curious          
coincidence in the fact that in each of 
the four chief ,german musicians of the 
recent period there should be manifest  
in some degree a failure of artistic    
instinct4 ,the coarsening of the        
craftsmanship1 the spiritual bankruptcy1
 of the later ,strauss1 the grotesque   
pedantry of ,reger1 the intellectualism 
with which the art of ,schoenberg has   
always been tainted1 and by which it has
 been corrupted of late1 the banality of
 ,mahler1 dovetail suspiciously4 ,and   
yet1 it is probable that the cause lies 
otherwhere1 and that the conjunction of 
these four men is accidental4 ,there    

have been1 after all1 few environments  
really friendly to the artist2 most of  
the masters have had to recover from a  
something rotten in the state of        
,denmark1 and many of them have         
surmounted conditions worse than those  
of modern ,bismarckian ,germany4 ,the   
cause of the unsatisfactoriness of much 
of the music of ,strauss and            
,schoenberg1 ,reger and ,mahler1 is     
doubtless to be found in the innate     
weakness of the men themselves rather   
more than in the unhealthiness of the   
atmosphere in which they passed their   
lives4  ,still1 the case of ,mahler     
makes one hesitate a while before       
passing judgment4 ,whereas it is        
probable that ,richard ,strauss would   
have deteriorated no matter how friendly
 the age in which he lived1 that ,reger 
would have been just as much a pedant   
had he been born in ,paris instead of in
 ,bavaria1 that ,schoenberg would have  
developed into his mathematical         
frigidity wherever he resided1 it is    

possible that ,mahler's fate might have 
been different had he not been born in  
the ,austria of the #ahfj's4 ,for if    
,mahler's music is pre-eminently a      
reflection of ,beethoven's1 if he never 
spoke in authentic accents1 if out of   
his vast dreams of a great modern       
popular symphonic art1 out of his       
honesty1 his sincerity1 his industry1   
his undeniably noble and magnificent    
traits1 there resulted only those       
unhappy boring colossi that are his nine
 symphonies1 it is indubitably1 to a    
great extent1 the consequence of the    
fact that he1 the ,jew1 was born in a   
society that made ,judaism1 ,jewish     
descent and ,jewish traits1 a curse to  
those that inherited them4 ,the destiny 
that had made him ,jew decreed that1 did
 he speak out fully1 he would have to   
employ an idiom that would recall the   
harsh accents of the ,hebrew language   
quite as much as that of any tongue     
spoken by the peoples of ,europe4 ,it   
decreed that1 whatever the history of   

the art he practised1 whatever the      
character of the age in which he lived1 
he could not impress himself upon his   
medium without impregnating it with the 
traits he inherited from his ancestors4 
,it decreed that in speaking he would   
have to suffuse musical art with the    
qualities and characteristics engraved  
in the stock by the history and         
vicissitudes of his race1 by its        
age-long sojourn in the deserts of      
,arabia and on the barren hills of      
,syria1 by the constraint of its        
religion and folkways1 by its titanic   
and terrible struggle for survival      
against the fierce peoples of ,asia1 by 
the marvelous vitality and              
self-consciousness and exclusiveness    
that carried it whole across lands and  
times1 out of the eternal ,egypt through
 the eternal ,red ,sea4 ,but it was just
 the racial attributes1 the racial      
gesture and accent1 that a man in       
,mahler's position found inordinately   
difficult to register4 ,for ,austrian   

society put a great price on his        
suppression of them4 ,it permitted him  
to participate in its activities only on
 the condition that he did not remind it
 continually of his alienhood1 of his   
racial consciousness4 ,it permitted him 
the sense of equality1 of fraternity1 of
 citizenship1 only on the condition that
 he should seek to suppress within      
himself all awareness of his descent and
 character and peculiarities1 and       
attempt to identify himself with its    
members1 and try to feel just as they   
felt and speak just as they spoke4  ,for
 if ,austro-,german society had admitted
 the ,jews to civil rights1 it had made 
them feel as never before the old hatred
 and malediction and exclusion4 ,the    
walls of the ghettos had1 after all1    
prevented the ,jew from feeling the full
 force of the disability under which he 
labored1 insomuch as they had repressed 
in him all desire to mingle in the life 
of the country in which he found        
himself4 ,but in exciting his           

gregariousness1 in appearing to allow   
him to participate in the public life1  
in both inviting and repelling him1 a   
community like that of ,austria1 still  
so near the ,middle ,ages1 made him feel
 in all its terrible might the handicap 
of race1 the mad hatred and contempt    
with which it punished his descent4 ,and
 it is but natural that amongst those   
very ,jews best fitted to take part in  
affairs1 and consequently most sensitive
 to the ill-will that barred them from  
power and success1 there should be      
aroused1 despite all conscious efforts  
neither to surrender nor to shrink1 an  
unconscious desire to escape the        
consequences of the thing that stamped  
them in the eyes of the general as      
individuals of an inferior sort2 to     
inhibit any spiritual gesture that might
 arouse hostility2 and to ward off any  
subjective sense of personal inferiority
 by convincing themselves and their     
fellows that they possessed the traits  
generally esteemed4  ,so a ruinous      

conflict was introduced into the soul of
 ,gustav ,mahler4 ,in the place of the  
united self1 there came to exist within 
him two men4 ,for while one part of him 
demanded the free complete expression   
necessary to the artist1 another sought 
to block it for fear that in the free   
flow the hated racial traits would      
appear4 ,for ,mahler would have been the
 first to have been repelled by the     
sound of his own harsh1 haughty1        
guttural1 abrupt ,hebrew inflection4 ,he
 would have been the first to turn in   
contempt from his own gestures4 ,there  
was in him the frenetic unconscious     
desire to rid himself of the thing he   
had come to believe inferior4 ,and      
rather than express it1 rather than     
speak in his proper idiom1 he made1     
unaware to himself1 perhaps1 the choice 
of speaking through the voices of other 
men1 of the great ,german composers2 of 
imitating them instead of developing his
 own personality2 of accepting sterility
 and banality and impotence rather than 

achieving a power of speech4  ,and so   
his work became the doubtful and bastard
 thing it is1 a thing of lofty and      
original intentions unrealized1 of large
 powers misapplied1 of great and        
respectable creative efforts that did   
not succeed in bringing into being      
anything really new1 really whole4 ,of  
what ,mahler might have achieved had he 
not been the divided personality1 his   
symphonies1 even as they stand1 leave no
 doubt4 ,if ,mahler is not a great man1 
he is at least the silhouette of one4   
,the need of expression that drove him  
to composition was indubitably mighty4  
,the passion with which he addressed    
himself to his labor despite all        
discouragement and lack of success1 the 
loftiness and nobleness of the task     
which he set for himself1 the splendor  
of the intentions1 reveal how fierce a  
fire burnt in the man4 ,he was not one  
of those who come to music to form      
little jewels4 ,on the contrary1 in     
gesture he was ever one of the eminently

 faithful4 ,he came to music to create a
 great1 simple1 popular symphonic art   
for these latter days1 a thing of broad 
lines and simple contours and spiritual 
grandeur4 ,he sought to express         
sincerely his deep1 real sorrow1 his    
choking homesickness for the something  
which childhood seems to possess and    
maturity to be without2 to dream himself
 into childlike1 paradisaic joys and    
wake himself to faith and action once   
again4 ,he attempted to create a musical
 language that would be gigantic and    
crude and powerful as ,nature herself2  
tried to imbue the orchestra with the   
,dionysiac might of sun and winds and   
teeming clay2 wished to be able to say  
of his symphonies1 ,hier roerht die     
,natur4 ,to a friend who visited him at 
his country house in ,toblach and       
commented upon the mountains surrounding
 the spot1 ,mahler jestingly replied1   
,ich hab' sie alle fortcomponiert4 ,and 
he had large and dramatic programs for  
his symphonies4 ,the ,first should have 

been a sort of ,song of ,youth1 a       
farewell to the thing that is alive in  
us before we meet the world1 and is     
shattered in the collision4 ,the ,second
 should have been the ,song of ,death1  
the music of the knowledge of death4    
,the ,third was conceived as a ,song of 
the ,great ,pan--his gaya scienza1      
,mahler would have liked to call it4 ,in
 the ,fourth he sought to open the heart
 of a child2 in the ,sixth1 to voice his
 desolation and loneliness and          
hopelessness2 in the ,eighth1 to perform
 a great religious ceremony2 in ,das    
,lied von der ,erde to write his        
,tempest1 his epilogue4  ,and in general
 plan1 his symphonies are original      
enough4 ,mahler was completely          
emancipated of all the old prejudices   
concerning the nature of the symphony4  
,he conceived the form anew4 ,mir heiszt
 ,symphonic1 he is reported to have     
said1 mit allen mitteln der vorhaendenen
 ,technik mir eine ,welt aufbauen4 ,he  
conceived the form particularly with    

reference to the being1 the exigencies1 
the frame1 of the modern concert hall4  
,he realized that the shortness of the  
classic symphonies handicaps them       
severely in the present day4 ,for modern
 audiences require an hour and a half or
 two hours of musical entertainment4 ,in
 order to fill the concert programs1 the
 symphony has to be associated with     
other works4 ,in consequence it loses in
 effectiveness4 ,so1 taking hints from  
the ,ninth of ,beethoven and the ,romeo 
of ,berlioz1 ,mahler boldly planned     
symphonies that could stand alone and   
fill an evening4 ,beginning with his    
,second1 he increased the number of     
movements1 dropping the inevitable suite
 of allegro1 andante1 scherzo1 rondo2   
prescribed intermissions of a certain   
length2 and added choruses and vocal    
solos to give the necessary relief to   
the long orchestral passages4 ,in the   
,second1 he placed between an allegretto
 and a scherzo a soprano setting of one 
of the lyrics out of ,des ,knaben       

,wunderhorn1 and concluded the work with
 a choral setting of one ode of         
,klopstock's4 ,in the ,third ,symphony1 
he preceded the orchestral finale with  
an alto solo composed on ,das ,trunkene 
,lied of ,nietzsche1 and with a chorus  
employing the words of another of the   
naive poems in the anthology of ,arnim  
and ,brentano4 ,the ,eighth is simply a 
choral setting of the ,veni1 ,creator   
and the closing scene of ,goethe's      
,faust4 ,and in the ,fifth ,symphony1   
one of those in which he called for no  
vocal performers1 he nevertheless       
managed to vary and expand the          
conventional suite by preceding the     
first allegro with a march1 and         
separating and relieving the gargantuan 
scherzo and rondo with an adagietto for 
strings alone4  ,his material he        
organized fairly independently of the   
old rules4 ,he was one of those who seem
 to have learned from ,liszt that the   
content of a piece must condition its   
form4 ,mahler's symphonies resemble     

symphonic poems4 ,they are essentially  
dramatic in character4 ,although he     
strove continually for classic form1 his
 works nevertheless reveal their        
programmatic origin4 ,he was at heart   
one of the literary composers4 ,but he  
was a better craftsman than most of them
 are4 ,he was a finer workman than      
,strauss1 for instance4 ,his scores are 
much more bony4 ,they are free of the   
mass of insignificant detail that       
clutters so many of ,strauss's4 ,he     
could asseverate with some justice1 ,i  
have never written an insincere note4   
,and although his orchestration is not  
revolutionary1 and is often commonplace 
enough1 he nevertheless oftentimes      
employed an instrumental palette        
distinctly his own4 ,he utilized instead
 of the violin the trumpet as premier   
instrument of the band2 achieved all    
manner of brilliant effects with it4 ,he
 increased the variety and usefulness of
 the instruments of percussion1 forming 
out of them a new family of instruments 

to balance the families of the strings1 
brass1 and wood-wind4 ,in the score of  
the ,second ,symphony he calls for six  
timpani1 bass and snare-drums1 a high   
and a low tam-tam1 cymbals1 a triangle1 
glockenspiel1 three deep-toned bells1 in
 the chief orchestra2 besides a         
bass-drum1 triangle and cymbals in the  
supplementary4 ,in the ,eighth          
,symphony1 the instruments of percussion
 form a little band by themselves4 ,and 
he utilized the common instruments in   
original fashion1 made the harps imitate
 bells1 the wood-wind blow fanfares1 the
 horns hold organ-points2 combined      
piccolos with bassoons and contrabasses1
 wrote unisons for eight horns1 let the 
trombones run scales----  ,but there is 
not one of poor ,mahler's nine          
symphonies1 honest and dignified as some
 of them are1 that exists as fresh1     
new-minted1 vivid music4 ,his genius    
never took musical flesh4 ,his scores   
are lamentably weak1 often arid and     
banal4 ,there is surely not another case

 in musical history in which indubitable
 genius1 a mighty need of expression1 a 
distinctly personal manner of sensation1
 a respectable musical science1 a great 
and idealistic effort1 achieved results 
so unsatisfactory4 ,one wonders whether 
,mahler the composer was not1 after all1
 the greatest failure in music4 ,if     
there is any music that is eminently    
,kapellmeistermusik1 eminently a        
routine1 reflective1 dusty sort of      
musical art1 it is certainly ,mahler's  
five latter symphonies4 ,the musical    
,desert of ,sahara is surely to be found
 in these unhappy compositions4 ,they   
are monsters of ennui1 and by their very
 pretentiousness1 their gargantuan      
dimensions1 throw into cruelest relief  
,mahler's essential sterility4 ,they    
seek to be colossal and achieve vacuity 
chiefly4 ,they remind one of nothing so 
much as the huge1 ugly1 misshapen giants
 that stand before the old ,palace in   
,florence1 work of the obscure sculptor 
who thought to outdo ,michelangelo by   

sheer bulk4 ,and the first four of his  
symphonies1 though less utterly banal   
and pedantic1 are still amorphous and   
fundamentally second-hand4 ,for ,mahler 
never spoke in his own idiom4 ,his style
 is a mongrel affair4 ,the thematic     
material is almost entirely derivative  
and imitative1 of an unequaled          
mediocrity and depressingness4 ,one     
wonders whether indeed there has ever   
been a respectable composer who has     
utilized ideas as platitudinous as the  
ones employed in the first movement of  
the ,first ,symphony1 or the brassy1    
pompous theme that opens the ,eighth1 or
 the tune to which in the latter work   
the mystic stanza beginning             
,alles vergaengliche      ,ist nur ein  
,gleichnisz   is intoned4 ,one wonders  
whether any has used themes more        
saccharine and characterless than those 
of the last movement of the ,third      
,symphony1 or the adagio of the ,fourth4
 ,once in a while1 no doubt1 a vague    
personal tone1 a flavor of the ,bohemian

 countryside where ,mahler was born1    
does manage to distinguish itself from  
the great inchoate masses of his        
symphonies4 ,the strolling musician     
plays on his clarinet2 peasants sit at  
tables covered with red cloths and drink
 beer2 ,hans and ,gretel dance2 evening 
falls2 the brooks run silvered2 from the
 barracks resound the ,austrian bugle   
calls2 old soldier songs1 that may have 
been sung in the ,seven ,years' ,war1   
arise2 the watchman makes his sleepy    
rounds4  ,but1 for the most part1 it is 
precisely the personal tone that his    
music completely lacks4 ,for he was     
never himself4 ,he was everybody and    
nobody4 ,he was forever seeking to be   
one composer or another1 save only not  
,gustav ,mahler4 ,the fatal assimilative
 power of the ,jew is revealed nowhere  
in music more sheerly than in the style 
of ,mahler4 ,romain ,rolland discovers  
alone in the ,fifth ,symphony           
reminiscences of ,beethoven and         
,mendelssohn1 ,bach and ,chabrier4      

,schubert flits persistently through    
,mahler's scores1 particularly through  
that of the ,third ,symphony1 whose     
introductory theme for eight horns      
recalls almost pointedly the opening of 
the ,c-major of ,schubert1 without1     
however1 in the least recapturing its   
effectiveness4 ,bruckner1 ,mahler's     
teacher1 is also incessantly reflected  
by these works1 by the choral themes    
which ,mahler is so fond of embodying in
 his compositions1 and1 more            
particularly1 by the length and         
involutions of so many of the themes of 
his later symphonies4 ,for1 like        
,bruckner's1 they appear chosen with an 
eye to their serviceability for         
contrapuntal deformation and dissection4
 ,wagner1 ,haydn1 ,schumann and ,brahms1
 the sentimental ,wienerwald ,brahms1   
also pass incessantly through these     
scores4 ,but it was ,beethoven whom     
,mahler sought chiefly to emulate4 ,over
 his symphonies 7and it is a curious    
fact that ,mahler1 like the three men   

that he most frequently imitated1       
,schubert1 ,bruckner1 and ,beethoven1   
wrote just nine symphonies71 over his   
entire work1 his songs as well as his   
orchestral pieces1 there lies the shadow
 of the ,master of ,bonn4 ,mahler was   
undoubtedly ,beethoven's most faithful  
disciple4 ,all his life he was seeking  
to write the ,tenth ,symphony1 the      
symphony that ,beethoven died before    
composing4 ,he was continually          
attempting to approximate the other's   
grand1 pathetic tone1 his broad and     
self-righteous manner4 ,his music is    
full of but slightly disguised          
quotations4 ,the trumpet-theme that     
ushers in ,mahler's ,fifth ,symphony1   
for instance1 appears the result of an  
attempt to cross the theme of the       
funeral march of the ,eroica ,symphony  
with the famous four raps of            
,beethoven's ,fifth4 ,in the first      
movement of the ,second ,symphony1 just 
before the appearance on the oboe of the
 scarcely disguised ,sleep motif from   

,die ,walkuere1 a theme almost directly 
lifted out of ,beethoven's violin       
concerto is announced on the 'cellos and
 horns4 ,and the andante of the same    
symphony derives from both the          
allegretto of ,beethoven's ,eighth and  
the andante of his ,pastoral ,symphony2 
might1 indeed1 figure as a sort of      
,szene am ,bach through which there flow
 the yellowish tides of the ,danube4    
,beethoven is recalled by some of       
,mahler's triumphant finales1           
particularly by those of the ,fifth and 
,seventh ,symphonies1 and by many of    
,mahler's adagio passages4 ,es sucht der
 ,bruder seinen ,bruder1 oh1 how often  
and at what length through ,mahler's    
symphonies1 and with what persistency on
 the tenor trumpet6 ,and how often in   
them does not the ,german family man    
take his children walking in the woods  
of a ,sunday afternoon and bid them     
worship their ,creator for having       
implanted the ,love of ,virtue in the   
,human ,heart6  ,just as it was         

inevitable that ,mahler1 instead of     
developing his own artistic             
individuality1 should seek all his life 
to identify himself with certain other  
composers1 so1 too1 it was inevitable   
that it should be ,beethoven whom he    
would most sedulously emulate4 ,for not 
only was ,beethoven the great classic   
presence of the ,german concert hall1   
and deemed1 in the words of ,lanier1 the
 dear living lord of tone1 the sole     
hymner of the whole of life4 ,he was    
also1 of all the masters1 the one       
spiritually most akin to ,mahler4 ,for  
,beethoven was also one of those who    
wish to endow their art with moral      
grandeur1 give it power to rouse the    
noblest human traits1 to make it        
communicate ethical and philosophical   
conceptions4 ,he1 too1 came to his art  
with a magnanimous hope of invigorating 
and consoling and redeeming his         
brothers1 of healing the wounds of life 
and binding all men in the bonds of     
fraternity4 ,torn between desire of     

self-expression1 and fear of            
self-revelation1 ,mahler found the      
solution of his conflict in this        
particular piece of self-identification4
  ,and had ,mahler been able really to  
be himself alone1 to develop his own    
individuality1 he would no doubt have   
been the thing he most desired to be1   
and given the world a new ,beethoven4   
,but1 as imitator1 he is far from being 
,beethoven6 ,whatever ,beethoven's      
limitations 7and they were many1 for all
 that the worshiping crowd may say71 he 
nevertheless had in extraordinary degree
 two things which ,mahler eminently     
lacked--inventive genius and a giant    
peasant strength4 ,he was able to cope  
vigorously with the gigantic programs he
 set for himself4 ,at moments1 no doubt1
 as in the ,c-minor ,symphony and so    
many of his piano-sonatas1 one is       
repelled by a certain indefinable       
pompousness and self-righteousness and  
exasperated by the obviousness and      
dullness and heaviness of his art4 ,the 

finale of the ,ninth ,symphony with its 
blare and crash1 its chorus screaming on
 high ,c1 its ,turkish ,march with      
cymbals and bass-drum1 is not entirely  
inspired1 most folk will agree4 ,and    
yet1 for all his shortcomings1 the      
wonders of ,beethoven are innumerable4  
,there are the many quartets with their 
masterly invention and composition1 the 
,first and ,sixth ,symphonies with their
 immortal youth and freshness1 their    
hearty strength and simplicity1 the     
deeply beautiful passages and movements 
to be found in nearly every one of his  
works4 ,there is all the wonderful      
solidity that ,mahler1 for instance1    
never achieved4 ,for in poor ,mahler's  
work we feel only the intention1 rarely 
the achievement4 ,we feel him agonizedly
 straining1 pushing and laboring1 trying
 to manufacture his banal thematic      
material into music by the application  
of all the little contrapuntal formulas4
 ,we find him relying finally upon      
physical apparatus1 upon sheer brute    

force4 ,his symphonies abound in        
senseless repetitions1 in all sorts of  
eye-music4 ,and in the ,eighth          
,symphony1 the apotheosis of his        
reliance on the physical1 he calls for a
 chorus of a thousand men1 women and    
children1 and at the end1 ,i believe1   
the descent of the ,holy ,ghost4 ,but   
the ultimate effect is exactly the      
reverse of what ,mahler planned4 ,the   
very size of the apparatus throws into  
crudest relief his weariness and        
uncreativeness4 ,for a moment1 a work   
like the ,eighth ,symphony stuns the    
auditor with its sheer physical bulk4   
,after all1 one does not hear a thousand
 voices singing together every day1 and 
the brass and the percussion are very   
brilliant4 ,soon1 nevertheless1 there   
insinuates itself the realization that  
there is in this work neither the       
all-creating spirit the composer so     
magniloquently invokes1 nor the heaven  
he strives so ardently to attain4 ,they 
are in the music of a score of other    

composers4 ,for these men had lived4    
,and it was to real life that ,mahler   
never attained4  ,if his music expresses
 anything at all1 it expresses just the 
characteristics that ,mahler was most   
anxious to have it conceal4 ,life is the
 greatest of practical jokers1 and      
,mahler1 in seeking to escape his racial
 traits1 ended by representing nothing  
so much as the ,jew4 ,for if there is   
anything visible behind the music of    
,mahler1 it is the ,jew as ,wagner1 say1
 describes him in ,das ,judentum in der 
,musik1 the ,jew who through the        
superficial assimilation of the traits  
of the people among whom he is condemned
 to live1 and through the suppression of
 his own nature1 becomes sterile4 ,it is
 the ,jew consumed by malaise and       
homesickness1 by impotent yearning for  
the terrain which will permit him free  
expression1 and which he conceives as an
 otherwheres1 or as a dream-,palestine4 
,it is the ,jew unable to feel faith or 
joy or content because he is unable to  

live out his own life4 ,it is the ,jew  
consumed by bitterness because he is    
perpetually untrue to himself4 ,it is   
the ,jew afraid to die because he has   
never really lived himself out4 ,it is  
the ,jew as he is when he wants most to 
cease being a ,jew4 ,mahler could have  
seemed no more the ,jew had he expressed
 himself in all his ,hebraic fervor     
instead of singing about ,saint ,peter  
in ,heaven and seeking to reconcile     
,rhabanus ,maurus and ,goethe in a      
higher synthesis4 ,only1 it would have  
been good music instead of a nondescript
 and mongrel thing that he composed4    
,all that he really attained by         
hampering himself was sterility4  ,and1 
in the end1 we are forced to conclude   
that it was not solely the environment1 
however much that favored it1 that      
condemned ,mahler to sterility4 ,did we 
have no example of a ,jewish musician   
attaining creativity through the frank  
expression of his ,semitic              
characteristics1 we might presume that  

no choice existed for ,mahler1 and that 
it is inevitable that the ,jew1 whenever
 he essays the grand style1 becomes just
 what ,wagner called him in his         
brilliant and brutal pamphlet1 a        
pretender4 ,but1 fortunately1 such an   
example does exist4 ,geneva1 la ville   
,protestante1 that saw unclose the art  
of ,ernest ,bloch1 was1 after all1 not  
much more eager to welcome a ,jewish    
renaissance than was the ,vienna of     
,gustav ,mahler4 ,but some inner might  
that the elder man lacked gave the young
 ,genevese composer the courage to speak
 out1 and to attain salvation4 ,it was1 
after all1 a sort of intelligence1 a    
sense of reality1 a real overwhelming   
spiritual strength that ,mahler lacked4 
,for all his immense capacities1 he was 
a weak man4 ,he permitted his           
environment to ruin him4     ,reger     
,the copies of most of ,max ,reger's    
compositions are ornamented with a cover
 design representing ,beethoven's       
death-mask wreathed with laurel4 ,it was

 in all sincerity that his publishers   
placed that decoration there4 ,for there
 was a moment when ,reger excited high  
hopes4 ,at the time when he appeared1   
the cause of absolute music seemed lost4
 ,musical modernity and the programmatic
 form had come to seem inseparable4 ,the
 old classical forms were being         
supplanted by those of ,wagner1 ,liszt  
and ,strauss4 ,not that there was a     
paucity of bespectacled doctors of music
 who felt themselves called to compose  
classical works4 ,but the content of    
their work was invariably formal4       
,reger1 however1 seemed able to effect a
 union between the modern spirit and the
 forms employed by the masters of the   
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries4   
,he1 the troubled1 nervous1 modern man1 
wrote with fluency fugues and double    
fugues1 chaconnes and passacaglie1      
concerti grossi and variations4 ,he     
seemed to have mastered the secrets of  
the old composers1 to be continuing     
their work1 developing their thought and

 style4 ,he excelled in the control of  
what appeared to be the technicalities  
of composition4 ,had he not1 in his     
,contributions to the ,theory of        
,harmony1 proposed one hundred examples 
of cadences modulating from the common  
chord of ,c-major through every possible
 key and transpository sequence8 ,had he
 not written two books of canons        
displaying the most amazing technical   
ingenuities2 found it simple1 as in his 
,sinfonietta1 to keep five or six       
strands of counterpoint going8 ,and so1 
believing that he was about to do for   
the music of the post-,wagnerian period 
what ,brahms had done for that of the   
romantic period1 the musical            
conservatives and traditionalists       
rallied to him4 ,he was acclaimed by a  
large public lineal successor of the    
three great ,b's of music4 ,quite in the
 manner that they had once opposed      
,brahms to the composer of ,parsifal1   
the partisans of musical absolutism     
elevated ,reger as a sort of anti-pope  

to ,richard ,strauss4 ,whole numbers of 
musical reviews were devoted to the     
study and discussion of his art in all  
its ramifications4 ,reger seemed on the 
verge of gaining a place among the      
immortals4 ,and his publishers placed on
 the covers of his compositions the     
design that symbolized the great things 
they thought the man achieving1 and the 
high heavens for which they believed him
 bound4  ,the success was momentary     
only4 ,long before he died1 the world   
had found in ,max ,reger its musical    
bete noire4 ,closer acquaintance with   
his art had not ingratiated him with his
 public4 ,indeed1 concert-audiences had 
become bored to the point of            
exasperation with his classicizing      
compositions4 ,to most folk1 it appeared
 as though the man saw no other end in  
composition than the attainment of the  
opus-number ,one ,thousand4 ,and        
although his works are rife with the    
sort of technical problems and solutions
 which those initiated into musical     

science are supposed to relish1 few     
musicians found them really attractive4 
,reger made various attempts to regain  
the favor he had lost4 ,they were       
unavailing4 ,even when he turned his    
back on the absolutists and wrote       
programmatic music1 romantic suites that
 begin with ,debussy-like low flutes and
 end with trumpet blasts that recall the
 sunrise music of ,also ,sprach         
,zarathustra1 ballet suites that seek to
 rival the ,carnaval of ,schumann and   
the waltzes in ,der ,rosenkavalier1     
,boecklin suites that pretend to        
translate into tone some of the ,swiss  
painter's canvases1 he only intensified 
the general ill-will4 ,people who knew  
him whisper that he realized his        
failure1 and in consequence took to     
emptying the vats of beer that finally  
drowned him4 ,and on the occasion of his
 death1 valediction went no further than
 frigidly applauding his creditable work
 for the organ1 his erudition and       
productivity that almost rival those of 

the eighteenth-century composers4 ,the  
final attempt to interest the public in 
his work1 made during the succeeding    
season1 brought but few people to repent
 of their former indifference4 ,a       
revival of interest is scarcely to be   
expected4  ,for it was not a ,brahms the
 world had gotten again4 ,indeed1 it was
 a personality of just the sort that    
,brahms was not4 ,the resemblance was of
 the most superficial4 ,both men went to
 school to ,bach and the polyphonic     
masters4 ,both were traditionalists4    
,there the kinship ends4 ,for the one   
was a poet1 a sturdily living1 rich and 
powerful person4 ,the other was         
essentially a harsh and ugly being1     
eminently wanting the divine flame4 ,for
 ,brahms1 erudition was only a means to 
his end1 a fortification of his personal
 mode of expression4 ,he saw that the   
weaknesses of many of the romantic      
composers1 his kin1 of ,schumann his    
spiritual father in particular1 were due
 their want of organizing power1 their  

helplessness in the larger forms4 ,and  
eager to achieve large1 solid1 resisting
 form in his own work1 he went to the   
great masters of musical science1 to    
,beethoven and ,haydn and in particular 
to ,bach1 to learn of them1 that he     
might do for his day something of what  
they had done for theirs4 ,and he was   
able to assimilate vast quantities of   
his learning1 and make it part of his   
flesh and bone4 ,at times1 no doubt1 one
 is painfully aware of his erudition1   
painfully aware that he is applying     
principles learned from ,beethoven and  
,bach1 manipulating his music out of no 
inner necessity4 ,at times1 his music   
does smell of the lamp4 ,and yet1 how   
completely those juiceless moments are  
outbalanced by the mass of his living1  
fragrant1 robust song6 ,with what       
rareness the pedant in ,brahms emerges6 
,behind this music there is almost      
always visible the great1 grave1        
passionate1 resigned creature that was  
,brahms1 the man who sought with all his

 might to hold himself firm and erect   
and unyielding before the hideous       
onslaughts of life1 the man who lived   
without hope of fulfilment1 loved       
without hope of consummation1 and yet   
knew that it was enough fulfilment1     
enough consummation to have loved1 to   
have been touched with a radiant dream2 
the man who prayed only that his heart  
might not wither1 and that he might     
never cease to long and dream and feel  
the hurt and solace of beauty and have  
the power to sing4 ,and in his music    
there is almost always the consolation  
of the great forests1 the healing of the
 trees and silences1 the cooling hands  
of the earth1 the everlasting yea-saying
 to love and beauty1 the manly          
resignation1 the leave-taking from      
dreams and life4 ,all this music says1  
,song is enough4  ,but no such goodly   
presence glimmers through the music of  
,max ,reger4 ,no sturdy bardic spirit   
vibrates in it4 ,this ,reger is a       
sarcastic1 churlish fellow1 bitter and  

pedantic and rude4 ,he is a sort of     
musical ,cyclops1 a strong1 ugly        
creature bulging with knotty and        
unshapely muscles1 an ogre of           
composition4 ,he has little delicacy1   
little finesse of spirit4 ,in listening 
to these works with their clumsy blocks 
of tone1 their eternal sunless          
complaining1 their lack of humor where  
they would be humorous1 their lack of   
passion where they would be profound1   
their sardonic and monotonous bourdon1  
one is perforce reminded of the         
photograph of ,reger which his          
publishers place on the cover of their  
catalogue of his works1 the photograph  
that shows something that is like a     
swollen1 myopic beetle with thick lips  
and sullen expression crouching on an   
organ-bench4 ,there is something        
repulsive as well as pedantic in this   
art4 ,the poetry1 the nobility1 the     
moderation and cleanness of line of     
,brahms is absent4 ,instead1 there is a 
sort of brutal coldness1 the coldness of

 the born pedant1 a prevalence of bad   
humor1 a poverty of invention and       
organizing power that conceals itself   
under an elaborate and complex and      
erudite surface4 ,the strong1 calm1     
classic beauty of ,brahms is wanting4   
,for all its air of subtlety and        
severity and profundity1 its learned and
 classicizing manner1 the music of      
,reger is really superficial4 ,the man  
only seldom achieves form4 ,generally1  
for all the complex and convulsive      
activity of his music1 nothing really   
progresses1 develops1 happens in it4    
,above all1 the stylistic severity of   
,brahms in ,reger has become a confusion
 of styles2 an absence of style4 ,the   
classic has become the baroque4  ,reger 
is one of the men who develop muscles   
that hamper all grace and freedom of    
activity4 ,one cannot help feeling that 
he went to the classic masters for their
 formulas in order to make of           
composition chiefly a mental exercise1  
that he accepted so many rules and      

manners and turns in order to free      
himself of the necessity of making free 
and full and spontaneous movements4     
,with ,reger1 creation becomes routine4 
,his works are stereotyped2 stale       
terribly quickly4 ,there are moments    
when one wonders whether he understood  
at all what creation is4 ,for certainly1
 three-quarters of his compositions seem
 written out of no inner necessity1     
bring no liberation in their train4     
,they are like mathematical problems and
 solutions1 sheer brain-spun and        
unlyrical works4 ,one is ever conscious 
in ,reger that he is solving            
contrapuntal problems in order to       
astonish the vulgar herd of the         
professors4 ,reger certainly knew the   
art of talking with an astonishing show 
of logic1 and yet saying nothing4       
,perhaps he talked continuously in order
 not to have to reflect4 ,and for all   
his erudition1 he understood his masters
 intellectually only4 ,he felt himself  
called upon to continue the work of the 

three great ,b's1 and yet never         
understood the grand spirit that        
animated their art4 ,strauss1 with his  
fine conduct of instruments through the 
score of ,salome1 is nearer the spirit  
of ,bach than ,reger with all his fugues
 and double fugues ever got4  ,no doubt1
 ,reger loved the mathematical solidity 
and balance of the older music1 and     
therefore sought to assimilate it4 ,but 
he did more than just learn of it1 as   
,brahms had done4 ,he sought to rival   
the great men of the past on their own  
ground1 to do what they did better than 
they had done it1 to be able to say1    
,see1 ,i can do the trick1 too6 ,so we  
find him writing counterpoint for the   
sake of the learnedness and presumable  
respectability1 rather than as a piece  
of expression4 ,his compositions are    
overburdened and cluttered and marred by
 all sorts of erudite turns and twists  
and manoeuvers4 ,the man's entire       
attention seems to have been set on     
making his works astonish the learned   

and make mad the simple4 ,even a slight 
song like ,wenn die ,linde blueht is    
decked with contrapuntal felicities4 ,he
 copies the mannerisms of the composers 
of the seventeenth and eighteenth       
centuries1 contorts his compositions    
with all manner of outmoded turns4 ,he  
appears to have come to his worktable   
inevitably with his mind full of the    
compositions he had been studying4 ,his 
impulse seems always a reflected thing1 
a desire to compete with some one on    
that person's terms4 ,he writes fugues  
for organs and sonatas for violin solo  
under the influence of ,bach1 concerti  
grossi under the influence of ,haendel1 
variations under that of ,mozart1       
sonatas under that of ,brahms4 ,in vain 
one searches for a perfectly individual 
style throughout his works4 ,the living 
man is buried under the mass of badly   
assimilated learning4 ,even at best1 in 
the ,hiller variations1 in some of the  
string trios and organ fugues1 some of  
his grave adagios1 even in some of his  

sardonic and turbulent scherzi 7perhaps 
his most original contributions71 his   
art is rather more a refinement on      
another art than a fresh and vital      
expression4 ,in him1 education had      
produced the typical pedant1 a pedant of
 ,cyclopean muscularity1 perhaps1 but   
nevertheless a pedant4  ,and so1 instead
 of being ,brahms's successor1 ,reger is
 to-day seen as the very contrary of    
,brahms4 ,it is not that fugues and     
concerti in the olden style cannot be   
written to-day1 that modern music and   
the antique forms are incompatible4 ,it 
is that ,reger was very little the      
artist4 ,he mistook the material vesture
 for the spirit1 thought that there were
 formulas for composition1 royal roads  
to the heaven of ,bach and ,mozart4     
,something more of humanity1 sympathy   
for man and his experiences1 inner      
freedom1 might have saved him4 ,but it  
was just the poetic gift that the man   
was lamentably without4 ,and so1        
freighted with too much erudition and   

too little wisdom1 ,reger went aground4 
,schoenberg   ,arnold ,schoenberg of    
,vienna is the great troubling presence 
of modern music4 ,his vast1 sallow skull
 lowers over it like a sort of ,north   
,cape4 ,for with him1 with the famous   
cruel five orchestral and nine piano    
pieces1 we seem to be entering the      
arctic zone of musical art4 ,none of the
 old beacons1 none of the old stars1 can
 guide us longer in these frozen wastes4
 ,strange1 menacing forms surround us1  
and the light is bleak and chill and    
faint4 ,the characteristic compositions 
of ,strawinsky and ,ornstein1 too1 have 
no tonality1 lack every vestige of a    
pure chord1 and exhibit unanalyzable    
harmonies1 and rhythms of a violent     
novelty1 in the most amazing            
conjunctions4 ,but they1 at least1      
impart a certain sense of liberation4   
,they1 at least1 bear certain witness to
 the emotional flight of the composer4  
,an instinct pulses here1 an instinct   
barbarous and unbridled1 if you will1   

but indubitably exuberant and vivid4    
,these works have a necessity4 ,these   
harmonies have color4 ,this music is    
patently speech4 ,but the later         
compositions of ,schoenberg withhold    
themselves1 refuse our contact4 ,they   
baffle with their apparently wilful     
ugliness1 and bewilder with their       
geometric cruelty and coldness4 ,one    
gets no intimation that in fashioning   
them the composer has liberated himself4
 ,on the contrary1 they seem icy and    
brain-spun4 ,they are like men formed   
not out of flesh and bone and blood1 but
 out of glass and wire and concrete4    
,they creak and groan and grate in their
 motion4 ,they have all the deathly     
pallor of abstractions4  ,and           
,schoenberg remains a troubling presence
 as long as one persists in regarding   
these particular pieces as the          
expression of a sensibility1 as long as 
one persists in seeking in them the     
lyric flight4 ,for though one perceives 
them with the intellect one can scarcely

 feel them musically4 ,the conflicting  
rhythms of the third of the ,three      
,pieces for ,pianoforte clash without   
generating heat1 without1 after all1    
really sounding4 ,no doubt1 there is a  
certain admirable uncompromisingness1 a 
certain ,egyptian severity1 in the      
musical line of the first of the ,three4
 ,but if there is such a thing as form  
without significance in music1 might not
 these compositions serve to exemplify  
it8 ,indeed1 it is only as experiments1 
as the incorporation in tone of an      
abstract and intellectualized conception
 of forms1 that one can at all          
comprehend them4 ,and it is only in     
regarding him as primarily an           
experimenter that the later ,schoenberg 
loses his incomprehensibility1 and comes
 somewhat nearer to us4  ,there is much 
in ,schoenberg's career that makes this 
explanation something more than an easy 
way of disposing of a troublesome       
problem1 makes it1 indeed1 eminently    
plausible4 ,schoenberg was never the    

most instinctive and sensible1 the least
 cerebral and intellectualizing of      
musicians4 ,for just as ,gustav ,mahler 
might stand as an instance of musicianly
 temperament fatally outweighing        
musicianly intellect1 so ,arnold        
,schoenberg might stand as an example of
 the equally excessive outbalancing of  
sensibility by brain-stuff4 ,the        
friendship of the two men and their     
mutual admiration might easily be       
explained by the fact that each caught  
sight in the other of the element he    
wanted most4 ,no doubt1 the works of    
,schoenberg's early period1 which       
extends from the songs1 ,op4 #a1 through
 the ,kammersymphonie1 ,op4 #i1 are full
 of a fervent lyricism1 a romantic      
effusiveness4 ,gurrelieder1 indeed1     
opens wide the floodgates of            
romanticism4 ,but these compositions are
 somewhat uncharacteristic and          
derivative4 ,the early songs1 for       
instance1 might have proceeded from the 
facile pen of ,richard ,strauss4 ,they  

have much of the ,straussian sleepy     
warmth and sweet harmonic color1 much of
 the ,straussian exuberance which at    
times so readily degenerates into the   
windy pride of the young bourgeois      
deeming himself a superman4 ,it was only
 by accident that ,freihold was not     
written by the ,munich tone-poet4 ,the  
orchestral poem after ,maeterlinck's    
,pelleas is also ultra-romantic and     
post-,wagnerian4 ,the trumpet theme1 the
 ,pelleas theme1 for instance1 is       
lineally descended from the ,walter von 
,stolzing and ,parisfal motives4 ,the   
work reveals ,schoenberg striving to    
emulate ,strauss in the field of the    
symphonic poem2 striving1 however1 in   
vain4 ,for it has none of ,strauss's    
glitter and point1 and is rather dull   
and soggy4 ,the great1 bristling1       
pathetic climax is of the sort that has 
become exasperating and vulgar1 rather  
than exciting1 since ,wagner and        
,tchaikowsky first exploited it4 ,on the
 whole1 the work is much less ,pelleas  

et ,melisande than it is ,pelleas und   
,melisanda4 ,and the other works of this
 period1 more brilliantly made and more 
opulently colored though they are1 are  
still eminently of the romantic school4 
,the person who declared ecstatically   
that assisting at a performance of the  
string sextet1 ,verklaerte ,nacht1      
resembled hearing a new ',tristan1'     
exhibited1 after all1 unconscious       
critical acumen4 ,the great cantata1    
,gurrelieder1 the symphonic setting of  
,jens ,peter ,jacobsen's romance in     
lyrics1 might even stand as the grand   
finale of the whole post-,wagnerian1    
ultra-romantic period1 and represent the
 moment at which the whole style and    
atmosphere did its last heroic service4 
,and even the ,kammersymphonie1 despite 
all the signs of transition to a more   
personal manner1 despite the increased  
scholasticism of tone1 despite the more 
acidulous coloration1 despite the       
distinctly novel scherzo1 with its      
capricious and fawn-like leaping1 is not

 quite characteristic of the man4  ,it  
is in the string quartet1 ,opus #g1 that
 ,schoenberg first speaks his proper    
tongue4 ,and in revealing him1 the work 
demonstrates how theoretical his        
intelligence is4 ,no doubt1 the ,d-minor
 ,quartet is an important work1 one of  
the most important of chamber           
compositions4 ,certainly1 it is one of  
the great pieces of modern music4 ,it   
gives an unforgettable and vivid sense  
of the voice1 the accent1 the timbre1 of
 the hurtling1 neurotic modern world2   
hints the coming of a free and subtle1  
bitter and powerful1 modern musical art4
 ,as a piece of construction alone1 the 
,d-minor ,quartet is immensely          
significant4 ,the polyphony is bold and 
free1 the voices exhibiting an          
independence perhaps unknown since the  
days of the madrigalists4 ,the work is  
unified not only by the consolidation of
 the four movements into one1 but as    
well by a central movement1 a           
durchfuehrung which1 introduced between 

the scherzo and the adagio1 reveals the 
inner coherence of all the themes4      
,there is no sacrifice of logic to the  
rules of harmony4 ,indeed1 the work is  
characterized by a certain              
uncompromisingness and sharpness in its 
harmonies4 ,the instrumental coloring is
 prismatic1 all the registers of the    
strings being utilized with great       
deftness4 ,exclusive of the theme of the
 scherzo1 which recalls a little        
overmuch the ,teutonic banalities of    
,mahler's symphonies1 the quality of the
 music is1 on the whole1 grave and      
poignant and uplifted4 ,it has a        
scholarly dignity1 a magistral richness1
 a chiaroscuro that at moments recalls  
,brahms1 though ,schoenberg has a       
sensuous melancholy1 a delicacy and an  
,hebraic bitterness that the other has  
not4 ,like so much of ,brahms1 this     
music comes out of the silence of the   
study1 though the study in this case is 
the chamber of a ,jewish scholar more   
than that of a ,german4 ,were the entire

 work of the fullness and lyricism of   
the last two movements2 were it         
throughout as impassioned as is the     
broad gray clamant germinal theme that  
commences the work and sweeps it before 
it1 one might easily include the        
composer in the company of the masters  
of musical art4  ,unfortunately1 the    
magnificent passages are interspersed   
with unmusical ones4 ,it is not only    
that the work does not quite conceal    
art1 that it smells overmuch of the     
laboratory4 ,it is that portions of it  
are scarcely felt at all1 are only too  
obviously carpentered4 ,the work is full
 of music that addresses itself         
primarily to professors of theory4 ,it  
is full of writing dictated by an       
arbitrary and intellectual conception of
 form4 ,there is a great deal of        
counterpoint in it that exists only for 
the benefit of those who read scores1   
and that clutters the work4 ,there are  
whole passages that exist only in       
obedience to some scholastic demand for 

thematic inversions and deformations4   
,there is an unnecessary deal of        
marching and countermarching of         
instruments1 an obsession with certain  
rhythms that becomes purely mechanical1 
an intensification of the contrapuntal  
pickings and peckings that annoy so     
often in the compositions of ,brahms4   
,it is ,schoenberg the intellectualist1 
,schoenberg the ,doctor of ,music1 not  
,schoenberg the artist1 who obtains     
here4  ,and it is he one encounters     
almost solely in the music of the third 
period1 the enigmatical little pieces   
for orchestra and piano4 ,it is he who  
has emerged victorious from the duel    
revealed by the ,d-minor ,quartet4      
,those grotesque and menacing little    
works are lineally descended from the   
intellectualized passages of the great  
preceding one1 are1 indeed1 a complete  
expression of the theoretical processes 
which called them into being4 ,for while
 in the quartet the scholasticism       
appears to have been superimposed upon a

 body of musical ideas1 in the works of 
the last period it appears well-nigh the
 generative principle4 ,these latter    
have all the airlessness1 the want of   
poetry1 the frigidity of things         
constructed after a formula1 daring and 
brilliant though that formula is4 ,they 
make it seem as though ,schoenberg had1 
through a process of consideration and  
thought and study1 arrived at the       
conclusion that the music of the future 
would1 in the logic of things1 take such
 and such a turn1 that tonality as it is
 understood was doomed to disappear1    
that part-writing would attain a new    
independence1 that new conceptions of   
harmony would result1 that rhythm would 
attain a new freedom through the        
influence of the new mechanical body of 
man1 and had proceeded to incorporate   
his theories in tone4 ,one finds the    
experimental and methodical at every    
turn throughout these compositions4     
,behind them one seems invariably to    
perceive some one sitting before a sheet

 of music paper and tampering with the  
art of music2 seeking to discover what  
would result were he to accept as       
harmonic basis not the major triad but  
the minor ninth1 to set two             
contradictory rhythms clashing1 or to   
sharpen everything and maintain a       
geometric hardness of line4 ,one always 
feels in them the intelligence setting  
forth deliberately to discover new      
musical form4 ,for all their apparent   
freedom1 they are full of the oldest    
musical procedures1 abound in canonic   
imitations1 in augmentations1 and       
diminutions1 in all sorts of grizzled   
contrapuntal manoevers4 ,they are       
head-music of the most uncompromising   
sort4 ,the ,five ,orchestral ,pieces    
abound in purely theoretical            
combinations of instruments1            
combinations that do not at all sound4  
,herzgewaechse1 the setting of the poem 
of ,maeterlinck made contemporaneously  
with these pieces1 makes fantastic      
demands upon the singer1 asks the voice 

to hold high ,f pppp1 to leap swiftly   
across the widest intervals1 and to     
maintain itself over a filigree         
accompaniment of celesta1 harmonium and 
harp4 ,but it is in the piano-music that
 the sonorities are most rudely         
neglected4 ,at moments they impress one 
as nothing more than abstractions from  
the idiosyncrasies and mannerisms of the
 works of ,schoenberg's second period   
made in the hope of arriving at         
definiteness of style and intensity of  
speech4 ,they smell of the synagogue as 
much as they do of the laboratory4      
,beside the ,doctor of ,music there     
stands the ,talmudic ,jew1 the man all  
intellect and no feeling1 who subtilizes
 over musical art as though it were the 
,law4  ,the compositions of this period 
constitute an artistic retrogression    
rather than an advance4 ,they are not   
modern music for all their apparent     
stylistic kinship to the music of       
,strawinsky and ,scriabine and          
,ornstein4 ,nor are they music of the   

past4 ,they belong rather more to the   
sort of music that has no more relation 
with yesteryear than it has with this or
 next4 ,they belong to the sort that    
never has youth and vigor1 is old the   
moment it is produced4 ,their essential 
inexpressiveness makes almost virtueless
 the characteristics which ,schoenberg  
has carried into them from out his      
fecund period4 ,the severity and        
boldness of contour1 so biting in the   
quartet1 becomes almost without         
significance in them4 ,if there is such 
a thing as rhythmless music1 would not  
the stagnant orchestra of the ,five     
,orchestral ,pieces exemplify it8 ,the  
alternately rich and acidulous color is 
faded2 an icy green predominates4 ,and1 
curiously enough1 throughout the group  
the old romantic allegiance of the      
earliest ,schoenberg reaffirms itself4  
,wotan with his spear stalks through the
 conclusion of the first of the ,three  
,pieces for ,pianoforte4 ,and the second
 of the series1 a composition not       

without its incisiveness1 as well as    
several of the tiny ,six ,piano ,pieces1
 ,op4 #ai1 recall at moments ,brahms1 at
 others ,chopin1 a ,chopin of course    
cadaverous and turned slightly green4   
,it may be that by means of these       
experiments ,schoenberg will gird       
himself for a new period of creativity  
just as once indubitably by the aid of  
experiments which he did not publish he 
girded himself for the period           
represented by the ,d-minor ,quartet4   
,it may be that after the cloud of the  
war has completely lifted from the field
 of art1 and a normal interchange is    
re-established it will be seen that the 
monodrama1 ,op4 #bj1 ,die ,lieder des   
',pierrot ,lunaire1' which was the      
latest of his works to obtain a hearing1
 was in truth an earnest of a new       
loosing of the old lyrical impulse so   
long incarcerated4 ,but1 for the        
present1 ,schoenberg1 the composer1 is  
almost completely obscured by           
,schoenberg1 the experimenter4 ,for the 

present1 he is the great theoretician   
combating other theoreticians1 the      
,doctor of ,music annihilating          
doctor-made laws4 ,as such1 his         
usefulness is by no means small4 ,he    
speaks with an authority no less than   
that of his adversaries1 the other and  
less radical professors4 ,he1 too1 has  
invented a system and a method2 his     
,harmonielehre1 for instance1 is as     
irrefragable as theirs2 he can quote    
scripture with the devil4 ,he is at     
least demolishing the old constraining  
superstitions1 and in so doing may      
exercise an incalculable influence on   
the course of music4 ,it may be that    
many a musician of the future will find 
himself the better equipped because of  
,schoenberg's explorations4 ,he is      
undoubtedly the most magistral theorist 
of the day4 ,the fact that he could     
write at the head of his treatise on    
harmony1 ,what ,i have here set down ,i 
have learned from my pupils1            
independently proves him a great        

teacher4 ,it is probable that his later 
music1 the music of his puzzling third  
period1 will shortly come to be         
considered as simply a part of his      
unique course of instruction4           
,sibelius   ,others have brought the    
,north into houses1 and there transmuted
 it to music4 ,and their art is         
dependent on the shelter1 and removed   
from it1 dwindles4 ,but ,sibelius has   
written music innocent of roof and      
inclosure1 music proper indeed to the   
vasty open1 the ,finnish heaven under   
which it grew4 ,and could we but carry  
it out into the northern day1 we would  
find it undiminished1 vivid with all its
 life4 ,for it is blood-brother to the  
wind and the silence1 to the lowering   
cliffs and the spray1 to the harsh      
crying of sea-birds and the breath of   
the fog1 and1 set amid them1 would wax1 
and take new strength from the strengths
 of its kin4  ,air blows through the    
music of ,sibelius1 quickens even the   
slightest of his compositions4 ,there   

are certain of his songs1 certain of his
 orchestral sketches1 that would be     
virtueless enough were it not for the   
windy freshness that pervades them4 ,out
 of all his works1 even out of the most 
commonplace1 there proceeds a far and   
resonant space4 ,songs like ,to the     
,evening1 ,call1 ,autumn ,sundown1      
whatever their ultimate musical value1  
seem actually informed by the northern  
evening1 seem to include within their   
very substance the watery tints of the  
sky1 the naive fragrance of forests and 
meadows1 the tintinnabulation drifting  
through the still air of sunset4 ,it is 
as though ,sibelius were so sensible to 
the quality of his native earth that he 
knows precisely in what black and       
massive chords of the piano1 say1 lie   
the silence of rocks and clouds1        
precisely what manner of resistance     
between chant and piano can make human  
song ring as in the open4 ,but it is in 
his orchestral works1 for he is         
determined an orchestral writer1 that he

 has fixed it most successfully4 ,there 
has been no composer1 not ,brahms in his
 ,german forest1 nor ,rameau amid the   
poplars of his silver ,france1 not      
,borodin on his steppes1 nor            
,moussorgsky in his snow-covered fields 
under the threatening skies1 whose music
 gives back the colors and forms and    
odors of his native land more           
persistently4 ,the orchestral           
compositions of ,sibelius seem to have  
passed over black torrents and desolate 
moorlands1 through pallid sunlight and  
grim primeval forests1 and become       
drenched with them4 ,the instrumentation
 is all wet grays and blacks1 relieved  
only by bits of brightness wan and      
elusive as the northern summer1 frostily
 green as the polar lights4 ,the works  
are full of the gnawing of bassoons and 
the bleakness of the ,english horn1 full
 of shattering trombones and screaming  
violins1 full of the sinister rolling of
 drums1 the menacing reverberation of   
cymbals1 the icy glittering of harps4   

,the musical ideas of those of the      
compositions that are finely realized   
recall the ruggedness and hardiness and 
starkness of things that persist in the 
,finnish winter4 ,the rhythms seem to   
approach the wild1 unnumbered rhythms of
 the forest and the wind and the        
nickering sunlight4 ,music has forever  
been a movement up to nature1 and       
,schoenberg's motto is but the precision
 of a motive that has governed all      
composers4 ,but ,sibelius has written   
music that seems to come as the very    
answer to the call1 and to be the ,north
 indeed4  ,such a discovery of nature   
was necessarily a part of his           
self-revelation4 ,for ,sibelius is      
essentially the ,norseman4 ,for all his 
personal accomplishment1 his cultural   
position1 he is still the ,finnish      
peasant1 preserving intact within       
himself the racial inheritance4 ,other  
musicians1 having found life still a    
grim brief welter of bloody combats and 
the straining of high1 unyielding hearts

 and the falling of sure inalienable    
doom1 have fancied themselves the       
successors of the ,skalds1 and dreamt   
themselves within the gray primeval     
,north4 ,but1 in the presence of        
,sibelius1 they seem only too evidently 
men of a gentler1 later generation4     
,beside his1 their music appears swathed
 in romantic glamour4 ,for there are    
times when he comes into the            
concert-room like some man of a former  
age1 like some spare1 knotted barbarian 
from the world of the sagas4 ,there are 
times when he comes amongst us like one 
who might quite conceivably have been   
comrade to pelted warriors who fought   
with clubs and hammers1 like one who    
might have beaten out a rude music by   
black1 smoking hearthsides quite as     
readily as made tone-poems for the      
modern concert-room4 ,and his music with
 its viking blows and wild1 crying      
accents1 its harsh and uncouth speech1  
sets us without circumstance in that    
sunken world1 sets us in the very midst 

of the stark men and grave1 savage women
 for whom the sagas were made1 so that  
we can see them in all their hurtling   
strength and rank barbarity1 can        
well-nigh touch them with the fingers of
 our hands4 ,and because ,sibelius is so
 fundamentally man as combat with the   
,north has made him1 only vision of his 
native earth could bring him rich       
self-consciousness4 ,for his            
individuality is but the shape of soul  
given his race by its century-long      
adjustment4 ,it is the ,north that has  
given him his profound experience4 ,its 
rhythms have distinguished him4 ,its    
color1 and the color of his spirit1 are 
twin4 ,and so he turns toward it as to a
 mirror4 ,like that of the hero of his  
tone-poem1 his life is a long journey   
toward ,finland4 ,contact with ,finnish 
earth gives him back into his own hands4
 ,it is the ,north1 the wind and the    
moorland and the sea1 that gathers the  
fragments of his broken soul1 and makes 
him whole again4  ,it was with the      

sanction of a people that ,sibelius came
 to his task4 ,for centuries before his 
birth the race that bore him had lain   
prone upon its inclement coasts4 ,but   
now a new vigor was germinating within  
it4 ,youth had overtaken it once more1  
and filled it with the desire of        
independence4 ,chained to the ,russian  
,empire1 it was reaching out toward all 
that could give it the strength to      
persist and endure1 toward all that     
could give it knowledge of its proper   
soul4 ,and so ,sibelius1 in the search  
for the expression of his own           
personality1 so much at one with that of
 his fellows1 was traveling in the      
common way4 ,the word that he was       
seeking1 the word that should bring     
fulfilment to his proper soul1 was      
deeply needed by his fellows4           
,inarticulate thousands1 unaware though 
they were of his existence1 awaited his 
work1 wanted the sustenance it could    
give4 ,and1 certainly1 the sense of the 
needfulness of his work1 the sense of   

the large value set upon his best and   
purest attainments by life itself1 must 
have been with ,sibelius always1 must   
have supplied him with a powerful       
incentive and made enormously for his   
achievements4 ,he must have felt all the
 surge of the race driving him4 ,he must
 have had continually the marvelous     
stimulus of feeling about him1 for all  
the night and the cold1 the forms of    
comrades straining toward a single lofty
 goal1 felt himself one of an army of   
marching men4 ,this folk1 far in its    
past1 had imagined the figure of a      
hero-poet1 ,vainemunden1 and placed in  
his hands an instrument shaped out of   
very sorrow1 and attributed magical     
power to his song4 ,and ,sibelius1 bowed
 over his music-paper1 must have felt   
the dream stir within him1 must have    
felt incarnate within himself1 however  
incompletely1 that mysterious image1 and
 so proceeded with his work             
everlastingly assured that all he       
actually accomplished woke from out of  

the heart of the people1 and responded  
to its immemorial need4  ,out of such an
 impulse his art has come4 ,no doubt1   
some of it is not the response entirely 
worthy of so high a stimulus4 ,few      
modern composers of eminence are as     
singularly uneven as ,sibelius4 ,moods  
like that which mothered the amiable    
elegance of the ,valse ,triste and that 
which produced the hard and naked       
essentiality of the ,fourth ,symphony   
are almost foreign to each other4 ,the  
creative power itself is extraordinarily
 fitful in him4 ,it is as if1 for all   
his physical robustness1 he has not     
quite the spiritual indefatigability of 
the major artist4 ,he has not that      
inventive heat that permits the composer
 of indisputably the first rank to      
realize himself unflaggingly in all his 
independence and intensity4 ,too often  
,sibelius's individuality is cluttered  
and muffled by that of other men4 ,no   
doubt every creative artist passes      
through a period of submission to alien 

faiths4 ,but in ,sibelius there appear  
to exist two distinct personalities1 the
 one strong and independent1 the other  
timid and uninventive1 who dominate him 
alternately4 ,even some of the music    
contemporaneous with the magnificent    
,fourth ,symphony is curiously          
ineffectual and pointless4 ,true1 the   
color1 the air and tone of the ,north   
are never entirely absent from his work4
 ,his songs invariably recapture1       
sometimes almost miraculously1 the dark 
and mourning accents of the             
,scandinavian folk-song4 ,for all the   
modernity of medium they are simple and 
sober4 ,moreover1 in those of his       
compositions that approach banality most
 closely1 there is a certain saving     
hardness and virility and honesty4      
,unlike his neighbor1 ,grieg1 he is     
never mincing and meretricious4 ,we     
never find him languishing in a pretty  
boudoir4 ,he is always out under the    
sky4 ,it is only that he is not always  
free and resourceful and deeply         

self-critical4 ,even through the bold   
and rugged and splendid ,violin         
,concerto there flit at moments the     
shadows of ,beethoven and ,wagner and   
,tchaikowsky4 ,the first theme of the   
quartet ,voces intimae resembles not a  
little a certain theme in ,boris4 ,the  
close of ,nightride and ,sunrise is     
watered ,brahms and watered ,strauss4   
,and there are phrases in his tone-poem 
that commence with all his proper       
rhythmic ardor and then suddenly        
degenerate4 ,there are moments when his 
harmonic sense1 generally keen and true1
 abandons him completely4 ,and even     
works like the ,finlandia and ,karelia  
overtures1 for all their generosity of  
intention1 for all their suggestion of  
peasant voices lifted in song1          
disappoint because of the substitution  
of a popular lyricism1 a certain easy   
sweetness1 for the high poetry one might
 have anticipated4  ,and yet1 one has   
but to turn to the symphonies of        
,sibelius to encounter music of another 

intensity1 and gauge the richness of    
response that1 at times1 it is given him
 to make4 ,it is as if the very dignity 
and grandeur of the medium itself sets  
him free4 ,just as the form of the      
concerto seems to have given his sense  
of the violin a play apparently denied  
it by the smaller mediums1 so these     
larger orchestral forms seem to have    
liberated his imagination1 his          
orchestral genius1 and made him poet of 
his folk indeed4 ,his personal quality1 
spread more thinly in his songs and     
tone-poems1 is essentialized and        
developed in these other works4 ,the    
symphonies themselves are in a sense the
 stages of the essentialization4 ,in the
 first of them his language emerges1 to 
an extent imparting its unmistakable    
coloration to a matter perhaps not      
entirely distinguished4 ,there is a     
looseness and lushness1 a romanticism   
and balladry1 in the work1 that is not  
quite characteristic4 ,still1 the       
honesty1 the grimness and savagery and  

lack of sensuality1 are ,sibelius's own4
 ,the adagio is steeped in his proper   
pathos1 the pathos of brief1 bland      
summers1 of light that falls for a      
moment1 gentle and mellow1 and then dies
 away4 ,something like a memory of a    
girl sitting amid the simple flowers in 
the white northern sunshine haunts the  
last few measures4 ,the crying1 bold    
finale is full of the tragedy of        
northern nature4 ,and in the ,second    
,symphony the independence is complete4 
,the orchestra is handled individually1 
sparingly1 and with perfect point4      
,often the instruments sound singly1 or 
by twos and threes4 ,what had been but  
half realized in the earlier work is    
distinct and important in this4 ,it is  
as if ,sibelius had come upon himself1  
and so been able to rid his work of all 
superfluity and indecision4 ,and1       
curiously1 through speaking his own     
language in all its homeliness and      
peasant flavor1 he seems to have moved  
more closely to his land4 ,the work1 his

 pastoral symphony1 for all its absolute
 and formal character1 reflects a       
landscape4 ,it is full of home sounds1  
of cattle and saeters1 of timbered      
houses and sparse nature4 ,and through  
it there glances a pale evanescent      
sunlight1 and through it there sounds   
the burden of a lowly tragedy4  ,but it 
is only with his ,fourth ,symphony1     
dubbed futuristic because of the unusual
 boldness and pithiness of its style1   
the absence of a general tonality1 the  
independence of the orchestral voices1  
that ,sibelius's gift attains absolute  
expression4 ,there are certain works    
that are touchstones1 and make apparent 
what is original and virtuous in all the
 rest of the labors of their creator1   
and give his personality a unique and   
irrefragable position4 ,the ,fourth     
,symphony of ,sibelius is such a        
composition4 ,it is a very synthesis of 
all his work1 the reduction to its      
simplest and most positive terms of a   
thing that has been in him since first  

he began to write1 and that received    
heretofore only fragmentary and         
indecisive expression4 ,in its very form
 it is essence4 ,the structure is all   
bone4 ,the style is sharpened to a      
biting terseness4 ,the coloring is the  
refinement of all his color2 the rhythms
 have a freedom toward which ,sibelius's
 rhythms have always aspired2 the       
mournful melody of the adagio is        
well-nigh archetypical4 ,all his life   
,sibelius has been searching for the    
tone of this music1 desiring to speak   
with its authority1 and concentrate the 
soul and tragedy of a people into a     
single and eternal moment4 ,all his life
 he had been seeking the prophetic      
gestures of which this work is full4    
,for the symphony is like a summary and 
a conclusion4 ,it carries us into some  
high place before which the life of man 
is spread out and made apparent4 ,the   
four movements are the four planes that 
solidify a single concept4 ,the first   
sets us in a grim forest solitude1 out  

in some great unlimited loneliness1     
beneath a somber sky4 ,there is         
movement1 a climax1 a single cry of     
passion and despair1 and then1 only the 
soughing of wind through hoary branches4
 ,the scherzo is the flickering of mad  
watery lights1 a fantastic whipping     
dance1 a sudden sinister conclusion4 ,in
 the adagio1 a bleak lament struggles   
upwards1 seems to push through some vast
 inert mass1 to pierce to a momentary   
height and largeness1 and then sinks1   
broken4 ,and through the finale there   
quivers an illusory light4 ,the movement
 is the march1 the oncoming rush1 of    
vast formless hordes1 the passage of    
unnamed millions that surge for an      
instant with their cries and banners1   
and vanish into nothingness4 ,it is     
possible that ,sibelius will create     
another work similarly naked and        
intense4 ,more definitive1 it cannot be4
     ,loeffler   ,legend records of     
,inez de ,castro1 ,queen of ,castile1   
that she was dethroned and driven into  

exile by a rival1 and that before her   
husband and her partisans could restore 
her to kingdom1 she had died4 ,but her  
husband caused her body to be embalmed  
and borne with him wherever he went4    
,and when finally he had vanquished the 
pretender1 he had the corpse decked in  
all the regal insignia1 had it set upon 
the throne in the great hall of the     
palace of the kings of ,castile1 and    
vassals and liegemen summoned to do the 
homage that had been denied the unhappy 
queen in her lifetime4  ,the music of   
,charles ,martin ,loeffler is like the  
dead ,inez de ,castro on her throne4    
,it1 too1 is swathed in diapered cloths 
and hung with gold and precious stones4 
,it1 too1 is set above and apart from   
men in a sort of royal state1 and       
surrounded by all the emblems of        
kingdom4 ,and beneath its stiff and     
incrusted sheath there lies1 as once    
there lay beneath the jeweled robes and 
diadem of the kings of ,castile1 not a  
living being1 but a corpse4  ,for       

,loeffler is one of those exquisites    
whose refinement is unfortunately       
accompanied by sterility1 perhaps even  
results from it4 ,but for his essential 
uncreativeness1 he might well have      
become the composer uniquely            
representative of the artistic movement 
in which the late nineteenth-century    
refinement and exquisiteness manifested 
itself4 ,no musician1 not ,debussy even1
 was better prepared for bringing the   
symbolist movement into music4 ,loeffler
 is affiliated in temper1 if not exactly
 in achievement1 with the brilliant band
 of belated romanticists who adopted as 
their device the sonnet of ,verlaine's  
beginning4        ,je suis l'empire a la
 fin de la decadence4   ,one finds in   
him almost typically the sensibility to 
the essences and colors rather more than
 to the spectacle1 the movement1 the    
adventure of things4 ,the nervous       
delicacy1 the widowhood of the spirit1  
the horror of the times1 the mystic     
paganism1 the homesickness for a        

tranquil and sequestered and            
soft-colored land where shepherds still 
pipe to their flocks1 and nun-like      
processions of clouds float over bluish 
hills and fathomless age-old lakes are  
eminently present in him4 ,he is in     
almost heroic degree the spirit forever 
searching blindly through the loud and  
garish city1 the hideous present1 for   
some vestige1 some message from its     
homeland2 finding1 some sundown1 in the 
ineffable glamour of rose and mauve and 
blue through granite piles1 le souvenir 
avec le crepuscule4 ,he1 too1 one would 
guess1 has dreamt of selling his soul to
 the devil1 and called upon him1 ah1 how
 many terrible nights1 to appear2 and   
has sought a refuge from the world in   
,catholic mysticism and ecstasy4 ,had it
 been given him to realize himself in   
music1 we should undoubtedly have had a 
body of work that would have been the   
veritable milestones of the route       
traversed by the entire movement4 ,would
 not the ,pagan ,poem have been the     

musical equivalent of the mystic and    
sorrowful sensuality of ,verlaine8      
,would not the two rhapsodies ,l',etang 
and ,la ,cornemuse have transmuted to   
music the macabre and sinister note of  
so much symbolist poetry8 ,would we not 
have had in ,la ,villanelle du ,diable  
an equivalent for the black mass and    
,la-bas2 in ,hora mystica an equivalent 
for ,en route2 in ,music for ,four      
,stringed ,instruments a musical        
,sagesse8 ,does not ,charles ,martin    
,loeffler1 who1 after writing ,a ,pagan 
,poem1 makes a retreat in a ,benedictine
 monastery1 and who1 at home in         
,medford1 ,massachusetts1 teaches the   
choristers to sing ,gregorian chants1   
recall ,joris ,karl ,huysmans1 the oblat
 of ,la ,trappe8  ,to a limited extent1 
of course1 he has succeeded in fixing   
the color of the symbolist movement in  
music4 ,some of his richer1 dreamier    
songs1 some of his finer bits of        
polishing1 his rarer drops of essence1  
are indeed the musical counterpart of   

the goldsmith's work1 the preciosity1 of
 a ,gustave ,kahn or a ,stuart ,merrill4
 ,but a musical ,huysmans1 for instance1
 it was never in his power to become4   
,for he has never possessed the creative
 heat1 the fluency1 the vein1 the       
felicity1 the power necessary to the    
task of upbuilding out of the tones of  
instruments anything as flamboyant and  
magnificent as the novelist's black and 
red edifices4 ,he has never been vivid  
and ingenuous and spontaneous enough a  
musician even to develop a personal     
idiom4 ,he has always been hampered and 
bound4 ,his earlier compositions1 the   
quintet1 the orchestral ,les ,vieillees 
de l',ukraine and ,la bonne chanson1 for
 instance1 are distinctly derivative and
 uncharacteristic in style4 ,the idiom  
is derived in part from ,faure1 in part 
from ,wagner and other of the           
romanticists4 ,the string quintet has   
even been dubbed ,a ,musical ',trip     
,around the ,world in ,eighty ,days4'   
,nor is the idiom of his later and more 

representative period primarily and     
originally any more characteristic4 ,it 
never seems to surge quite wholly and   
cleanly and fairly4 ,the chasing to     
which it has evidently been subjected   
cannot quite conceal its descent4 ,the  
setting of ,la ,cloche felee of         
,baudelaire1 for instance1 is curiously 
,germanic and heavy1 for all the        
subtlety and filigree of the voice and  
the accompanying piano and viola4 ,it is
 a fairly flat waltz movement that in ,a
 ,pagan ,poem is chosen to represent the
 sublunary aspect of ,virgil's genius4  
,and ,hora mystica and ,music for ,four 
,stringed ,instruments1 which have a    
certain stylistic unity1 nevertheless   
reveal the composer hampered by the     
,gregorian and scholastic idiom which he
 has sought to assimilate4  ,nor has he 
ever had the power to express and       
objectify himself completely1 and       
achieve vital form4 ,in performance1    
most of his works shrink and dwindle4   
,the central and sustaining structure1  

the cathedral which is behind every     
living composition and manifests itself 
through it1 is in these pieces so vague 
and attenuated that it fades into the   
background of the concert-hall1 is like 
gray upon gray4 ,the gems and gold      
thread and filigree with which this work
 is sewn tarnish in the gloom4          
,something is there1 we perceive1       
something that moves and sways and rises
 and ebbs fitfully in the dim light4    
,but it is a wraithlike thing1 and      
undulates and falls before our eyes like
 flames that have neither redness nor   
heat4 ,even the terrible bagpipe of the 
second rhapsody for oboe2 even the      
caldron of the ,pagan ,poem1 that       
transcription of the most sensual and   
impassioned of ,virgil's eclogues1 with 
its mystic1 dissonant trumpets2 even the
 blasphemies of ,la ,villanelle du      
,diable1 and the sundown fires that beat
 through the close of ,hora mystica are 
curiously bloodless and ghostly and     
unsubstantial4 ,pages of sustained music

 occur rarely enough in his music4 ,the 
lofty1 almost metaphysical1 first few   
periods1 the severe and pathetic second 
movement of the ,music for ,four        
,stringed ,instruments2 certain songs   
like ,le ,son du cor1 that have         
atmosphere and a delicate poetry1 are   
distinctly exceptional in this body of  
work4 ,what chiefly lives in it are     
certain poignant phrases1 certain       
eloquent bars1 a glowing1 winey bit of  
color here1 a velvety phrase for the    
oboe or the clarinet1 a sharp1 brassy1  
pricking horn-call1 a dreamy1 wandering 
melody for the voice there4 ,his music  
consists of scattered1 highly polished  
phrases1 hard1 exquisite1 and cold4 ,he 
is pre-eminently the precieux4  ,of the 
scrupulousness1 the fastidiousness1 the 
distinction1 even1 of ,loeffler's work1 
there can be no question4 ,he is not one
 of the music-making herd4 ,the subtlety
 and originality of intention which his 
compositions almost uniformly display1  
the unflagging effort to inclose within 

each of his forms a matter rare and     
novel and rich1 set him forever apart1  
even in his essential weakness1 from the
 academic and conforming crew4 ,the man 
who has composed these scores makes at  
least the gesture of the artist1 and    
comes to music to express a temper      
original and delicate and aristocratic1 
disdainful of the facile and the        
commonplace1 a sensibility often        
troubled and shadowy and fantastic4 ,he 
is eminently not one of the pathetic1   
half-educated musicians so common in    
,america4 ,he knows something of musical
 science2 knows how a tonal edifice     
should be unified2 has a sense of the   
chemistry of the orchestra4 ,he appears 
familiar with the plainsong1 and has    
based a symphony and portions of a      
quartet on ,gregorian modes4 ,even at a 
period when the sophisticated and       
cultivated composer is becoming somewhat
 less a rarity1 his culture is          
remarkable1 his knowledge of literature 
eclectic4 ,gogol as well as ,virgil has 

moved him to orchestral works4 ,above   
all1 he is one of the company of        
composers1 to which a good number of    
more gifted musicians do not belong1 who
 are ever respectful of their medium1   
and infinitely curious concerning it4   
,it is only that1 in seeking to         
compensate himself for his infecundity1 
he has fallen into the deep sea of      
preciosity4 ,in seeking by main force to
 be expressive1 to remedy his cardinal  
defect1 to eschew whatever is trite and 
outworn in the line of the melody1 the  
sequence of the harmonies1 to rid       
himself of whatever is derivative and   
impersonal and undistinguished in his   
style1 he has become over-anxious1      
over-meticulous of his diction4 ,because
 his phraseology was colorless1 he has  
become a stainer of phrases1 a sort of  
musical euphuist4 ,all his energy1 one  
senses1 has gone into the cutting and   
polishing and shining up and setting of 
little brightly colored bits of music1  
little sharp1 intense moments4 ,one     

feels that they have been caressed and  
stroked and smoothed and regarded a     
thousand times2 that ,loeffler has dwelt
 upon them and touched them with a sort 
of narcissistic love4 ,indeed1 it must  
have been a great labor that was        
expended on the darkening and spicing   
and sharpening of the style in certain  
of his orchestral poems2 the effort to  
create a new idiom based on the         
,gregorian modes1 to which ,hora mystica
 and the recent work for string quartet 
bear witness1 must in itself have been  
large4 ,but though in result of all the 
chasing and hammering on gold1 the      
filing and polishing1 the vessel of his 
art has perhaps become richer and finer1
 it has not become any fuller4 ,his     
second period differs from his first    
only in the fact that in it he has gone 
from one form of uncreativity to another
 somewhat more dignified and unusual4   
,the compositions of both periods have1 
after all1 the selfsame lack4 ,his      
destiny seems to have been inevitable4  

,and so1 in its confused argentry and   
ghostliness1 its crystallization and    
diaphinity1 his music resembles at times
 nothing so much as the precious remains
 and specimens of an extinct planet2    
things transfixed in cold eternal night1
 icy and phosphorescent of hue4 ,no     
atmosphere bathes them4 ,sap does not   
mount in them4 ,should we touch them1   
they would crumble4 ,this1 might have   
been a flower4 ,but now it glistens with
 crystals of mica and quartz4 ,these1   
are jewels4 ,but their fires are        
quenched4 ,these candied petals are the 
passage from ,music for ,four ,stringed 
,instruments glossed in the score un    
jardin plein des fleurs naives1 while   
this vial of gemmy green liquid is that 
entitled une pre toute emeraude4 ,the   
petrified saurian there1 whose bones    
have suffered                         a 
sea-change      ,into something rich and
 strange   is the ,spanish rhapsody for 
'cello2 the string of steely beads1 the 
setting of the ,to ,helen of ,poe4 ,and 

the objects that float preserved in     
those little flasks are some of the     
popular ditties with which ,loeffler is 
so fond of incrusting his work4 ,once   
they were a ,la ,villette1 and the      
,malaguena1 and the eighteenth-century  
marching song of the ,lorraine soldiery1
 and flourished under the windy heaven4 
,but when ,loeffler transplanted them   
respectively into ,la ,villanelle du    
,diable1 into the 'cello rhapsody and   
into ,music for ,four ,stringed         
,instruments1 they underwent the fate   
that befalls everything subjected to his
 exquisite and sterilizing touch4  ,one 
comes to the conclusion that perhaps the
 most significant and symbolic thing in 
the career of ,charles ,martin ,loeffler
 is his place of residence4 ,for this   
,alsatian1 ,french in culture1          
temperamentally related to the          
decadents1 writing music at first       
resembling that of ,faure and the       
,wagnerizing ,frenchmen1 later that of  
,dukas1 and last that of d',indy and    

,magnard1 has lived the greater portion 
of his life in no other city than       
,boston4 ,coming originally to ,america 
for the purpose of playing first violin 
in the ,boston ,symphony ,orchestra1 he 
has found the atmosphere of the ,new    
,england capital so pleasant that he has
 remained there practically ever since4 
,he whom one might suppose almost native
 to the ,paris of ,debussy and ,magnard 
and ,ravel1 of ,verlaine and ,gustave   
,kahn and ,huysmans1 has found          
comfortable an environment essentially  
tight and illiberal1 a society that     
masks philistinism with toryism1 and    
manages to drive its radical and vital  
and artistic youth1 in increasing       
numbers every year1 to other places in  
search of air4 ,and his own career1 on  
the spiritual plane1 seems just such an 
exchange1 the preference of a shadowy   
and frigid place to a blazing and       
quivering one1 the exchange of the      
eternal ,paris for the eternal ,boston4 
,his music seems some psychic           

banishment4 ,his art is indeed1 in the  
last analysis1 a flight from the group  
of his kinsmen into1 if not exactly the 
circle1 at least the dangerous vicinity 
of those amiable gentlemen the          
,chadwicks and the ,converses and all   
the other highly respectable and sterile
 ,american ,composers4     ,ornstein    
,ornstein is a mirror held up to the    
world of the modern city4 ,the first of 
his real compositions are like fragments
 of some cosmopolis of caves and towers 
of steel1 of furious motion and shafts  
of nitrogen glare become music4 ,they   
are like sensitive surfaces that have   
been laid in the midst of the ,new      
,yorks2 and record not only the         
clangors1 but all the violent forms of  
the city1 the beat of the frenetic      
activity1 the intersecting planes of    
light1 the masses of the masonry with   
the tiny1 dwarf-like creatures running  
in and out1 the electric signs staining 
the inky nightclouds4 ,they give again  
the alarum of dawn breaking upon the    

crowded1 swarming cells2 seven o'clock  
steam whistles on a winter morn2        
pitiless light filtering over hurrying  
black droves of humanity2 thousands of  
shivering workers blackening ,fourteenth
 ,street4 ,they picture the very        
,niebelheim1 the hordes of slaves herded
 by giants of their own creation1 the   
commands and cries of power in the      
bells1 whistles1 signals4 ,the grinding 
and shrieking of loaded trains in the   
tubes1 cranes laboring in the port1     
rotary engines drilling1 turbines       
churning are woven through them4        
,blankets of fog descend upon the river2
 menacing shapes loom through it2 rays  
of red light seek to cut the mist4      
,flowers that are gray and black blossom
 on the ledges of tenement windows      
giving on bare walls4 ,and human souls  
and songs that are gray and black like  
them bloom in the blind air1 open their 
velvet petals1 their lustrous1 soft     
corollas1 from crannies and windows into
 this metal1 this dun1 this unceasing   

roar4  ,for ,ornstein is youth4 ,he is  
the one striving to adjust himself to   
all this thunder and welter and glare4  
,he is the spring as it comes up through
 the pavements1 the aching green sap4   
,in part1 no doubt1 he is the           
resurrection of the most entombed of    
spirits1 that of the outlaw ,european   
,jew4 ,he is the breaking down of the   
walls with which the ,jew had blotted   
out the hateful world4 ,he is ,lazarus  
emerging in his grave clothes into the  
new world2 the ,jewish spirit come up   
into the day from out the basement and  
cellar rooms of the synagogue where it  
had been seated for a thousand years    
drugging itself with rabbinical lore1   
refining almost maniacally upon the     
intention of some obscure phrase or     
parable1 negating the lure of the world 
and of experience with a mass of rites  
and observances and ceremonials1 losing 
itself in the gray desert stretches of  
theory1 or wasting itself in the        
impossible dream of ,zion restored in   

modern ,palestine and ,solomon's temple 
rebuilt in a provincial capital of the  
,turkish ,empire4 ,and ,ornstein's music
 is the music of a birth that is the    
tearing away of grave clothes grown to  
the body1 the clawing away1 stone by    
stone1 of the wall erected against the  
call of experience which was sure to be 
death-dealing4 ,the old prohibitions are
 still active in it in the terror with  
which life is viewed1 in the menace and 
cruelty of things1 the sharpness of     
edges encountered1 the weight of the    
masses that threaten to fall and        
overwhelm1 the fury and blackness and   
horror of nature once again regarded4   
,again and again there passes through it
 the haggard1 shrouded figure of the    
,russian ,jew4 ,the ,poems of #aiag are 
full of the wailings and rockings of    
little old ,ghetto mothers4 ,again and  
again ,ornstein speaks in accents that  
resemble nothing quite so much as the   
savage and woeful language of the ,old  
,testament4  ,but the music of ,ornstein

 is much besides4 ,it is a thing germane
 to all beings born into the age of     
steel4 ,it is the expression of all the 
men who have tried to embrace and love  
the towering piles1 the strange1 black1 
desolate pathways that are the world    
to-day4 ,the figure that one discerns in
 the compositions beginning with the    
,dwarf ,suite1 ,opus #af1 is one that we
 all have known intimately a space4     
,these pieces are not youth seen through
 the golden haze of retrospection4 ,they
 are the expression of groping1 fumbling
 youth as it feels and as it feels1     
itself to be4 ,they are music young in  
all its excess1 its violence1 its sharp 
griefs and sharper joys1 its            
unreflecting1 trembling strength4 ,the  
spring comes up hot and cruel in them4  
,there is all the loneliness of youth in
 this music1 all the mysterious dreams  
of a world scarce understood1 all the   
hesitancies and blind gropings of powers
 untried4 ,always1 one senses the       
pavements stretching between steel      

buildings1 the black1 hurrying tides of 
human beings2 and through them all1 the 
oppressed figure of one searching out   
the meaning of all this convulsive      
activity into which he has been born4   
,it is such solitude that speaks in the 
first ,impression of ,notre-,dame with  
its gray mounting masses1 its cloisteral
 reverberation of bells1 its savage     
calls of the city to one standing alone 
with the monument of a dead age4        
,violent1 uncontrolled passions cry out 
in the ,three ,moods1 with their        
youthful surrender to the moment4 ,the  
energy of adolescence1 unleashed1       
rejoicing in pure muscular activity1    
disports itself in the ,shadow ,dances1 
and in the ,wild ,man's ,dance1 with its
 sheer1 naked1 beating rhythm4 ,the     
bitterness of adolescence mocks in the  
,three ,burlesques1 in the ,dance of the
 ,gnomes1 with its parodying of clumsy  
movements4 ,what revolt in the first    
,piano ,sonata6 ,and other emotions1    
timid and uncertain of themselves1      

uneasy with the swelling sap of         
springtide1 speak their poetry and their
 pain1 tell their tales and are silent1 
make us remember what once we felt4     
,the city1 the birth into the new world1
 youth1 exist in the music of ,ornstein 
with all the sharpness of shock because 
of an imagination of a wonderful        
forcefulness4 ,there is no indirectness 
in ,ornstein1 no vagueness4 ,his tension
 is always of the fullest1 the stiffest4
 ,what he feels1 what he hears1 he sets 
down1 irrespective of all the canons and
 rules and procedures4 ,harmony with him
 is something different than it is with 
any other composer4 ,piano colors of a  
violence and garishness are hurled      
against each other4 ,the lowest and     
highest registers of the instrument     
clash in ,improvisata4 ,rhythms battle1 
convulsively1 almost4 ,in portions of   
the ,sinfonietta1 five rhythms are to be
 found warring against each other4      
,melodic curves1 lines1 sing            
ecstatically over turbulent1 mottled    

counterpoint in the piano and violin    
sonatas4 ,the violin sonata is something
 of an attempt to exhaust all the       
possibilities of color-contrast         
contained in the little brown box4 ,in  
the first ,impression de ,notre-,dame1  
the piano is metallic with the booming  
bells4 ,in the second1 it is stony1     
heavy with the congested1 peering1      
menacing forms of gargoyles4 ,in the    
accompaniment to the song               
,waldseligkeit1 it seems to give the    
musical equivalent for the substance of 
wood4 ,no doubt1 to one who1 like       
,ornstein1 regarded music only as a     
means of communication1 as speech of man
 to man1 and occupied himself only with 
the communication of his sensations and 
experience in briefest1 directest1      
simplest form1 there must have come     
moments of the most terrible self-doubt1
 when all the anathemas of the fathers  
of the musical church thundered loud in 
his ears1 and other men's forms and     
proportions seemed to make his shrivel4 

,it was doubtless thankfulness to       
,william ,blake1 that other mad inventor
 of wild images and designs1 that other 
rager in the wilds1 for fortification   
and sustenance1 that made him preface   
his violin sonata with the ,argument of 
,the ,marriage of ,heaven and ,hell1 and
 defend himself with the verses3        
,once meek1 and in a perilous path1     
,the just man kept his course along     
,the vale of death4      ,roses are     
planted where thorns grew1      ,and on 
the barren heath      ,sing the honey   
bees4444       ,till the villain left   
the paths of ease1      ,to walk in     
perilous paths1 and drive      ,the just
 man into barren climes4       ,now the 
sneaking serpent walks      ,in mild    
humility1      ,and the just man rages  
in the wilds      ,where lions roam4    
,and certainly1 for us1 whatever the    
pundits claim1 the wilds of ,leo        
,ornstein are not so raging and         
lion-infested4 ,for while one speculates
 whether these pieces are music or not1 

one discovers that one has entered      
through them into the life of another   
being1 and through him into the lives of
 a whole upgrowing generation4  ,at     
present1 however1 some of those         
qualities that were so clearly visible  
in ,leo ,ornstein during the first years
 in which he disclosed himself are      
somewhat obscured4 ,something not       
entirely reassuring has happened to the 
man4 ,a great deal of the music that he 
has been composing of late wants the    
bite his earlier work had4 ,the colors  
are not so piping hot4 ,the outlines are
 less bold and jagged and clear-cut4    
,some of the convulsive intensity1 the  
fury1 has passed out of the rhythmic    
element4 ,the melodies are less         
acidulous1 the moods less unbridled4 ,no
 doubt1 something happier has entered   
into his music1 something more          
voluptuous and smooth4 ,the 'cello      
chants passionately and dreamily in the 
two sonatas ,ornstein has written of    
late for it4 ,the racial element is     

softened1 become gentler and duskier and
 more romantic4 ,the ,jew in it no      
longer wears his gaberdine4 ,if he wears
 a prayer-shawl at all1 it is one made  
of silk4 ,the ,jeremiah of the desert   
has given way to the young1 amorous1    
dream-filled poet1 a poet of the sort   
that arose among the ,jews in ,spain    
during the years of the ,moorish        
ascendency4 ,yet1 a certain intensity1 a
 certain originality1 a certain vein of 
genius1 has undergone eclipse in the    
change4 ,something a little brilliant1 a
 little facile1 a little                
undistinguished1 has introduced itself1 
even into the best of the newest pieces4
 ,the texture is thinner1 the tension   
slacker4 ,ornstein does not seem to be  
putting himself into them with the same 
directness and completeness with which  
he put himself into his earlier work4   
,moreover1 occasionally there come from 
his pen works into which he is not      
putting himself at all4 ,a choral       
society of ,new ,york a year or two ago 

produced two small a capella choruses of
 his that might have been the work of   
some obscure pupil of ,tchaikowsky's4   
,the piano sonatina of the ,funeral     
,march1 although by no means as         
insignificant1 is nevertheless          
uncharacteristic in the resemblances it 
bears the music of ,ravel4 ,one thing   
the earlier compositions are not1 and   
that is1 derivative4 ,ornstein1 they    
make plain1 had benefited by the        
achievements of ,debussy and            
,moussorgsky and ,scriabine4 ,but they  
made plain as well that he had developed
 a style of his own1 a style that was1  
for all its crudeness and harshness1    
personal4 ,in becoming again a disciple 
he reverts to something that he seemed  
to have left behind him when he wrote   
his clangorous ,dwarf ,suite4  ,what    
this new period of ,ornstein's          
composition represents it is not easy to
 say4 ,probably1 it is a period of      
transition1 a time of the marshaling of 
forces to a new and fiercer onslaught4  

,such a time of gestation might well be 
necessary to ,ornstein's genius4 ,it is 
possible that he has had to give up     
something in order to gain something    
else1 to try for less in order to       
establish himself upon a footing firmer 
than that upon which he stood4 ,his     
genius during his first years of        
creation was lyrical purely4 ,it was a  
thing that expressed itself in picturing
 moods1 in making brief flights1 in     
establishing moments musicaux4 ,he is at
 his best in his piano preludes1 in his 
small forms4 ,the works composed during 
this period in the larger forms1 the    
violin sonata excepted1 are scarcely    
achieved4 ,the outer movements of the   
,grand ,sonata for pianoforte1 for      
instance1 are far inferior to the       
central ones4 ,whatever the merit of    
some of the individual movements of ,the
 ,masqueraders1 ,opus #cf1 and the      
,poems of #aiag1 and at times it is not 
small1 the works as a whole lack form4  
,they have none of the unity and variety

 and solidity of the ,papillons and the 
,carnaval of ,schumann or the ,valses   
nobles et sentimentales of ,ravel1 for  
instance1 works to which they are in    
certain other respects comparable4 ,as  
he grew a little older1 ,ornstein's     
nature probably began to demand other   
forms beside these smaller1 more        
episodic ones4 ,it probably began to    
strive for greater scope1 duration1     
development1 complexity4 ,and so1 in    
order to gain greater intellectual      
control over his outflow1 to learn to   
build piles of a bulk that require an   
entirely different workmanship and      
supervision than do preludes and        
impressions1 ,ornstein doubtlessly has  
been withholding himself1 diminishing   
the intensity of his fire4 ,in order to 
learn to organize his material1 he has  
doubtlessly unconsciously lessened its  
density and vibrancy for the time being4
  ,and1 too1 it may be the result of a  
change from a pain-economy to a         
pleasure-economy4 ,the adolescent has   

grown into the young man4 ,the          
adjustment may have been made4 ,the poet
 is no longer forced to mint his        
miseries and pains alone into art2 he is
 learning to be glad4 ,he may again be  
seeking to find himself in a world grown
 different4  ,at the same time1 there is
 a distinct possibility that the present
 period of ,ornstein's composition is   
not a time of preparation for a new     
flight4 ,there is a distinct possibility
 that it represents an unwholesome      
slackening4 ,after all1 may it not be   
that he has flinched8 ,stronger men than
 he have succumbed to a hostile world4  
,and ,ornstein has found the world very 
hostile4 ,he has found ,america         
absolutely unprepared for his art1      
possessed with no technique to cope with
 it4 ,he has very largely been operating
 in a void4 ,it is not so much that he  
has been tried and found wanting4 ,he   
has not even been heard4 ,because the   
musical world has been unable to follow 
him1 it has dismissed him entirely from 

its consciousness4 ,scarcely a critic   
has been able to express what it is     
about his music that he likes or        
dislikes4 ,they have either ridiculed   
him or written cordially about him      
without saying anything4 ,there is      
nothing more demoralizing for the       
artist4 ,at present they are even       
classing him with ,prokofief4 ,the      
virtuosi have shown a like timidity4    
,scarcely a one has dared perform his   
music4 ,many have refrained out of      
policy1 unwilling to forfeit any        
applause4 ,others have no doubt quite   
sincerely refused to perform any music  
that sounded cacophonous to them4 ,for  
the army of musicians is almost entirely
 composed of rearguard4 ,not a single   
one of the orchestral conductors in ,new
 ,york has dared consider performing his
 ,sinfonietta1 to say nothing of the    
early and comparatively accessible      
,marche funebre and ,a la chinoise4 ,of 
the ,philharmonic ,society1 of course1  
one expects nothing4 ,but one might     

suppose that the various organizations  
allegedly friendly to music1 eager for  
the cause of the new and the modern1    
would see to it that the musician whom  
such an authority as ,ernest ,bloch has 
declared to be the single composer in   
,america who displays positive signs of 
genius1 was given his opportunity4 ,the 
contrary has been the case4 ,d',indy's  
foolish war symphony1 the works of      
,henry ,hadley1 of ,rachmaninoff1 of    
,david ,stanley ,smith1 even of         
,dvorsky1 that person who exists as     
little in the field of composition as he
 does in ,biarritz1 have received and do
 receive the attention of our powerful  
ones4 ,it would be small wonder1 then1  
if an artist like ,ornstein1 who1 like  
every real artist1 requires the contact 
of other minds and cannot go on         
producing1 hopeless of attaining        
performance and exhibition1 had finally 
flinched and wearied of his efforts1 and
 suddenly found himself writing such    
music as the intelligences of his       

fellow-craftsmen can reasonably be      
expected to comprehend4  ,there are     
other reasons that might lead one to    
presume that these recent works         
represent a slump4 ,for ,ornstein has   
been devoting too much of his energy to 
concertizing4 ,he has been traveling    
madly over the ,united ,states and      
,canada for the last few years1 living  
in ,pullman sleepers and playing to     
audiences of all sorts4 ,during the     
first years that he was in ,america     
after the outbreak of war in ,europe1 he
 at least played the music that he      
loved4 ,but no one was ready for        
programs beginning with ,korngold and   
,cyril ,scott and ending with ,ravel and
 ,scriabine and ,ornstein himself4 ,so  
little by little ,ornstein began        
adulterating his programs1 adding a     
popular piece here1 another there4      
,recently1 he has been playing music    
into which he cannot put his heart at   
all1 ,liszt and ,rubinstein as well as  
,beethoven and ,schumann4 ,he has been  

performing it none too brilliantly4     
,such an existence cannot but dull the  
man's edge4 ,no one can play the        
,twelfth ,hungarian ,rhapsody or the    
transcription of the ,mendelssohn       
,wedding ,march or the ,rigoletto       
,fantasy continually without being      
punished4 ,no one who does not love them
 can play the ,sonata ,appassionata or  
the ,etudes symphoniques or the waltzes 
of ,chopin long without becoming dulled 
and spoiled4 ,so with composition become
 an interval between two trains1 and    
expression an attempt to please         
audiences and to establish oneself with 
the public as a popular pianist1 it is  
not the most preposterous of thoughts   
that ,leo ,ornstein has lost something  
he once possessed in beautiful and      
superabundant form4  ,still1 it is      
fairly incredible4 ,it is impossible    
that great and permanent harm should    
have been done him already4 ,he was too 
vital and sane a being to be so easily  
corrupted4 ,for those who knew him in   

the first years of his return from      
,paris1 he was nothing if not the       
genius4 ,if he was less accomplished1   
less resourceful and magistral an artist
 than ,strawinsky1 for instance1 whom he
 resembles in a certain general way1 he 
was at least a more human1 a more       
passionate being4 ,it is this great     
vitality1 this rich temperament1 that   
makes one sure that we are not going to 
have in ,leo ,ornstein another ,richard 
,strauss1 another ,strauss who has never
 had the many fertile years vouchsafed  
the other4 ,it makes us sure that he    
will finally come to terms with his     
managers and audiences1 and that the    
harm already done him by his way of life
 will grow no greater4 ,it convinces us 
that his present mood is but the result 
of a necessary process of transition    
from one basis to another2 that the man 
is really summoning himself for the     
works that will express him in his      
manhood4 ,and we are positive that there
 will shortly come from him weighty     

musical forms with colors as burning and
 deep as those of his first pieces1 and 
of like intensity and boldness2 and that
 ,leo ,ornstein is sure of reaching the 
high heaven of art for which he seemed  
and still seems bound4     ,bloch       
,once before1 ,east and ,west have met  
and merged4 ,on the plains where the    
soldiers of ,darius and ,alexander      
slaughtered one another1 and where the  
,macedonian phalanxes recoiled before   
the castellated elephants of ,porus1 a  
marriage was consummated4 ,hovering over
 the heads of the opposing armies1 the  
angel of ,europe and the angel of ,asia 
embraced1 and sent their lifebloods     
coursing through each other4 ,passage   
was made to ,india4 ,the two continents 
slowly faced about4 ,two reservoirs that
 had been accumulating for eons the     
precious distillations of two great     
centers of the human race began mingling
 their essences4 ,in whatever the ,east 
did1 there was evident the hand of the  
,west4 ,in whatever the ,west thought   

there was visible the prismatic         
intelligence of the ,east4 ,the gods of 
,greece showed their smooth foreheads on
 the banks of the ,ganges4 ,oriental    
systems refracted the blonde            
,mediterranean light into an hundred    
subtle tints4 ,but the empire of        
,alexander crumbled1 ,parthians         
annihilated the legions of ,crassus4    
,persians and ,seljuks and ,ottomans    
barred ,europe from the ,east4 ,steady  
communication ceased4 ,asia withdrew    
under her cloudy mysterious curtains4   
,legendary fumes1 ,cathay1 ,zipango1 the
 ,indias of the ,great ,ocean1 arose4   
,once again1 the two basins were cut    
off4 ,once again1 each began secreting a
 substance radically different from the 
other's1 a substance growing more       
individual with each elapsing century4  
,for almost two thousand years1 ,east   
and ,west developed away one from the   
other4  ,and now1 a second time1 in our 
own hour1 the two have drawn close and  
confronted each other4 ,once again1 a   

fusion has taken place4 ,we are to-day  
in the midst of a movement likely to    
surpass the period of ,hellenization in 
duration and extent4 ,this time1        
perhaps1 no dramatic march of           
,macedonians to the banks of the ,indus 
has served to make the connection4      
,nevertheless1 in the image of ,amy     
,lowell1 guns have again shown          
themselves keys4 ,for a couple of       
centuries1 great gates have been        
swinging throughout the ,east at the    
behest of frigates and armed            
merchantmen4 ,and slowly1 once again1   
,asia has been seeping into ,europe4    
,warm spicy gusts have been drifting    
over the ,west1 steadily permeating the 
air4 ,at first1 there appeared to be    
nothing serious in the infiltration4    
,the eighteenth century was apparently  
coquetting only with ,eastern motifs4   
,if ,chinese palaces put in their       
appearance at ,drottningholm and        
,pillnitz1 in all portions of the       
continent2 if ,chippendale began giving 

curious delicate twists to his          
furniture1 it seemed nothing more than a
 matter of caprice4 ,the zest for       
,persian letters1 ,oriental nouvelles1  
,turkish marches1 arose apparently only 
from the desire for masquerade4 ,gretry1
 ,mozart1 ,wieland1 scarcely took their 
seraglios1 pashas1 bulbuls earnestly4   
,but1 gradually1 with the arrival of the
 nineteenth century1 what had hitherto  
seemed play only1 began to assume a     
different shape4 ,the ,east was indeed  
dawning upon the ,west again4 ,the mists
 were being burned away4 ,through ,sir  
,william ,jones and ,friedrich          
,schlegel1 the wisdom of the dangerous  
slippery ,indies was opened to ,europe4 
,goethe1 as ever the outrider1 revealed 
the new orientation in his              
,west-,oestlicher ,divan and his        
,chinesich-,deutsche                    
,jahres-und-,tages-,zeiten4 ,in #ahbi1  
,victor ,hugo published ,les            
,orientales2 in #ahei1 ,fitzgerald his  
,omar4 ,if ,weber little more than toyed

 with ,chinese and ,turkish musical     
color in ,turandot and in ,oberon1      
,felicien ,david in his songs and in his
 ,le ,desert attempted seriously to     
infiltrate into ,european music the     
musical feeling of the ,levant4 ,in the 
corner of ,schopenhauer's apartment     
there sat an effigy of the ,buddha2     
volumes of the ,upanishads lay on his   
table4 ,in #ahfc for the first time1 a  
,paris shop offered for sale a few      
,japanese prints4 ,manet1 ,whistler1    
,monet1 the brothers ,de ,goncourt came 
and bought4 ,but though the craze for   
painting ,princesses du ,pays de la     
,porcelaine ended rapidly1 ,european    
painting was revolutionized4 ,surfaces  
once more came into being4 ,color was   
born again under the brushes of the     
impressionists and the                  
post-impressionists4 ,the sense of touch
 was freed4 ,in all the arts the art of 
,japan became powerful4 ,de ,maupassant 
wrote a prose that is full of the       
technique of the ,japanese prints2 that 

works chiefly through means of sharp    
little lines and dainty spotting4 ,all  
five senses were being born again4      
,people listened with new keenness to   
the sounds of instruments4 ,the ,russian
 sons of ,berlioz with their new        
orchestral chemistry arrived4 ,the      
orchestral machine expanded and grew    
subtle4 ,huysmans dreamt of symphonies  
of liqueurs1 concertos of perfumery4    
,and the new century1 when it came1     
showed that it was no deliberately      
assumed thing1 this fusion of ,oriental 
and ,occidental modes of feeling1 showed
 that it was a thing arising deep in the
 being4 ,something that had long lain   
inert had been reborn at the contact in 
,western men4 ,a part of personality    
that had lain dead had of a sudden been 
suffused with blood and warmth2 light   
played over a hemisphere of the mind    
long dark4 ,the very hand that drew1 the
 very mouth that matched words1 the very
 body that beat and curved and swayed in
 movement1 were ,western and ,eastern at

 the same time4 ,it was no longer the   
,greek conception of form that prevailed
 on the banks of the ,seine1 or wherever
 art was produced4 ,art was become      
again1 what the ,orientals had always   
known it to be1 significant form4 ,it   
was as though ,persia had been born     
again in ,henri ,matisse1 for instance4 
,a sense of design and color the like of
 which had hitherto been manifest only  
in the vases and bloomy carpets of      
,teheran dictated his exquisite         
patterns4 ,hokusai and ,outamaro got in 
,vincent ,van ,gogh a brother4 ,the     
sultry atmosphere and animal richness of
 ,hindoo art reappeared in ,gauguin's   
wood-cuts4 ,one has but to go to any    
really modern art1 whether produced in  
,paris or in ,munich or in ,new ,york1  
to see again the subtle browns and      
silvers and vermilions1 the delicate    
sensuous touch1 the infinitely various  
patterns1 the forms that carry with them
 the earth from ,arabia to ,japan4  ,as 
in the plastic arts1 so in poetry4 ,the 

imagists1 ,ezra ,pound in particular1   
were ,chinese long before they          
discovered ,cathay in the works of      
,ernest ,fennellosa4 ,and in music1     
certainly1 the ,east is on us2 has been 
on us since the ,russian five began     
their careers and expressed their own   
half-,european1 half-,mongol1 natures4  
,the stream has commenced setting since 
the ,arabian ,nights1 the ,persian      
odalisques1 the ,tartar tribesmen became
 music4 ,and the ,chinese sensibility of
 ,scriabine1 the ,oriental chromatics of
 the later ,rimsky-,korsakoff1 the      
sinuous scales and voluptuous colors and
 silken textures of ,debussy1 the shrill
 fantastic ,japanese idiom of           
,strawinsky1 have shown us the fusion   
was near4  ,but in the music of no      
composer is it as plainly evident as it 
is in that of ,ernest ,bloch4 ,in a work
 like this composer's suite for viola   
and piano1 one has a sense of a         
completeness of fusion such as no other 
gives4 ,here1 the ,west has advanced    

furthest east1 the ,east furthest west4 
,two things are balanced in the work1   
two things developed through a score of 
centuries by two uncommunicating        
regions4 ,the organizing power of       
,europe is married to the sensuousness  
of ,asia4 ,the virile formative power of
 the heirs of ,bach is here4 ,an        
extended form is solid as mountains1    
projects volumes through time4 ,one     
four-square movement is set atop        
another4 ,there is no weakening1 no     
slackening1 no drop4 ,one can put one's 
hand around these brown-gold blocks4    
,and at the same time1 this organizing  
power makes to live a dusky sensuality1 
a velvety richness of texture1 a        
sultriness and wetness that sets us amid
 the bronzed glowing wood-carvings of   
,africans1 the dark sunsets of ,ceylon1 
the pagodas in which the ,chinaman sits 
and sings of his felicity1 his family1  
his garden4 ,the lyric blue of ,chinese 
art1 the tropical forests with their    
horrid heat and dense growths and cruel 

animal life1 the ,polynesian seas of    
azure tulle1 the spice-laden breezes1   
chant here4 ,the monotony1 the          
melancholy1 the bitterness of the ,east1
 things that had hitherto sounded only  
from the darkly shining zither of the   
,arabs1 or from the deathly gongs and   
tam-tams of the ,mongolians1 speak      
through ,western instruments4 ,it is as 
though something had been brought out   
from a steaming ,burmese swamp and      
exposed to the terrible beat of a ,new  
,york thoroughfare1 and that out of that
 transplantation a matter utterly new   
and sad and strange1 favoring both      
father and mother1 and yet of a         
character distinctly individual1 had    
been created4  ,for no composer was     
better fitted by nature to receive the  
stimulus of the onrushing ,east4 ,as a  
,jew1 ,bloch carried within himself a   
fragment of the ,orient2 was in himself 
an outpost of the mother of continents4 
,and he is one of the few ,jewish       
composers really1 fundamentally         

self-expressive4 ,he is one of the few  
that have fully accepted themselves1    
fully accepted the fate that made them  
,jewish and stigmatized them4 ,after    
all1 it was not the fact that they were 
homeless as ,wagner pretended1 that     
prevented the company of ,meyerbeers and
 ,mendelssohns from creating4 ,it was   
rather more the fact that1 inwardly1    
they refused to accept themselves for   
what they were4 ,the weakness of their  
art is to be understood only as the     
result of the spiritual warfare that    
threatens to divide every ,jew against  
himself4 ,there was operative in them1  
whether they were aware of it or no1 a  
secret desire to escape their stigmata4 
,they were deliberately deaf to the     
promptings of the beings that were so   
firmly planted in the racial soil4 ,they
 were fugitive from the national        
consciousness4 ,the bourn of impulse was
 half stopped4 ,it was not that they did
 not write ,jewish music1 utilize solely
 racial scales and melodies4 ,the artist

 of ,jewish extraction need not do so to
 be saved4 ,the whole world is open     
before him4 ,he can express his day as  
he will4 ,one thing1 however1 is        
necessary4 ,he must not seek to inhibit 
any portion of his impulse4 ,he must not
 attempt to deny his modes of           
apprehension and realization because    
they are racially colored4 ,he must     
possess spiritual harmony4 ,the whole   
man must go into his expression4 ,and it
 was just the whole man who did not go  
into the work of the composers who have 
hitherto represented ,judaism in ,music4
 ,an inhibited1 harried impulse is      
manifest in their art4  ,for1 like      
,meyerbeer1 convinced of the            
worthlessness of their feelings1 they   
manufactured spectacles for the operatic
 stage1 and pandered to a taste which   
they least of all respected4 ,or1 like  
,mendelssohn1 they tried to adapt       
themselves to the alien atmosphere of   
,teutonic romance1 and produced a       
musical jargon that resembles nothing in

 the world so much as ,yiddish4 ,or1    
with ,rubinstein1 they gloved themselves
 in a pretty salon style in order to    
conceal all vestiges of the flesh1 or   
tried1 with ,gustav ,mahler1 to intone  
,ave ,maria4 ,some1 no doubt1 would have
 preferred to have been true to         
themselves4 ,goldmark 7the uncle7 is an 
example4 ,but his desire remained       
intention1 largely4 ,for his method was 
a trifle childish4 ,he conceived it as a
 lying on couches amid cushions1        
sniffing ,orient perfumes in            
scent-bottles4 ,he did not realize that 
the couch was the comfortable ,german   
canape1 the cushions the romantic style 
of ,weber and the early ,wagner1 and    
that through the        ,sabaean odors  
from the spicy shore      ,of ,araby the
 blest   there drifted the doubtlessly  
very appetizing smell of ,viennese      
cookery4  ,but there is music of ,ernest
 ,bloch that is a large1 a poignant1 an 
authentic expression of what is racial  
in the ,jew4 ,there is music of his that

 is authentic by virtue of qualities    
more fundamentally racial than the      
synagogical modes on which it bases     
itself1 the ,semitic pomp and color that
 inform it4 ,there are moments when one 
hears in this music the harsh and       
haughty accents of the ,hebrew tongue1  
sees the abrupt gestures of the ,hebrew 
soul1 feels the titanic burst of energy 
that created the race and carried it    
intact across lands and times1 out of   
the eternal ,egypt1 through the eternal 
,red ,sea4 ,there are moments when this 
music makes one feel as though an       
element that had remained unchanged     
throughout three thousand years1 an     
element that is in every ,jew and by    
which every ,jew must know himself and  
his descent1 were caught up in it and   
fixed there4 ,bloch has composed        
settings for the ,psalms that are the   
very impulse of the ,davidic hymns      
incarnate in another medium2 make it    
seem as though the genius that had once 
flowered at the court of the king had   

attained miraculous second blooming4    
,the setting of the #aadth ,psalm is the
 very voice of the rejoicing over the   
passage of the ,red ,sea1 the very lusty
 blowing on ox horns1 the very hieratic 
dance4 ,the voice of ,jehovah1 has it   
spoken to those who throughout the ages 
have called for it much differently than
 it speaks at the close of ,bloch's     
#bbnd ,psalm8  ,and it is something like
 the voice of ,job that speaks in the   
desolation of the third of the ,poemes  
juives4 ,once again1 the ,ecclesiast    
utters his disillusion1 his cruel       
disappointment1 his sense of the utter  
vanity of existence in the soliloquy of 
the 'cello in the rhapsody ,schelomo4   
,once again1 the tent of the tabernacle 
that ,jehovah ordered ,moses to erect in
 the wilderness1 and hang with curtains 
and with veils1 lifts itself in the     
introduction to the symphony ,israel4   
,the great kingly limbs and beard and   
bosom of ,abraham are1 once again1 in   
the first movement of the work2 the     

dark1 grave1 soft-eyed women of the ,old
 ,testament1 ,rebecca1 ,rachel1 ,ruth1  
re-appear in the second1 with its       
flowing voices4  ,racial traits abound  
in this body of work4 ,these ponderous  
forms1 these sudden movements1 these    
imperious1 barbaric1 ritual trumpet     
blasts1 bring to mind all one knows of  
,semitic art1 recall the crowned winged 
bulls of the ,assyrians as well as      
,flaubert's ,carthage1 with its         
pyramided temples and cisterns and      
neighing horses in the acropolis4       
,bloch's themes oftentimes have the     
subtle1 far-flung1 monotonous line of   
the synagogic chants4 ,many of his      
melodic bits1 although pure inventions1 
are indubitably hereditary4 ,the mode of
 a race is1 after all1 but the          
intensified inflection of its speech4   
,and ,bloch's melodic line1 with its    
strange intervals1 its occasional       
quarter notes1 approximates curiously to
 the inflections of the ,hebrew tongue4 
,like so much of the ,gregorian chant1  

which it oftentimes recalls1 one can    
conceive this music as part of the      
,temple service in ,jerusalem4 ,and like
 the melodic line1 so1 too1 the phrases 
assigned to the trumpets in the setting 
of the three ,psalms and in the symphony
 ,israel4 ,they1 also1 might once have  
resounded through the courts of ,herod's
 temple4 ,the unusual accents1 the      
unusual intervals1 give the instruments 
a timbre at once imperious1 barbaric1   
ritual4 ,and how different from the     
theatric ,orientalism of so many of the 
,russians are the crude dissonances of  
,bloch1 the terrible consecutive fourths
 and fifths1 the impetuous rhythms1     
savage and frenetic in their emphasis4  
,this music is shrill and tawny and     
bitter with the desert4 ,its flavor is  
indeed new to ,european music4          
,certainly1 in the province of the      
string quartet1 nothing quite like the  
salty and acrid1 the fruity1 drugging   
savor of ,bloch's work1 has ever before 
appeared4  ,and it was not until the    

,jewish note appeared in his work that  
,bloch spoke his proper language4 ,the  
works that precede the ,trois ,poemes   
juives1 the first of his compositions in
 which the racial gesture is consciously
 made1 do not really represent the man  
as he is4 ,no doubt1 the brilliant and  
ironic scherzo of the ,c-sharp minor    
,symphony1 whose verve and passion and  
vigor make the composer of ,l',apprenti 
sorcier seem apprentice indeed1 is      
already characteristic of the composer  
of the string quartet and the suite for 
viola and piano4 ,but much of the       
symphony is derivative4 ,one glimpses   
the influence of ,liszt and ,tchaikowsky
 and ,strauss in it4 ,so too with the   
opera ,macbeth1 written a few years     
after the composition of the symphony1  
when the composer was twenty-four4      
,despite the effectiveness of the       
setting it gives the melodrama cleverly 
abstracted from ,shakespeare's tragedy  
by ,edmond ,flegg1 the score bears a    
still undecided signature4 ,one feels   

that the composer has recently          
encountered the personalities of        
,moussorgsky and ,debussy4 ,no doubt1   
one begins to sense the proper          
personality of ,bloch in the delicate   
coloring of the two little orchestral   
sketches ,hiver-,printemps1 in the      
mournful ,english horn against the harp 
in ,hiver1 in the chirruping hurdy-gurdy
 commencement of ,printemps4            
,unfortunately1 the cantilena in the    
second number still points backward4    
,but with the ,trois ,poemes juives1 the
 original ,bloch is at hand4 ,these     
compositions were conceived at first as 
studies for ,jezabel1 the opera ,bloch  
intended composing directly after he had
 completed the scoring of ,macbeth in   
#aijd4 ,to-day1 ,jezabel still exists   
only in the libretto of ,flegg and in   
the series of sketches deposited in the 
composer's portfolio4 ,the moment in    
which ,bloch is to find it possible for 
him to realize the work has not yet     
arrived4 ,planned at first to follow    

directly upon ,macbeth1 ,jezabel        
promises fairly to become the goal of   
his first great creative period4 ,but   
out of the conception of the opera      
itself1 out of the desire of creating a 
work around this ,old ,testamentary     
figure1 out of the train of emotion     
excited by the project1 there have      
already flowed results of a first       
magnitude for ,bloch and for modern     
music4 ,for in the process of searching 
out a style befitting this biblical     
drama1 and in the effort to master the  
idiom necessary to it1 ,bloch executed  
the compositions that have placed him so
 eminently in the company of the few    
modern masters4 ,the three ,psalms1     
,schelomo1 ,israel1 portions of the     
quartet1 have but trodden further in the
 direction marked out by the ,trois     
,poemes juives4 ,jezabel has turned out 
to be one of those dreams that lead men 
on to the knowledge of themselves4  ,and
 yet1 the ,jewish composer that the man 
is so often said to be1 he most surely  

is not4 ,he is too much the man of his  
time1 too much the universal genius1 to 
be thus placed in a single category4    
,his art succeeds to that of            
,moussorgsky and ,debussy quite as much 
as does that of ,strawinsky and ,ravel2 
he rests quite as heavily on the great  
,european traditions of music as he does
 on his own hereditary strain4 ,indeed1 
he is of the modern masters one of those
 the most conscious of the tradition of 
his art4 ,he falls heir to ,bach and to 
,haydn and to ,beethoven quite as much  
as any living musician4 ,quite as much  
as that of any other his music is an    
image of the time4 ,in the quartet1 his 
magistral work1 the ,hebraic element is 
only one of several4 ,the trio of the   
scherzo is like a section of some       
,polynesian forest1 with its tropic     
warmth1 its monstrous growths1 its      
swampy earth1 its chattering monkeys and
 birds of paradise4 ,there is the beat  
of the age of steel in the finale4 ,and 
the delicate ,pastorale is redolent of  

the gentle fields of ,europe1 smells of 
the hay1 gives again the nun-like close 
of day in temperate skies4 ,it is only  
that as a ,jew it was necessary for     
,ernest ,bloch to say yea to his own    
heredity before his genius could appear4
 ,and to what a degree it has appeared1 
one can gauge from the intensity with   
which his age mirrors itself in the     
music he has already composed4 ,his     
music is the modern man in his lately   
gotten sense of the tininess of the     
human elements in the race1 the enormity
 of the animal past4 ,for ,ernest       
,bloch1 the primeval forest with its    
thick spawning life1 its ferocious      
beasts1 its brutish phallic-worshiping  
humanity1 is still here4 ,before him    
there still lie the hundreds and        
hundreds of thousands of years of       
development necessary to make a sapient 
creature of man4 ,and he writes like one
 who has been plunged into a darkness   
and sadness and bitterness all the      
greater for the vision of the rainbow   

that has been given him1 for the glimpse
 he has had of the pays du soleil1 the  
land of man lifting himself at last from
 the brute and becoming human4 ,for he  
knows too well that only aeons after he 
is dead will the night finally pass4    
,and he is the modern insomuch as the   
fusion of ,east and ,west is illuminated
 by what he does4 ,the coloration of his
 orchestra1 the cries of his            
instruments1 the line of his melody1 the
 throbbing of his pulses1 make us feel  
the great tide sweeping us on1 the wave 
rolling over all the world4 ,in his art1
 we feel the earth itself turning toward
 the light of the ,east4     ,,appendix 
,,wagner  ,wilhelm ,richard ,wagner was 
born in ,leipzig on ,may #bbnd1 #ahac4  
,he died in ,venice ,february #acth1    
#ahhc4 ,the facts of his career are too 
well known to justify rehearsal4  ,the  
dates of the composition and first      
performances of his operas are3 ,rienzi1
 #ahch-dj2 premiere in ,dresden1 #ahdb4 
,tannhaeuser1 #ahdc-de 7,paris version1 

#ahfj72 ,dresden1 #ahde4 ,lohengrin1    
#ahde-dh2 ,weimar1 #ahej4 ,das          
,rheingold1 #ahdh-ec2 ,munich1 #ahfi4   
,die ,walkuere1 #ahdh-ef2 ,munich1      
#ahgj4 ,tristan und ,isolde1 #aheg-ei2  
,munich1 #ahfe4 ,siegfried1 #aheg-fi2   
,bayreuth1 #ahgf4 ,die ,meistersinger   
von ,nuernberg1 #ahfa-fg2 ,munich1      
#ahfh4 ,die ,goetterdaemmerung1         
#ahgj-gd2 ,bayreuth1 #ahgf4 ,parsifal1  
#ahgf-hb2 ,bayreuth1 #ahhb4   ,,strauss 
,richard ,strauss was born in ,munich   
,june #aath1 #ahfd4 ,his father1 ,franz 
,strauss1 was first horn-player in the  
,munich ,court ,orchestra4 ,his mother  
was the daughter of the beer brewer1    
,georg ,pschorr4 ,he began composing at 
the tender age of six4 ,from #ahgj to   
#ahgd he attended the elementary school 
at ,munich4 ,in #ahgd he matriculated at
 the ,gymnasium1 and remained there     
until #ahhb4 ,during the next year he   
attended lectures at the ,university of 
,munich4 ,from #ahge to #ahhj he studied
 harmony1 counterpoint and              

instrumentation with ,hofkapellmeister  
,f4 ,w4 ,meyer4 ,his compositions were  
performed publicly from #ahhj on4 ,in   
#ahhe he made the acquaintance of       
,alexander ,ritter1 who1 together with  
,hans von ,buelow1 is supposed to have  
converted young ,strauss1 until then a  
good ,brahmsian1 to ,wagnerism and      
modernism4 ,in #ahhe at ,buelow's       
invitation1 ,strauss conducted a concert
 of the ,meiningen ,orchestra4 ,in      
,november of that year he succeeded     
,buelow as conductor of the             
organization4 ,in #ahhf he become third 
,kapellmeister at the ,munich ,opera2 in
 #ahhi1 director at ,weimar4 #ahib-c was
 spent in ,egypt and ,sicily after an   
attack of inflammation of the lungs4 ,in
 #ahid he became chief ,kapellmeister at
 ,munich4 ,in #ahie his ,european       
concert-tours commenced4 ,he conducted  
in ,budapest1 ,brussels1 ,moscow1       
,amsterdam1 ,london1 ,barcelona1 ,paris1
 ,zuerich and ,madrid4 ,in #ahih he     
became conductor of the ,berlin ,royal  

,opera4 ,in #aijd he came to ,america to
 conduct at four festival concerts given
 in his honor in ,new ,york4 ,in one    
month he gave twenty-one concerts in    
different cities with nearly as many    
orchestras4 ,the tour ended with the    
hubbub over the fact that ,strauss had  
conducted a concert in ,john            
,wanamaker's4 ,since #ahih ,strauss has 
resided chiefly in ,charlottenburg and1 
in the summer1 at ,marquardstein near   
,garmisch4  ,the dates of the           
composition of his principal works are3 
,serenade for ,wind ,instruments1 ,opus 
#g1 #ahhb-hc2 ,eight ,songs1 ,opus #aj1 
#ahhb-hc2 ,aus ,italien1 ,opus #af1     
#ahhf2 ,don ,juan1 ,opus #bj1 #ahhh2    
,tod und ,verklaerung1 ,opus #bd1 #ahhi2
 ,four ,songs1 ,opus #bg1 #ahib-ic2     
,till ,eulenspiegel's ,lustige          
,streiche1 ,opus #bh1 #ahid-ie2 ,three  
,songs1 ,opus #bi1 #ahid-ie2 ,also      
,sprach ,zarathustra1 ,opus #cj1        
#ahid-ie2 ,don ,quixote1 ,opus #ce1     
#ahig2 ,ein ,heldenleben1 ,opus #dj1    

#ahih2 ,feuersnot1 ,opus #ej1 #aijj-ja2 
,taillefer1 ,opus #eb1 #aijc2 ,sinfonia 
,domestica1 ,opus #ec1 #aijc2 ,salome1  
,opus #ed1 #aijd-je2 ,elektra1 ,opus    
#eh1 #aijf-jh2 ,der ,rosenkavalier1     
,opus #ei1 #aiji-aj2 ,ariadne auf       
,naxos1 ,opus #fj1 #aiaa-ab2 ,josef's   
,legende1 #aiac2 ,eine ,alpensymphonie1 
#aiad-ae2 ,die ,frau ohne ,schatten1    
#aiae-ag4   ,,moussorgsky  ,modest      
,petrovitch ,moussorgsky was born ,march
 #afth1 #ahci1 in the village of ,karevo
 in the government of ,pskow1 ,russia4  
,his parents were members of the lesser 
nobility4 ,his mother gave him his first
 piano lessons4 ,at the age of ten he   
was sent to the ,school of ,st4 ,peter  
and ,st4 ,paul in ,petrograd4 ,his      
piano-studies were continued with a     
certain ,professor ,herke4 ,at the age  
of twelve he played in public a ,rondo  
de concert by ,herz4 ,in #aheb he       
matriculated at the school for ensigns1 
and the same year had his first         
composition1 a polka1 published4 ,in    

#ahef1 while serving as an officer in   
the ,preobrajensky ,guards1 he made the 
acquaintance of ,borodin4 ,soon after1  
he met ,dargomyjski4 ,it was with him   
that1 in his own words1 he for the first
 time lived the musical life4 ,later1 he
 became acquainted also with ,cui1      
,balakirew and ,rimsky-,korsakoff4 ,he  
took lessons in composition of          
,balakirew1 and finally realized what   
his direction really was4 ,a nervous    
malady prevented him from working in    
#ahei4 ,but directly after his          
convalescence1 he resigned from the     
guards1 and set to work in earnest4 ,in 
order to support himself1 he accepted a 
position in the government service4 ,he 
lived in ,petrograd with five friends4  
,in #ahfe he was once more attacked by  
his malady1 and had to retire to the    
country for three years4 ,in #ahfi he   
returned to ,petrograd1 living with his 
friends the ,opotchinines4 ,his moment  
of success came in #ahgd1 with the      
performance of ,boris4 ,directly after1 

his health commenced to fail4 ,in #ahgi 
he resigned his office1 and sought to   
support himself by playing              
accompaniments4 ,he died in #ahha in a  
military hospital4  ,the dates of       
composition of his principal works are3 
,boris ,godounow1 #ahfh-ga2             
,khovanchtchina1 #ahgb-ha2 ,the         
,marriage 7one act71 #ahfh2 ,the ,fair  
at ,sorotchinsk 7fragment71 #ahgg-ha2   
,the ,defeat of ,sennacherib1 #ahfg-gd2 
,jesus ,navine1 #ahgg2 ,sans ,soleil1   
#ahgd2 ,la ,chambre d',enfants1 #ahgd2  
,chants et ,danses de la ,mort1 #ahge2  
,marcia all ,turka1 #ahhj2 ,la ,nuit sur
 le ,mont-,chauve1 #ahfg-ge2 ,tableaux  
d'une ,exposition1 #ahgd2 ,hopak1 #ahgg4
   ,,liszt  ,franz ,liszt was born near 
,odenburg1 ,hungary1 ,october #bbnd1    
#ahaa4 ,he died in ,bayreuth1 ,july     
#cast1 #ahhf4 ,he played in public for  
the first time at the age of nine1 in   
,odenburg4 ,in #ahbi he came to ,vienna1
 remaining there eighteen months        
studying piano under ,czerny1 and       

composition with ,salieri4 ,he then was 
taken to ,paris1 where he studied under 
,reicha till #ahbe4 ,in #ahca he heard  
,paganini play4 ,it is supposed that he 
was so impressed that he decided to     
become the ,paganini of the piano4 ,he  
was very much in demand in ,paris as an 
artist4 ,in #ahce he carried the        
,comtesse d',agoult off from a ball1 and
 went with her to ,geneva4 ,he remained 
in ,geneva until #ahci1 when his        
triumphal progresses through ,europe    
commenced4 ,in #ahdh he became          
,kapellmeister in ,weimar4 ,here1 he    
caused ,lohengrin to be produced1 and   
had ,der ,fliegende ,hollaender and     
,tannhaeuser1 as well as operas of      
,berlioz and ,schumann1 revived4 ,it was
 while he was in ,weimar that he formed 
a relationship with the ,princess       
,sayn-,wittgenstein4 ,in #ahei he went  
to ,rome1 where he remained till #ahgj4 
,in #ahff ,pius ,,ix made him an ,abbe4 
,after #ahgj he returned to ,weimar1    
living there and in ,budapest and in    

,rome4  ,his principal orchestral works 
are3 ,eine ,faustsymphonie1 ,dante1     
,bergsymphonie1 ,tasso1 ,les ,preludes1 
,orpheus1 ,mazeppa1 ,hungaria1          
,hunnenschlacht1 ,die ,ideale1 ,two     
,episodes from ,lenau's ,faust1 etc4    
,his principal choral works are ,die    
,legende von der ,heiligen ,elisabeth   
and ,christus4  ,his principal          
compositions for the pianoforte are3    
,sonata in ,b-minor1 ,concerto in       
,e-flat1 ,concerto in ,a1 ,annees de    
pelerinage1 ,consolations1 ,two         
,legendes1 ,liebestraeume1 ,six         
,preludes and ,fugues 7,bach71 etc41    
etc4 ,also innumerable transcriptions4  
,,berlioz  ,louis ,hector ,berlioz was  
born at ,la ,cote ,saint-,andre near    
,grenoble on ,december #aath1 #ahjc4    
,his father was a physician1 and wished 
his son to follow his profession4 ,so   
,hector was sent to ,paris to study4    
,instead of studying medicine he        
commenced to compose4 ,a mass of his was
 performed at ,saint-,roch in #ahbd4 ,in

 #ahbf he sought to enter the           
,conservatoire1 but failed in the       
preliminary examination4 ,in #ahbg1     
#ahbh and #ahbi1 he competed for the    
,prix de ,rome1 and failed4 ,in #ahcj he
 finally secured it4 ,while in ,rome in 
#ahca1 he composed the ,symphonie       
,fantastique and ,lelio4 ,in #ahcc he   
married his adored ,miss ,smithson4 ,in 
#ahcd ,harold was performed for the     
first time4 ,the ,requiem was composed  
in #ahcf1 ,benvenuto ,cellini in #ahcg1 
,romeo in #ahci4 ,in #ahdj ,berlioz made
 his first journey to ,brussels2 in     
#ahdb-dc he toured ,germany4 ,the       
,carnaval ,romain was performed in      
#ahdd4 ,in #ahde-df ,berlioz gave       
numerous concerts in ,france1 and toured
 ,austria and ,hungary4 ,in ,december of
 the latter year ,la ,damnation de      
,faust failed at the ,opera ,comique4   
,in #ahdg ,berlioz went to ,russia and  
to ,england for the first time4 ,in     
#ahdi he began work on his ,te ,deum2 in
 #ahej on ,l',enfance du ,christ4 ,the  

next years were spent in conducting4 ,in
 #ahed1 on the death of his wife1 he    
married ,mlle4 ,recio4 ,in #ahef we find
 ,berlioz in ,north ,germany1 ,brussels 
and ,london4 ,he began the composition  
of ,les ,troyens the same year4 ,at its 
performance in #ahfc1 the work failed4  
,his last years were darkened by the    
death of his wife and son4 ,he died     
,march #hth1 #ahfi1 in ,paris4          
,,franck  ,cesar-,auguste ,franck was   
born at ,liege1 ,belgium1 ,december     
#ajth1 #ahbb4 ,his father hoped to make 
a piano-virtuoso of him1 and supervised 
his musical education4 ,at the age of   
eleven the young ,franck was touring    
,belgium as a pianist4 ,in #ahce the    
family emigrated to ,paris1 and two     
years later ,cesar was admitted to the  
,conservatoire4 ,he studied composition 
with ,leborne and the piano with        
,zimmermann4 ,he took the first prize   
for fugue in #ahdj4 ,in #ahdb his father
 compelled him to leave the             
,conservatory and return to ,belgium1   

but two years later he was once more in 
,paris1 seeking to gain his living by   
teaching and playing4 ,ruth was         
performed in #ahdf4 ,he was married in  
#ahdh4 ,in #ahea he was appointed       
organist at the church of               
,saint-,jean-,saint-,francois1 later of 
the church of ,sainte-,clotilde1 which  
post he occupied during the remainder of
 his years4 ,in #ahgb he was appointed  
professor of organ-playing at the       
,conservatoire4 ,redemption was         
performed in #ahgc4 ,les ,beatitudes was
 performed for the first time in #ahhj4 
,shortly after1 the professorship of    
composition at the ,conservatory was    
refused him1 and five years later he was
 decorated with the ribbon of the       
,legion of ,honor as professor of       
organ-playing4 ,in #ahhg a ,festival    
,franck was given under the direction of
 ,pasdeloup at the ,cirque d'hiver4 ,his
 symphony was performed for the first   
time in #ahhi4 ,he died ,november #hth1 
#ahij4  ,the dates of the composition of

 his principal works are as follows3    
,ruth1 #ahdc-df2 ,six pieces pour grand 
orgue1 #ahfj-fb2 ,trois offertoires1    
#ahga2 ,redemption1 #ahga-gb 7first     
version71 #ahgd 7second version72       
,prelude1 fugue et variation1 #ahgc2    
,trois pieces pour grand orgue1 #ahgh2  
,string-quintet1 #ahgh-gi2 ,les         
,beatitudes1 #ahfi-gi2 ,le ,chasseur    
maudit1 #ahhb2 ,les ,djinns1 #ahhd2     
,prelude1 choral et fugue1 #ahhd2       
,hulda1 #ahhb-he2 ,variations           
symphoniques1 #ahhe2 ,sonate1 #ahhf2    
,prelude1 aria et finale1 #ahhf-hg2     
,psyche1 #ahhg-hh2 ,symphonie1 #ahhf-hh2
 ,quatuor1 #ahhi2 ,trois chorales1      
#ahij4   ,,debussy  ,claude-,achille    
,debussy was born ,august #bbnd1 #ahfb1 
at ,saint-,germain-en-,laye4 ,he died at
 ,paris ,march #bbnd1 #aiah4 ,he entered
 the ,conservatoire at the age of       
twelve1 studying harmony with ,lavignac 
and piano with ,marmontel4 ,at the age  
of eighteen1 he paid a brief visit to   
,russia4 ,but it was not until several  

years later that he became acquainted   
with the score of ,boris ,godounow1     
which was destined to have so great an  
influence on his life1 and precipitate  
his revolt from ,wagnerism4 ,in #ahhd he
 gained the ,prix de ,rome with his     
cantata ,l',enfant prodigue4 ,during his
 three-year stay at the ,villa ,medici  
he composed ,printemps and ,la          
,damoiselle elue4 ,ariettes oubliees    
were published in #ahhh1 followed1 in   
#ahij1 by ,cinq poemes de ,baudelaire2  
in #ahic by the string-quartet and the  
,prelude a 'l',apres-midi d'un faune'2  
in #ahid by ,proses lyriques2 and in    
#ahih by ,les ,chansons de ,bilitis4    
,the ,nocturnes were performed for the  
first time in #ahii4 ,pelleas1 upon     
which ,debussy had been working for ten 
years1 was produced at the ,opera       
,comique in #aijb4 ,in #aijc1 ,estampes 
were published4 ,masques1 ,l',isle      
joyeuse1 ,danses pour harp chromatique  
and ,trois chansons de ,france were     
published in #aijd4 ,the following year 

saw the disclosure of the first book of 
,images for piano and of ,la ,mer4 ,the 
second book of ,images appeared in      
#aijf2 ,iberia in #aijg2 ,trois chansons
 de ,charles d',orleans and the         
,children's ,corner in #aijh4 ,rondes de
 ,printemps was performed for the first 
time in #aiji4 ,in #aiaj there appeared 
,trois ballades de ,francois ,villon and
 the first book of ,preludes for piano4 
,it was in the incidental music to      
d',annunzio's ,le ,martyre de           
,saint-,sebastien1 performed in #aiaa1  
that ,debussy's genius showed itself for
 the last time in any fullness4 ,in     
#aiab ,gigues were performed2 in #aiac  
there appeared the second book of       
,preludes for piano4 ,the works produced
 subsequently are of much smaller       
importance4   ,,ravel  ,maurice ,ravel  
was born in ,ciboure1 ,basses-,pyrenees1
 ,march #gth1 #ahge4 ,shortly after his 
birth1 his family moved to ,paris4      
,henri ,ghis was his first              
piano-teacher1 ,charles-,rene his first 

teacher of composition4 ,he took        
piano-lessons of ,ricardo ,vines1 and in
 #ahia was awarded a premiere medaille  
in piano-playing at the ,conservatoire4 
,in #ahig ,ravel entered the class of   
,faure4 ,in #ahih1 his ,sites           
auriculaires were publicly performed4   
,in #aija he failed for the first time  
to gain the ,prix de ,rome4 ,his quartet
 was performed in #aijd4 ,in #aijc he   
failed for the fourth time to gain the  
,prix de ,rome4 ,histoires naturelles   
were performed in #aijg1 the ,rapsodie  
espagnole in #aijh4 ,l',heure espagnole 
was given at the ,opera ,comique in     
#aiaa4 ,daphnis et ,chloe was performed 
by the ,russian ,ballet in #aiab4       
,during the war ,ravel served as        
ambulance driver4 ,he was wounded while 
serving before ,verdun1 and dismissed   
from service4 ,he is living at present  
in ,paris4  ,the dates of composition of
 his principal works are3  ,miroirs1    
#aije2 ,sonatine1 #aije2 ,gaspard de la 
,nuit1 #aijh2 ,valses nobles et         

sentimentales1 #aiaa2 ,ma ,mere l',oye1 
#aijh2 ,histoires naturelles1 #aijf2    
,cinq ,melodies populaires grecques1    
#aijg2 ,trois ,poemes de ,mallarme1     
#aiac2 ,quatuor a cordes1 #aijb-jc2     
,introduction et ,allegro pour harpe1   
#aijf2 ,rapsodie espagnole1 #aijg2      
,daphnis et ,chloe1 #aijf-aa2 ,l',heure 
espagnole1 #aijg2 ,le ,tombeau de       
,couperin1 #aiad-ag4   ,,borodin        
,alexander ,porfirievitch ,borodin was  
born in ,petrograd ,november #abth1     
#ahcd1 and died there ,february #bgth1  
#ahhg4   ,,rimsky-,,korsakoff  ,nikolai 
,andreyevitch ,rimsky-,korsakoff was    
born ,march #fth1 #ahdd1 at ,tikhvin1 in
 the government of ,novgorod1 ,russia4  
,his father was a civil governor and    
landed proprietor4 ,he began to study   
the pianoforte at the age of six4 ,he   
was destined for a career in the navy1  
and1 in #ahef1 he was sent to study at  
the ,petrograd ,naval ,college4 ,in     
#ahfa he made the acquaintance of       
,balakirew and of the group about him4  

,after a two-year cruise in the navy1   
,rimsky returned to ,petrograd in #ahfe4
 ,in #ahff he was installed in furnished
 rooms1 having decided upon becoming a  
composer4 ,he began work on ,antar in   
#ahfh4 ,it was performed the following  
year4 ,in #ahga he became professor of  
composition and orchestration at the    
,petrograd ,conservatory4 ,in #ahgb his 
opera ,the ,maid of ,pskof was produced4
 ,rimsky married1 on ,june #cjth of that
 year1 ,nadejeda ,pourgold4 ,moussorgsky
 was best man at the ceremony4 ,in #ahgc
 he became ,inspector of ,naval ,bands4 
,in #ahgd he toured the ,crimea4 ,in    
#ahhc he was called upon to reorganize  
the ,imperial chapel4 ,in #ahhi he      
conducted two ,russian concerts at the  
,paris ,exposition4 ,in the following   
year he conducted two ,russian concerts 
in ,brussels4 ,he resigned his position 
as conductor of the ,russian ,symphony  
concerts and the inspectorship of the   
,imperial chapel in #ahid4 ,in #aijj he 
was in ,brussels again4 ,in #aijd1 due  

to his political views1 he was called   
upon to vacate his post of ,director of 
the ,conservatory4 ,he attended the     
,russian festival in ,paris in the      
spring of #aijg4 ,the ,french ,society  
of ,composers1 however1 refused to admit
 him to membership4 ,he died in ,april1 
#aijh1 at his property at ,lioubensk4   
,the titles of his operas are3 ,the     
,maid of ,pskof1 #ahgb2 ,a ,night in    
,may1 #ahhj2 ,sniegouroschka1 #ahhb2    
,mlada1 #ahib2 ,christmas ,eve ,revels1 
#ahie2 ,sadko1 #ahig2 ,mozart and       
,salieri1 #ahih2 ,boyarina ,vera        
,sheloga1 #ahih2 ,the ,tsar's ,bride1   
#ahii2 ,the ,tale of ,tsar ,saltan1     
#aijj2 ,servilia1 #aijb2 ,kashchei the  
,immortal1 #aijb2 ,pan ,voyevoda1 #aijb2
 ,kitj1 #aijg2 ,le ,coq d'or1 #aijg4    
,among his orchestral compositions are3 
,symphony ,no4 #a1 ,serbian ,fantasy1   
,opus #f2 ,symphonic ,suite ,antar1     
,opus #i2 ,symphony1 ,opus #cb4 ,spanish
 ,caprice1 ,opus #cd2 ,scheherazade1    
,opus #ce2 ,easter ,overture1 ,opus #cf4

   ,,rachmaninoff  ,sergei              
,vassilievitch ,rachmaninoff was born   
,march #bith1 #ahgc1 at ,onega in the   
government of ,novgorod1 ,russia4 ,he   
entered the ,petrograd ,conservatory in 
#ahhb1 studying piano in the class of   
,demyaresky1 theory in that of          
,professor ,l4 ,a4 ,sacchetti4 ,in #ahhe
 he entered the ,moscow ,conservatory1  
studying under ,zviereiff1 ,taneyef and 
,arensky4 ,his first public appearance  
as a pianist took place in #ahib4 ,he   
has been composing steadily since #ahid4
 ,his first symphony was produced by    
,glazounof in #ahie4 ,his ,european     
tours commenced in #ahii4 ,in #aijc he  
taught in the ,moscow ,maryinsky        
,institute4 ,from #aijd to #aijf he     
conducted at the ,imperial ,opera in    
,moscow4 ,his own operas1 ,the ,miser   
,knight and ,francesca da ,rimini1 were 
performed at that time4 ,after #aijg he 
lived in ,dresden4 ,his first ,american 
tour took place in #aiji4 ,his second   
began in #aiah4  ,among ,rachmaninoff's 

works are three operas1 ,aleko1 ,the    
,miser ,knight1 ,francesca da ,rimini2  
two symphonies1 ,opus #ac and ,opus #bg2
 three concertos for pianoforte1 ,opus  
#a1 #ah and #cj2 a symphonic poem ,die  
,toteninsel1 ,opus #bi2 a work for      
chorus and orchestra1 ,the ,bells2 two  
'cello sonatas1 ,opus #ai and ,opus #bh2
 a pianoforte trio1 ,opus #i2 piano     
pieces1 ,opera #c1 #e1 #aj1 #af1 #bc1   
#cb2 and numerous songs4   ,,scriabine  
,alexander ,nicolas ,scriabine was born 
in ,moscow in #ahga1 of aristocratic    
parents4 ,in his tenth year he was      
placed in the #bnd ,moscow ,army ,cadet 
,corps4 ,his first piano lessons were   
taken from ,g4 ,a4 ,conus4 ,musical     
theory he studied with ,professor ,s4   
,i4 ,taneieff4 ,while still continuing  
the ,cadet courses1 he was enrolled as a
 student at the ,moscow ,conservatory of
 ,music4 ,he studied the pianoforte with
 ,vassily ,safonoff1 counterpoint first 
with ,taneieff and later with ,arensky4 
,his studies both in the ,conservatory  

and in the corps were completed by      
#ahia4 ,in #ahib he toured ,europe for  
the first time as pianist1 playing in   
,amsterdam1 ,brussels1 ,the ,hague1     
,paris1 ,berlin1 ,moscow and ,petrograd4
 ,the next five years ,scriabine devoted
 to both concert-tours and composition4 
,in #ahig he became ,professor of       
,pianoforte1 playing at the ,moscow     
conservatory1 remaining such for six    
years4 ,he resigned from his post in    
#aijc in order to devote himself        
entirely to composition and             
concertizing1 living principally in     
,beattenberg1 ,switzerland1 and in      
,paris4 ,it is during that time that he 
seems to have been converted to         
,theosophy4 ,he spent #aije-jf in ,genoa
 and in ,geneva4 ,in ,february1 #aijf1  
,scriabine embarked on a tour of the    
,united ,states4 ,he played in ,new     
,york ,city1 ,chicago1 ,washington1     
,cincinnati and other cities4 ,the next 
years were spent in ,beattenberg1       
,lausanne and ,biarritz4 ,from #aijh to 

#aiaj1 ,scriabine lived in ,brussels4   
,then he returned to ,moscow1 touring   
,russia in #aiaj1 #aiaa and #aiab4 ,in  
#aiad he visited ,england for the first 
time4 ,returning to ,russia just before 
the outbreak of the war1 he set about on
 a work involving the unification of all
 the arts entitled ,mysterium4 ,on      
,april #gth1 #aiae1 he was taken ill    
with blood-poisoning4 ,on ,april #adth  
he was dead4  ,his principal orchestral 
works are3 ,le ,poeme divine1 ,opus #dc2
 ,le ,poeme de l',extase1 ,opus #ed2 and
 ,prometheus1 ,opus #fj4 ,it is not easy
 to say which of his many compositions  
for the pianoforte are the most         
important4 ,sonata ,no4 #g1 ,opus #fd2  
,sonata ,no4 #h1 ,opus #ff2 ,sonata ,no4
 #i1 ,opus #fh2 and ,sonata ,no4 #aj1   
,opus #gj2 are perhaps the most         
magistral4   ,,strawinsky  ,igor        
,fedorovitch ,strawinsky was born at    
,oranienbaum near ,petrograd1 ,june     
#eth1 #ahhb4 ,his father was a bass     
singer attached to the court4 ,igor was 

destined for a legal career4 ,but in    
#aijb he met ,rimsky-,korsakoff in      
,heidelberg1 and abandoned all idea of  
studying the law4 ,he studied with      
,rimsky till #aijf4 ,his ,scherzo       
fantastique1 inspired by ,maeterlinck's 
,life of the ,bee1 which was produced in
 #aijh1 attracted the attention of      
,sergei ,diaghilew to the young         
composer1 and secured him a commission  
to write a ballet for ,diaghilew's      
organization4 ,the immediate result was 
,l',oiseau de feu1 which was composed   
and produced in #aiaj4 ,petruschka was  
written in #aiaa1 the composer residing 
in ,rome at the time4 ,le ,sacre du     
printemps was written in ,clarens1 where
 ,strawinsky generally lives4 ,it was   
produced in ,paris in #aiac4 ,the opera 
,le ,rossignol1 of which one act was    
completed in #aiji1 and two in #aiad1   
was produced in ,paris and in ,london   
just before the war4 ,a new ballet ,les 
,noces villageoises has not as yet been 
produced4  ,other of ,strawinsky's      

compositions are3  ,opus #a1 ,symphony  
in ,e-flat2 ,opus #b1 ,le ,faune et la  
,bergere1 songs with orchestral         
accompaniment2 ,opus #c1 ,scherzo       
fantastique2 ,opus #d1 ,feuerswerk2     
,opus #e1 ,chant funebre in memory of   
,rimsky-,korsakoff2 ,opus #f1 ,four     
,studies for the pianoforte2 ,opus #g1  
,two songs2 ,les ,rois des ,etoiles1 for
 chorus and orchestra2 ,three songs on  
,japanese poems with orchestral         
accompaniment2 ,three pieces for        
string-quartet2 ,an unpublished         
pianoforte sonata2 ,a ballet for clowns4
   ,,mahler  ,gustav ,mahler was born in
 ,kalischt1 ,bohemia1 ,july #gth1 #ahfj4
 ,he died in ,vienna ,may #ahth1 #aiaa4 
,he studied the pianoforte with         
,epstein1 composition and counterpoint  
with ,bruckner4 ,in #ahhc he was        
appointed ,kapellmeister in ,kassel2 in 
#ahhe he was called to ,prague2 in #ahhf
 he was made conductor of the ,leipzig  
opera4 ,in #ahia he went to ,hamburg to 
conduct the opera1 and in #ahig he was  

made director of the ,vienna ,court     
,opera4 ,in #aijh he came to ,new ,york 
to conduct the operas of ,wagner1       
,mozart and ,beethoven at the           
,metropolitan4 ,in #aiji he became      
conductor of the ,new ,york             
,philharmonic ,society4 ,his health     
broke in #aiaa1 and he returned to      
,vienna4  ,mahler wrote nine symphonies4
 ,the first dates from #ahia1 the second
 from #ahie1 the third from #ahif1 the  
fourth from #aija1 the fifth from #aijd1
 the sixth from #aijf1 the seventh from 
#aijh1 the eighth from #aiaj1 and the   
ninth from #aiaa4  ,other of his        
compositions are3 ,das ,klagende ,lied1 
for soli1 chorus1 and orchestra2 ,das   
,lied von der ,erde1 for soli1 and      
orchestra2 ,kindertotenlieder1 with     
orchestral accompaniment2 ,lieder einer 
fahrenden ,gesellen1 with orchestral    
accompaniment2 ,des ,knaben ,wunderhorn1
 twelve songs4   ,,reger  ,max ,reger   
was born in ,brand1 ,bavaria1 ,march    
#aith1 #ahgc4 ,his father was           

school-teacher at ,weiden in the        
,palatinate1 and ,reger1 it was hoped1  
would follow his profession4 ,however1  
the musical profession prevailed4 ,reger
 studied with ,riemann from #ahij to    
#ahie4 ,at first he decided to perfect  
himself as a pianist4 ,later1           
composition and organ-playing absorbed  
him4 ,he was made professor of          
counterpoint in the ,royal ,academy in  
,munich in #aije4 ,in #aijg he was made 
musical director of the ,university of  
,leipzig and professor of composition at
 the ,leipzig ,conservatory4 ,from #aiaa
 until his death he was                 
,hofkepellmeister at ,meiningen4 ,he    
died in ,jena1 ,may #aath1 #aiaf4  ,his 
works for orchestra include3            
,sinfonietta1 ,opus #ij2 ,serenade1     
,opus #ie2 ,hiller-,variations1 ,opus   
#ajj2 ,symphonic ,prologue1 ,opus #abj2 
,lustspielouvertuere1 ,opus #abc2       
,konzert in ,alten ,stiel1 ,opus #abe2  
,romantische ,suite1 ,opus #abh2 ,vier  
,tondichtungen nach ,boecklin1 ,opus    

#acj2 ,ballet-,suite1 ,opus #acb2       
,mozart-,variations1 ,opus #adj2        
,violin-concerto1 ,opus #aja2           
,piano-concerto1 ,opus #aad4  ,his works
 for chorus include3 ,gesang der        
,verklaerten1 ,opus #ga2 ,psalm #ajj1   
,opus #ajf2 ,die ,nonnen1 ,opus #aab4   
,his chamber-works include3             
,string-sextet1 ,opus #aah2             
,pianoforte-quintet1 ,opus #fd2         
,pianoforte-quartet1 ,opus #aac2 ,five  
string-quartets1 ,opera #ed1 #gd1 #aji1 
#aba2 ,serenade for flute1 violin and   
viola1 ,opus #gg;a2 ,trio for flute1    
violin and viola1 ,opus #gf;b2 ,nine    
violin sonatas1 ,opera #a1 #c1 #da1 #gb1
 #hd1 #ajc;b1 #abb1 #aci2 ,four 'cello  
sonatas1 ,opera #e1 #bh1 #ga1 #aaf2     
,three clarinet sonatas1 ,opera #di1    
#aig2 ,four sonatas for violin solo1    
,opus #db4  ,his organ compositions     
include3 ,suite1 ,opus #af2 ,fantasy1   
,opus #bg2 ,fantasy and fugue1 ,opus    
#bi2 ,fantasy1 ,opus #bj2 ,sonata1 ,opus
 #cc2 ,two fantasies1 ,opus #dj2        

,fantasy and fugue1 ,opus #df2 ,the     
fantasies1 ,opus #eb2 ,symphonic fantasy
 and fugue1 ,opus #eg2 ,sonata1 ,opus   
#fj2 ,fifty-two preludes1 ,opus #fg2    
,variations and fugue1 ,opus #gc2       
,suite1 ,opus #ib2 ,intermezzo1         
passacaglia and fugue1 ,opus #abg4  ,his
 pianoforte works include3 ,aquarellen1 
,opus #be2 ,variations and fugue1 ,opus 
#ha2 ,aus ,meinem ,tagebuch1 ,opus #hb2 
,two sonatinas1 ,opus #hi4  ,he wrote   
over three hundred songs4   ,,schoenberg
  ,arnold ,schoenberg was born in       
,vienna ,september #acth1 #ahgd4 ,he was
 self-taught until his #bjth year4 ,his 
first instruction was received from his 
brother-in-law1 ,alexander von          
,zemlinsky4 ,in #aija he went to        
,berlin1 and became the ,kapellmeister  
of the ,uberbrettl1 the cabaret managed 
by ,birnbaum1 ,wedekind and von         
,wolzogen4 ,due to the influence of     
,richard ,strauss1 he secured a position
 as instructor in ,stern's              
,conservatory4 ,in #aijc he returned to 

,vienna4 ,he aroused the interest of    
,gustav ,mahler1 who secured            
performances for several of his works4  
,the ,rose ,quartet performed the sextet
 ,verklaerte ,nacht and the ,quartet1   
,opus #g4 ,the ,kammersymphonie and the 
choral work ,gurrelieder were also      
played4 ,in #aiaj ,schoenberg was       
appointed teacher of composition in the 
,imperial ,academy4 ,in #aiaa he        
returned to ,berlin1 remaining there    
till #aiaf 7874 ,he is said at present  
to be in ,vienna4  ,among his           
compositions are3  ,opera #a1 #b and #c1
 ,songs--,gurrelieder2 ,opus #d1 sextet 
,verklaerte ,nacht2 ,opus #e1 ,pelleas  
und ,melisanda2 ,opus #g1 #ast          
,string-quartet2 ,opus #h1 ,songs with  
orchestral accompaniment2 ,opus #i1     
,kammersymphonie2 ,opus #aj1 #bnd       
,string-quartet1 with setting of        
,entrueckung1 by ,stefan ,george2 ,opus 
#aa1 three pieces for ,piano2 ,opus #ac1
 a capella choruses2 ,opus #ae1 ,songs2 
,opus #af1 five ,pieces for ,orchestra2 

,opera #ag and #ai1 ,piano pieces2 ,opus
 #ba1 ,die ,lieder des ,pierrot         
,lunaire4  ,a new ,kammersymphonie and a
 monodrama ,erwartung remain            
unpublished4   ,,sibelius  ,jean        
,sibelius was born in ,tavastehus1      
,finland1 ,december #hth1 #ahfe4 ,he    
matriculated at the ,university of      
,helsingfors in #ahhe1 but shortly after
 gave up all idea of studying law1 and  
entered the ,conservatory in #ahhf4     
,here he remained three years1 studying 
composition with ,wegelius4 ,in #ahhi-ij
 he studied with ,becken in ,berlin4 ,in
 #ahia he went to ,vienna to study      
instrumentation with ,karl ,goldmark4   
,from #ahic-ig he taught composition at 
the ,helsingfors ,conservatory4 ,in     
#ahig the ,finnish ,senate allotted him 
the sum of #fjj yearly for a period of  
ten years1 in order to permit him       
leisure for composition4 ,in #aijj he   
toured ,scandinavia1 ,germany1 ,belgium 
and ,france as conductor of the         
,helsingfors ,philharmonic ,orchestra4  

,in #aija he was invited to conduct his 
own compositions at the festival of the 
,deutscher ,tonkuenstlerverein in       
,heidelberg4 ,in #aiad1 while in        
,america1 ,yale ,university conferred   
upon him the degree of ,doctor of       
,music4 ,at present he is living in     
,jaersengraeae1 ,finland4  ,among       
,sibelius's compositions are3  ,five    
,symphonies3 ,no4 #a1 ,opus #ci2 ,no4   
#b1 ,opus #dc2 ,no4 #c1 ,opus #eb2 ,no4 
#d1 ,opus #fc2 ,no4 #e 7composed in     
#aiaf74  ,string-quartet ,voces intimae1
 ,opus #ef4  ,en ,saga1 ,opus #i2       
,karelia ,overture1 ,opus #aj2 ,der     
,schwan von ,tuonela and ,lemmenkainen  
zieht heimwarts1 ,opus #bb2 ,finlandia1 
,opus #bf2 ,suite ,king ,christiern     
,,ii1 ,opus #bg2 ,pohjohla's ,daughter1 
,opus #di2 ,naechtlicher ,ritt und      
,sonnenaufgang1 ,opus #ee2 ,scenes      
historiques1 ,opus #ff2 ,die ,okeaniden1
 ,opus #gb4 ,some fifty songs1 etc41    
etc4   ,,loeffler  ,charles ,martin     
,loeffler was born in ,muelhausen1      

,alsace1 ,january #cj1 #ahfa4 ,he       
studied the violin under ,massart and   
,leonard in ,paris1 and under ,joachim  
in ,berlin4 ,he studied composition with
 ,guirand in ,paris4 ,played violin in  
,pasdeloup's orchestra1 then in the     
orchestras at ,nice and ,lugano4 ,from  
#ahhc till #aijc he was second leader in
 the ,boston ,symphony ,orchestra4      
,since #aijc he has been devoting       
himself completely to composition4 ,he  
is living at present in ,medford1       
,massachusetts4  ,his compositions      
include3 ,suite for violin and          
orchestra1 ,les ,viellees de l',ukraine1
 #ahia2 ,concerto for cello1 #ahid2     
,divertissement for orchestra1 #ahie2   
,la ,mort de ,tintagiles1 #ahig2        
,divertissement espagnol for orchestra  
and saxaphone2 ,la ,villanelle du       
,diable2 ,a ,pagan ,poem2 ,hora mystica2
 ,psalm #acg2 ,to ,one ,who ,fell in    
,battle2 ,two rhapsodies for oboe1 viola
 and pianoforte2 ,string-sextet2        
,string-quartet2 ,music for ,four       

,stringed ,instruments2 ,songs on poems 
by ,baudelaire1 ,verlaine1 ,yeats1      
,rossetti1 ,lodge1 ,kahn1 etc4          
,,ornstein  ,leo ,ornstein was born in  
,krementchug1 ,russia1 ,december #aath1 
#ahie4 ,his father was cantor in the    
synagogue4 ,until #aijf ,ornstein was a 
pupil in the ,petrograd ,conservatory4  
,because of the pogroms1 his family     
emigrated to ,new ,york4 ,there he      
attended the ,friends' ,school and      
studied music in the ,institute of      
,musical ,art4 ,later1 he studied with  
,bertha ,fiering ,tapper4 ,he made his  
debut as pianist in ,january1 #aiaa4 ,in
 #aiac-ad he lived in ,europe1 in ,paris
 chiefly4 ,he was introduced to the     
,french public by ,calvocoressi at a    
concert in the ,sorbonne4 ,in the summer
 he toured ,norway4 ,he returned to     
,america in the autumn1 and early next  
year gave a series of recitals of       
ultra-modern music at the ,fifty-seventh
 ,street ,theatre4 ,next year he        
continued the series at four            

semi-private recitals at the home of    
,mrs4 ,arthur ,m4 ,reis4 ,he has been   
giving concerts all over the ,united    
,states and ,canada since4 ,he is living
 at present in ,jackson1 ,n4 ,h4  ,among
 ,ornstein's compositions there are3    
,two symphonic poems1 ,the ,fog and ,the
 ,life of ,man 7after ,andrev72 a       
,piano-concerto1 ,opus #dd2 a setting of
 the #cjth ,psalm for chorus2 a ,quartet
 for strings1 ,opus #bh2 a ,miniature   
,string-quartet2 a ,piano-quintet1 ,opus
 #di2 two ,sonatas for ,violin and      
,piano1 ,opera #bf and #ca2 two ,sonatas
 for ,cello and ,piano1 ,opera #de and  
#gh2 ,three ,lieder1 ,opus #cc2 ,four   
settings of ,blake1 ,opus #ah4--;,for   
piano solo3 ,sonata1 ,opus #ce2 ,dwarf  
,suite1 ,opus #aa2 ,impressions of the  
,thames1 ,opus #ac2 ,two ,impressions of
 ,notre-,dame1 ,opus #af2 ,two ,shadow  
,pieces1 ,opus #ag2 ,six ,short ,pieces1
 ,opus #ai2 ,three ,preludes1 ,opus #bj2
 ,three ,moods1 ,opus #bb2 ,eleven      
,short ,pieces1 ,opus #bi2 ,burlesques1 

,opus #cj2 ,eighteen ,preludes--a la    
,chinoise1 ,opus #ci2 ,arabesques1 ,opus
 #dh2 ,poems of #aiag1 ,opus #fh4       
,,bloch  ,ernest ,bloch was born in     
,geneva1 ,switzerland1 ,july #bdth1     
#ahhj4 ,he studied in ,geneva with      
,jaques ,dalcroze2 in ,brussels with    
,ysaye2 at the ,hoch ,conservatory in   
,frankfort with ,i4 ,knorr2 and with    
,thuille in ,munich4 ,his opera ,macbeth
 was produced at the ,opera ,comique in 
,paris in #aiaj4 ,in #aiae he was       
appointed professor of composition in   
the conservatory in ,geneva4 ,in #aiaf  
he came to ,america as conductor of the 
,maud ,allan ,symphony ,orchestra4 ,his 
quartet was performed by the ,flonzaleys
 that season1 and in ,may1 #aiag1 the   
,society of the ,friends of ,music      
devoted a concert entirely to his works4
 ,returning to ,switzerland in the      
summer he once more voyaged to ,america1
 this time with the intention of        
settling here4 ,he taught composition at
 the ,david ,mannes ,school from #aiag  

to #aiai4 ,in ,september1 #aiai1 he won 
the ,coolidge ,prize with his ,suite for
 viola4 ,he lives in ,new ,york4        
,besides ,macbeth1 the list of his      
compositions includes a ,symphony in    
,c-sharp minor2 ,vivre-,aimer2          
,hiver-,printemps2 ,trois ,poemes       
juives1 ,trois ,psaumes 7#bbnd for      
baritone1 #adth and #acgth for soprano72
 ,poemes d',automne for mezzo-soprano2  
,schelemo1 rhapsody for 'cello and      
orchestra2 ,israel 7symphony--two       
movements72 ,string-quartet2 and ,suite 
for viola and piano or viola and        
orchestra4 ,a sonata for violin and     
piano is in process of preparation4