Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 206, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1910 — The world's CONCERT HALL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The world's CONCERT HALL

NE of the sweetest, most elevating and consoling gifts of I heaven to man is ' music. Who has not rejoiced at the singing of fresh children’s voices! With music the young man woos the maiden of his ‘choice. With song the bride or young wife expresses her

longing for the absent one. Our meetings in the bouse of God are accompanied by deVotional songs. Sad p.nd somber music ascends in tile house of mourning, and yet, what a relief this music is to sorrowing hearts! With the sound of drum and trumpet and the Clang of the cymbal the soldier plunges into the smok« and carnage of battle, and even the trained horses dance and curvet in time with the musfo and strain at the reins which restrain them and learn the meaning of the different bugle calls. Love, anger, sorrow, enthusiasm, pain—all the passions and emotions of the human soul can be, and are, expressed in muda. The progress which has been made in the composition of music and in the building of musical instrumehts of every kind is enormous. The primitive instruments of the ancients and their monotonous music, or the instruments of barbarous or semi-civilized people and the intolerable noise which they call music cannpt be compared ith the expressive harmony of our knnsic or with the multitude of beaufui and powerful musical instruments knd in the execution of musical pieces tour age has doubtless* advanced further than any preceding time. In composition, however, art of producing musical pieces, the past century undoubtedly had greater masters than the present. At the opening of the nineteenth eentury the musical leadership, which Italy had enjoyed for a considerable period, had passed to Germany, and in the twentieth century it appears as if Germany would also lose this exalted position in its turn, for in the field tof art no nation can long, hold the leadership. Perhaps the industrial sand commercial development of Germany may be one of the causes why The number of its great composers is ■decreasing; for though prosperity is tno obstacle to the enjoyment and cultivation of art, yet it does not seem to Storm a specially favorable soil for the jgrowing masters of this .noble art. When the nineteenth century Bach, Haendel and Mozart thad raised German music to a pininacle of glory, and Beethoven and xection as today. Chamber music has Haydn were at the zenith of their splendid powers, while Liszt, Weber, Kreutzer and Schubert had begun their immortal' careers. Before Beethoven died, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Wagner had been born. This was therefore a golden age of music with an unexampled array of peerless masters and unequalled musical works. Comparing the present age with that glorious time, we are compelled to admit that today there are no giants In musical composition, for the three greatest composers of the present, Edward Grieg, Anton Dvorak and Richard Strauss, only the last named a German, do not reach up to the standard of the heroic age, But though there are today no German composers of commanding genius, yet there has never been a time when their works were so highly esteemed and produced with such perxeached the highest stage of development in Germany. In England also musical education **s reached a high degree of perfection, but England never produced many composers and none of companding genius. Richard Elgar has, feowever, suceeded in meeting with so attach approval that he is being reckoned among the great composers. The majority of British and Irish comJposers, however, are content to foljfawr in the footsteps of German masters; the later ones, though following jtheir own Ideals, love to walk abroad Un the mantle of Wagner, or Brahms. France has for three centuries ocMoptod a prominent place on the muideal stage and her great masters, KMeUleu, Auber, Herold, Adam and iChopta offer much that is interesting land valuable. Yet it must be ad■nitted that here the tendency was teudniy to write for the, opera and for ftte production of light and frivolous I—ls. Of a more serious and nobler SfitluUr are the modern musical

dramatists Berlioz, Gounod and Massenet, and it is with pleasure that the lovqr of music in its higher forms notes the development of a school under the leadership of Caesar Frank which gives special study to the nobler forms of symphony and to chamber music, and the dep and earnest compositions of Camille, Saint-Saens, who has followed German models, are becoming more popular. Saint-Saens, though 71 years old, lately traveled in this country. But if France has in modern times furnished few important contributions to musical literature, Italy has done still less, though this country produced an unbroken line of great composers from Monteverde in the sixteenth century to Verdi in the nineteenth. Of the newer Italian composers, who for the most part wrote only superficial, extravagant and sensual works, only Pietro Mascagni achieved a genuine success with his beautiful and fiery “Cavalleria Rusti- ■ cana.” Puccini also, the composer of “Tosca” and “La Boheme,” has gained the respect of the musid-loving public. The newest field of musical composition and virtuosity has been opened by Scandinavian and Slavic composers and virtuosi. This field is, like the new Siberian and Manchurian wheat fields, producing immense results. Both the Scandinavians and the Slavs have, greatly to their own advantage, made the folk-song the starting point of their compositions, a full, bubbling, exhaustless spring Of the Slav peoples two nationalities have of late done great things in music; the Russians and the Bohemians. Both have only in the nineteenth century begun to make a reputation for themselves. Since Glinka in 1840 produced musical treasures from the Russian folk-song, musical taste has developed in Russia and is now bearing abundant fruit. But today even Rusisa recognizes, as does the whole world, that the great Germafi masters will remain models for all time to all nations. In Bohemia the greatest representative of the musical art—and perhaps also the greatest of the later composers—is Anton Dvorak. In his music the national element is even more prominent than in that of the Russians, but the tragic melancholy which is so often so noticeable in Russian music is here replaced by lively, fiery melodies. The Bohemians have specially produced great violin and piano players. Who does not know the pianist Paderewski and the violinist Kubelik? What triumphs they and other artists among their countrymen reaped in America! So that today when an artist appears with a Bohemian name, this is almost In itself a sufficient introduction and then it is Wonderful to see, how even Americans can spell and even pronounce the most wonderful names. The other European countries, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Greece have fallen far in the rear in ■ matters musical. Switzerland has produced several composers of merit who produced especially some fine “Alpenlieder” following German model*. America has not yet produced a composer of the first rank, and yet Amor

lean music is more and more mpltlng a way for itself. A good deal of this music, it is true, is still composed of “Coon Songs” and “Rag Time” pieces, and very often an insult to an educate ed musical ear. But good music is al so coming to the front Ten years ago it was not considered possible in Europe that a musical composer could be born in America. American inventive genius, American machinery, Americanafarmlng methods, American commerce and trade —those were undeniable facts of respectable proportions, but American music? The day of really great' and distinctively American musical composition is still in the future. American composers have attempted symphony and oratorio, but their wo£ks rest on dusty shelves. As a matter of fact only one American firm has undertaken to publish these works. The rendering of musical compositions, however, in America also, is on a very high plane. In instrumental music musicians of the Teutonic and Slavic races predominate, though there is no lack of American performers also. Instrumental music has reached such a high degree of perfection that the beginner, striving to reach the pinnacle of fame, finds almost Insuperable difficulties. Thus far American performers seem to be most successful in vocal music. The time when Italian singers monopolized the field is past. German and American singers, male and female have of late gained great repute in this field. Orchestral music likewise has reached a high degree of perfection and is liberally patronized by all classes of the people, and as might be expected under the circumstances, the building of musical instruments of all kinds has here reached a stage of perfection exceeded nowhere'else. But in the field of musical composition, especially in popular song, thre is still a wide and virgin field awaiting cultivation and development. • w* Americans need and wherein we differ from continental European nations to our disadvantage is the social, school and congregational cultivation of music. At social gatherings of young Americans yon seldom hear good part singing in which all, or the majority, join. Bringing a serenade with really good singing is a rare thing. Not so in Europe. There one can, of an evening, often hear good quartet singing and will be surprised to learn that the singers are workingmen. Our public schools and academies also have not fostered vocal music as they should have done, though it seems that in- this particular things are changing for the fetter. When music shall be appreciated and understood In the home, school and church, then may we hope to see composers and great artists in our midst, and when we have them they will be valued.