Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
https://books.google.com
M1CROFlLMED
DATT 9-2-gg.
I
f
Cv :-°/ T5he
ssification of Music
gandist Magazine of One Number, Containing News of Importance
f""n In all Music Lovers, Especially to all Owners of Player Pianos
*B3> Goya
BRAVISSIMO!
Price $1.00, post free, on application to C. B. Chilton, Intrinsic Music Foundation,
St. Mark's Chapel, 288 East 10th Street Telephone: Orchard 687. Tompkin's Square, New York City
Copyright, 1922, Carroll Brent Chilton
n.-
£".
^|0R years I have been haunted by a persistent dream of a greater
music state—in which the literature of music—now languishing
in jails and detention camps—should be passed through the world
exactly as literature is.
I have endured twenty years of being ignored and laughed
at by the "cash register" minds bent on turning to profit one of man's holiest
possessions. I say it is time for the amateurs of music to call a halt.
No amount of discouragement has been able to drown out my conviction
that a woeful wrong is being done.
Have we not had something too much of the so-called "practical minds"
in art. I am convinced that the heads of the player industry are unaware of
the wondrous value of the player as an instrument of scientific pedagogy.
The entire system of commercialized music must be disintegrated. It can
be done.
For once the ideal and the practical are the same. In this pamphlet I
show how a new and better music state can be set up so as to benefit com
poser, manufacturer, publisher and music-lover alike.
Music to me is a form of religion. I see nothing of religion in the hell-
broth of modern sensationalism and theatricalism — the capitalizing of the
performer and his effects. They do not speak of the spirit but come of a
lower strain — the self-exploiting merchandizing of art.
I am for the luxury ideal in art but let the luxury be ideal and not a
reversion to savagery.
Music is not a show but a personal communication. It comes up from
the burning core of man's inner spirit. Theatrical music has its place but it
is a thing apart like the literature of the theatre. We must pry music out
of the theatre—abolish its brutish jargon and redomesticate it as the poetry,
drama and sculpture of the air.
Not only is it Pickwickian to sit by and see a glorious art proceeding to
decay and destruction. It is equally fatuous to see man's greatest educational
invention for music going by the board with most of its powers unutilized
and unsuspected, when, if the instrument were understood and applied to its
true function of education, music could be cured of her distempers.
One's sense of humor is hourly assailed by the spectacle of a wonder
world of buried music—the very flower of the human spirit in art; of hungry
generations yearning to share these joys; —of a practical means at hand by
which the want can be supplied and people sitting around and doing nothing.
The bringing to light of the works of Bach or the music of Italy, France
or Spain—a life ambition with me—would alone justify all the capital that
has been sunk in the player industry ten times over. If the whole of music
literature were destroyed except Bach's—the art could be recreated from
their records.
On the side of exposition of musical grammar, syntax, history, aesthetics
and philosophy, the writings of Riemann would be worth millions to the
hungry amateur, provided they could be made intelligible by being supplied
with living illustrations. Musical criticism, made intelligible, will have almost
as wide an auditory as music itself.
The revolution of ideas is the foundation of all changes. It only takes
one man to be right—and to state the truth as he sees it. If he expresses some
deep-seated need or desire, the changes are sure to follow. |
This is a matter far transcending personality and any man's private
interest. It is something that must be done if the art is to survive and grow.
I have thought that if these needs could be focussed in the public conscious
ness something will be done about it.
Mark Twain used to tell about a man who languished twenty years in a
solitary dungeon. Then a happy thought struck him. He opened the window
and got out.
November, 1921
THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC Page 3
1
Page 4 THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC
The New Technique for Playing Music CONFIDENTIAL TALK TO Now, I believe that it can be stopped, that
the composer and his works can be set up
The Player-Piano is fundamentally a ma as the center of natural interest, that the
chine. It is a vehicle for the display of MUSIC LOVERS veritable literature of musical ideas can be
such power of interpretation as the player made the standard of judgment as it is in
may muster. It gives him an unlimited Having spent twenty years in elaborating the literature of thought, that convention
technique. But it takes a musically gifted plans for a useful forward step in musical alized audible "reading" versions will give
or educated person to transform lt into a education, and finding this project blockaded musical opinion and musical criticism and
musical instrument. by the present conditions of business, I wish appreciation the required starting point for
The recorded rolls used by themselves to offer the results of my labors to amateurs imaginative delight, which is the reason for
too often give only a wooden and mechan of good music, some hundreds of whom I there being any art at all. Musical ideas
ical result. This may do well enough as have personally known. Their sympathy have a history and a development which it
a starting point to acquaint us with the and understanding have heartened me for will be one of the tasks of the Foundation
work itself and give us a model to go by. years, and I am able to think of no greater to explore and expound.
But the control of a human player is nec boon than to feel that I have been privileged The sole purpose for which art exists is
essary to endow the result with the char to serve them. So soon does the blight of the delivery of the truth of spirit in life to
acter of a musical performance. professionalism settle down upon an art the faculty of man which is designed to
The way to get real fun out of your under the influence of commercialism, that receive it.
player is to make the music yourself! Use it has often seemed to me that with the
a motor, if you will, but control the factors amateur music-lover lies the only hope of This message can never come through as
of effect and let it be your own perform preserving the spiritual values of the art long as the wires are crowded with the
ance. from disintegration under the scorching heat chatter of the virtuoso and the confusion
Quite irrespective, therefore, of the Joy of commercial or professional efficiency. and noise of the concert hall.
in listening to music there is a special To him, therefore, I dedicate my labor and When the channel is opened we shall be
joy in playing music with a sensitive effort to set up a novum organum for "The spared the awful hoax of libraries of printed
player-mechanism. The player is virtually art of the Prophets." records posing as "libraries of music;" of
a conductor, using a ready made technique shelves loaded with fascinating works of
far beyond anything he is likely to be able criticism, history and philosophy unread
to acquire with his own hands. The expan I have called this pamphlet a news maga and unintelligible to any but trained music
sion of technique in modern music has car zine. ians; of the naive and costly attempt to
ried it far beyond the possibility of linger My first piece of news is something that spread musical knowledge by means of
performance. Musical people can be taught everyone knows — the concert system has isolated performances for effect, of alleged
to use this technique to produce perform broken down flat. schools of music devoted to musical techni
ances better than any except those of a No virtuoso outside of a few stars can que but not to music study as humanism
master, and going far beyond the technique live except by teaching or performing feats and hence without inspiration.
of any master. of technique to startle the Booboisie.
The ability so to play is a delightful test No composer of serious music can live and In England a society was recently formed
of musical intelligence, while, obviously, do anything like his best work. for the encouragement of English music.
the player-piano, unless played with in Thirty centers have been established for
Whether a school which really taught performance. At the Birmingham Center,
telligence, is worth very little except as musical culture could live, no one can say,
an ornament. Mr. Ernest Newman appeared and stated
for it has never been tried. that, considered as educational media our
"A quarter of an hour a day will give Even music as an entertainment shows large subsidized orchestras and the money
even to a child in a few years a repertory signs of playing out. laid out on their performances are "nothing
that his father could not have acquired in short of criminal waste."
half a century."i It is, therefore, only as a literature that
the vast bulk of great music has any chance "The only conceivable way to spread
The artistic element in playing perfor of holding its place in human records.
ated music comes in with the personality popular knowledge of great music," he
of the player. Your musicianship grows in Musical types were first set up by Pet- added, "is to endow a proper educational
the degree in which it is exercised. You rucci in Venice in 1502. This was 419 years method while the only practical musical
are therefore exactly in the position of ago. In spite of millions of concerts, and method at present is to have a player piano
every interpretive artist. Your control of for all the printing of records of musical and a library of music rolls." (Quoted
technique is multiplied by 10,000—that is composition, the art of thinking in sounds from memory).
all. If you learn to play with skill you is still as far as ever from practical "publi Then, instead of years of uncoordinated
will often give more pleasure to your mu cation." It is my belief that a way has been listening experience or defrauded tecnnical
sician friends than most performances they found out of these difficulties so that the study, we begin from the first moment to
are likely to hear. harp may be freed from the ass' hoof. pour into the ear of the learner a flood of
Starting with this basis of technique it The ass' hoof of commercialism and pro great musical experience.
will be fascinating to build in the back fessionalism is now holding down what I
ground of musical history, biography of have called intrinsic music—or that part of Rise of the "Living" Music Score
composers, anecdotes of their way of com the musical composition underlying the I have long believed that the natural
posing, and analysis and interpretation of outer factors of effect—of which rhythm, corrective for the evils of the present
the content of individual works, which the melody, harmony, and phrasing make up the
sonorous symbols. system lies in the practical employment of
student is learning to play. the player-piano as an educational tool for
This should be Interesting news to those Intrinsic music is like Arab poetry of reading music aloud. Unfortunately, up to
who love music, but have no technical which Burton says, "that the gorgeousness the present time the development of the
equipment. Many non-performing music is in the imagery not in the language—the educational use of the player-piano has been
lovers are signally gifted with intuitive words are weak while the sense is strong." negligible. In spite of its wonderful capaci
musical comprehension, needing only guid The old style of music education has not ties, the player-piano must be regarded as
ance and an outlet. gone, but it, too, is doomed. It will have to a failure. At least, it has failed to reach
yield to more efficient and better directed its potential. Capable of becoming an effic
methods. ient organ of musical knowledge, no proper
No real musical civilization can exist as In short, the present-day professional educational system has ever been developed
long as there is no where a disinterested system and its concommitants is rotten at for it. The vast majority of those who buy
system of music education to keep the the core. It is dead and doesn't know it. these machines do not use them seriously
sources and the tradition pure—and to dis It is busied with nets and neglects the fish for acquiring knowledge. They do not know
tribute music at a cost within the reach of ing. how to play them musically. Obviously
the humblest purse. By definition this is I repeat, the concert system is played out without such knowledge the pianola is worth
the function of a conservatory of music. and cannot long sustain itself even with the very little, except as a toy and entertainer.
No conservatory so far fulfils—or attempts press behind it. Practically all recitals in People procure a few rolls, but as they con
to fulfil this condition. They merely carry New York City are given at a financial loss. tain no description of the nature of the
on the virtuoso system which is the de music, no musical notation to act as a guide
struction of the art. Here, then, is the ship of art sailing down to the eye or mind in playing, no hint of
stream to its destruction—the intellectual how it should be interpreted, and as the roll
My proposal is that such an institute and spiritual factors ignored and neglected runs the wrong way so that the notation
be now set up. and the theatrical slush aspects rigorously and comments could not be read even if
furthered by profession and publishers chey were on the roll—the interest of the
under the stress of economic determinism. owner flags—the instrument falls Into dis
Music begins where words stop. If God At this rate there will soon be left only a use. Moreover, the present-day construction
were to speak he could not speak in words. memory. of the instrument is already antiquated.
Music is the vernacular of God. Every enlightened musician knows this Now, mistakenly or not, I believe that I
1 Ernest Newman, "The Piano Player and Its only too well and grieves that nothing can have had the good fortune to light upon an
Music." London, Grant Richards, 1920. be done to stop It. invention as Important for music as the
THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC Page 5
discovery of movable types was for articu But greatest of all needs is the early SECURING ACTION
late literature—nothing less, In short, than preparation of a practical summary of music
the audible music book. It nuts the crown knowledge, which will really deliver the
upon the Invention of the player-piano and knowledge, and not mere printed records Ordinarily a plan of this magnitude would
is designed to transform it from a toy and concerning it which need to be translated. be difficult to put over as a selfish com
entertainer into a scientific instrument of Can any one fail to see what an extraordi petition among manufacturing and publish
precision for musical education. nary joy it would be to have the fascinations ing firms willing to cut one another's
To bring the pianola into its own, several of musical science and art laid down in the throats if they could, but this is the day of
steps must be taken: form of printed texts, both visible and co-operation which may effect what com
audible, which all may enjoy, which could petition never could.
(1) The instrument must be reconstructed be placed in schools and homes throughout I wish to say these things as strongly as
so as to carry the roll in the natural position the land. I can, so as to get some action. I have
for reading. Here a word of counsel is needed. This risked some repetitions but even with all
(2) Rolls must be supplied which contain plan will appeal to the truly musical only. the repetitions the statement is still too
the composer's original text, besides critical Let the unmusical beware. The piano player weak to express my meaning.
and descriptive annotations and guides to is not for them. It is for those whose
interpretation. musical instinct is acute, since they alom Of reasoned disquisitions there are enough
(3) A systematic outline of orderly musi can supply the necessary background of and to spare. Everything has been said
cal knowledge must be prepared and printed imagination. If . you are shocked by the again and again. But there is great need
on rolls—a kind of sounding encyclopoedia ideal regularity and symmetry of a per of something to stir people to action. I may
of practical information about the art. forated reading of Bach's Chaconne the exhibit some heat in my expressions but
probability is your imagination is asleep the liberation of an entire art from the
(4) A practical system of economic dis thraldom of professionalism is no ordinary
tribution must be organized and put into and needs to be "stabbed broad awake." matter. At the same time, I have the feei
effect. Like all inventors I have conceived mag ng that most of the heresy in this book
"Playing from Score" nificently of my Invention and perhaps here will be accepted as commonplace in ten
Ordinarily, one musician in ten thousand and there I have exaggerated, but there is years.
can read and play an orchestral score. some excuse, as it is possible to demon I believe the promulgation of such a plan
From now on any musical person can "play strate my leading thesis in a way to defy will be equivalent to the foundation of a
a score" and play infinitely better than any contradiction, and, when it is considered conservatory of music. It will not be a
one can do by hand. Even a child can play that what is involved in these plans is a teaching factory for pianists and singers
from score music which, on account of genuine Renaissance of the world's music but it will be called a conservatory because
technical difficulties beyond the capacity of literature, especially Polyphony; the placing it will actually conserve the musical her
the human hand, the greatest master music of the rich stores of counterpoint, (besides itage.
ians could not even attempt. So far, there the literature of chamber music, song,
fore, from apologizing for mere mechanical choral, piano and symphonic music) at the I do not for a moment imagine that any
music, we need to emphasize this point: disposal of amateurs for the first time in one can bring about a Copernican revolution
"Man's brain has developed pari passu with history, it would seem as if no language in this art. My object has been merely to
the development of tools, each in turn help could be strong enough to do justice to the record the advance which the human mind
ing the other. Tools like language are the facts. No revival of this kind in any other has already made in the persons of the
incarnation of intelligence.'" art has ever been possible. leaders of thought. I believe that the revo
lution is already an accomplished fact but
The new score is such a tool. Its reading The domestication of musical literature so far it is inarticulate. I have attempted
really accomplishes the end of all music will not only bring in new standards of to supply a practical mechanism and plan
technique, viz., to play with undivided taste; new and saner ways of testing the by which this advance in thought may be
attention to the music. It fulfills the ideal worth of music literature, but it will liber effectuated indeed—so that the generally-
of all technical study which is to make ate, at one blow, the fruits of a thousand accepted theory of intrinsic music may take
technique absolutely automatic. years of the development of art now ignored the "step out of a chalk circle of imbecility
When these things are done, when the and unknown to any but experts. into fruitfulness."
now concealed or ignored educational merits Compared with these ends, the money
of these instruments are actually applied as required to start the Intrinsic Music Foun So far all is theory and project — but
time-saving and labor-saving devices for dation seems a trifling matter. theory is sometimes helpful and even
popular music education, the player piano creative.
will come into its own. The world will then A popular subscription will divide the "Theoretical work brings more to pass in
possess its first practical reading system costs so as not to fall too heavily in any one the world than practical work, since actual
for music, and a cyclopoedia of practical quarter. ity can make no stand against a revolution
music knowledge. At present its real merits in the world of ideas." (President of the
are purely theoretical and speculative. Royal Society for the advancement of
The steps to be taken are the subject of G. Bernard Shaw on Musical Education. Science).
my story. I have tried to show how they I have been compelled for financial reasons
can be taken and what the results should "This unhappy country (England) would
to choose the form of a small news magazine.
be. How these steps may be taken in a be as prolific of music as of literary com
I am convinced that what I have to say is
co-operative way, putting a premium upon posers, were it not for our schools of
news of the first order, and is so informally
the activity of music-lovers, especially own music, where they seize the young musi stated as not to require the more rigid and
ers of player pianos, is explained. My cian, turn his attention forcibly away from permanent form of a book.
special appeal is to owners of instruments the artistic element in his art and make
who are blockaded in their attempt to pro him morbidly conscious of its mechanical My conviction is that the first publication
duce music, and who wish to get the real conditions,—especially the obsolete ones, of the authoritative sounding texts of such
good out of their investment. Competent until at last he becomes, not a composer, works as the symphonies and string quartets
judges tell me that such owners exist by but an adept in a horribly dull sort ot of Beethoven — the organ and choral and
the thousands. To these, I say: Read care chess, played with lines and dots, each chamber music of Bach, the quartets and
fully the enclosed proposals, and come in player having different notions of what symphonies and greater works of Handel,
and help if you are interested. the right rules are, and playing the game Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Men
so as to flourish his view under the noses delssohn, Brahms — the piano works of
I am assured that there are 25,000 people of those who differ from him. Then he Chopin, to go no farther, is to the amateur
in New York City alone who would delight offers his insufferable gambits to the pub a piece of news of such magnitude as to
in training in musical education and appreci lic as music, and is outraged because I cause one to ask if an event of like impor
ation, if they knew where they could get It. criticise it as music and not as chess."— tance has ever taken place before.
I am firmly convinced of another fact, G. Bernard Shaw. My dream is that musical education may
that the expensive piano made for the con henceforth be based on the inductive
cert hall will never meet the needs of ninety method—so true is it that in music, above
eight per cent of all student music-lovers. all things, true knowledge can arise only
These are mostly poor, and there is dire Liszt's Prediction.
need of a small "Ford" player piano, one- "By the development of its harmonic from experience. Then we may perhaps see
third the size, one-third the sonority, and power the piano tends more and more to a humanistic revival in this art. Audiscript
one-third the price of the present instru assimilate all the orchestral compositions. scores are radical in method but conserva
ment. In the set of seven octaves it can produce tive in result. Intrinsic music means music
brought to the bar of mind exorcised of the
It is ridiculous to prepare an educational with a few exceptions, all the traits, all
the combinations, all the figures of the ogre of sensationalism, so that its idea or
system of high practical efficiency which most profound composition, leaving only to creative principle may come into the fore
not one student or music-lover in a hundred the orchestra the advantages (immense, it ground as the basis of education, knowledge
can afford. Such an instrument could be is true) of diversity of sounds and mass and culture.
built and should be built without delay. effects."—Preface to two-hand arrangement I am told every day that disinterested
0. G. S. Crawford. "Man and His Past." 1921. of Beethoven's Symphonies. public service is unfavorable to organizing
Page 6 THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC
new enterprise, but I have hope that the gulf of mere finger technique altogether and is withdrawn the author's musical thinking
contrary is true, and that American musical begin with the technique of interpretation. shows up on the level for what it really
amateurs will come in and help, if they can In this way it will be shown that musical is. The bantling is cast upon the rock.
be made to understand what is at stake. education can become a mode of self- This fact alone will permit music to be
In the new consciousness we are building, expression from the start. Children can be taken, once for all, out of the control of
which shall be called "America," music must taught to play understandingly the music those who are now, innocently enough, of
have a part. What part shall it be? Shall which they could not in all probability course, using music literature for the pur
Sousa and Irving Berlin and Victor Herbert learn to play by hand in a life-time. Around pose of personal advantage. Whether or
and famous orchestral leaders, born in Ger this study the enriching soil of music criti not this should happen and some conse
many, and backed by "the cash register cism history and biography will naturally quences if it does—it is the purpose of this
mind," b8 our law-givers? or shall we go form. paper to discuss.
further back and connect with the high Music is not an abstract specialty (except The importance of music at the present
traditions of the art, and without regard to technically). It is a school of life. time in harmonizing the world's discords is
the theatrical purveyors thereof, whether as As it is now the neophyte is stopped at the unique. When some one asked General
virtuosi, conductors, composers or entre door by technical barriers and seldom passes Petain what in his opinion would so modify
preneurs, establish access to its treasures into the House of Music itself. The technical the human mind that men would be no
for all? barriers can now be removed. Musical chil long-er capable of killing one another, he
dren as well as adults can be put immedi replied, "The study and practice of the art
Shall we not feed into our homes the ately at the task of playing from a given of harmony in the forms of music."
great standards of the past as the starting technique and their progress can become Finally, among the myriad attempts to
point of the new musical culture? This is steady and instinctive day by day, and hour destroy the estrangement of class and
the question before the Court of Public by hour. The teacher can inspire by out national distinction, more attention should
Opinion, with which I rest my case. lining content and interpretation. The be paid to the possibilities of music. The
In all the tedious and heart-breaking student develops these hints so as to catch appeal of music is to the non-competitive
delays and disappointments incident to every and embody the spirit of the work. But even part of our lives and probably more men
enterprise of this kind (nearly all due to this is secondary to the opening and enlarge could understand one another through shar
misunderstanding), I have never been able ment of mind from contact with the best ing music than would be possible through
to lose sight of the vision of a world of that has been done in the art. literature where differences of tongue act as
music in which the symphonies and sonatas The love of beauty is a more fundamental a bar to comprehension.
of Beethoven — the master-works of Bach thing than we think and its appeasement a It is not too much to hope that if many
and Mozart, the madrigals of France, Eng matter of the first importance. men or most men could have set up for them
land, Belgium, Italy, the world of folk-music, People whose aesthetic faculties are and could actually share a common standard
especially that of the Mediterranean basin, starved will turn away from the natural of musical experience a new and firm bond
will be as familiar to every music-loving desire for beauty in nature and art and seek among nations and races would be created.
adult and child as "Treasure Island" and a satisfaction for the craving in their dress, In the coming era, the merely practical
"Robinson Crusoe." This vision, long fore their houses and their furniture and the minds who use the art for business purposes
seen, is now about to be realized. A wonder- trapping of life. The merchandising mind only must take a back seat for industry
world of expanding joy will make life richer capitalizes this aesthetic lack in our edu without art is brutality.
than we can now imagine. "Every now and cational system and turns it to profit. But The plain fact is that the emphasis upon
then," said Dr. Holmes, "the mind is the student of art, sculpture or music can the sensation-effect aspect of the musical
stretched by a new idaa or sensation and live on bread and milk in a garret and be transaction has become a dangerous menace
never returns to its former dimensions." happy enough to pity Caesar. to the sanity of the art. The call of sen
The method of musical culture proposed sation pursued a l'outrance has produced a
Music Psychoanalysis herein hinges upon the right application of heavy crop of degenerate gin-drinking
the perforated score to a really efficient ex followers of the muse, and worse. Only by
Just now the world is agog with the position of musical literature and knowledge, intellectualizing music back to its content
interpretation of the unconscious mind. One made possible by recent improvement in the of ideas and forms can the muse be saved
of the best clues to the unconscious mind construction of the player. I expect some from her evil camp-followers.
is the art of music. violent opposition to these theories from We need to clean out the Augean stable
It is pitiful to see the delusion of those the unco-purist defenders of the profes of this art once and for all.
who imagine that "half a dozen psuedo- sional system. The celebrated circular on Modernism in
medical obscenities" constitute the analysis Professional opinion is fighting hard to Art, recently thrown in at the Metropolitan
of man's immeasurable soul and his uncon keep alive the threadbare contention that Museum of Art in New York, might have
querable mind. music should be played only on the instru been written of modern music.
"Freud and Jung have not yet devoted ment for which it was originally written Musical modernism takes the form of the
equal attention to man's higher interests and in the manner the composer conceived luxury ideal and is akin to that fetishism
which are also to be found in the uncon it. This view would condemn most of Bach which drives the wealthy to become
scious mind—interests which man does not to oblivion. The outer dress of music ages possessed of expensive paintings. It is a
share with the animals—to the longing after rapidly. The inner core, if such they be, is strange kind of humanity which could allow
knowledge and beauty and power for their dateless and determines its standing in the a civilized human being to pay a million
own sakes and the desire for moral good ranks of literature. dollars for a Gainsborough and a Reynolds
ness apart from any particular system of The inner development of music belongs while millions of other human beings are
morality. Since man became aware of his in fact to the history of ideas. starving to death. Meanwhile the competi
own aims these things have been recognized It is probable that the barrier between tion among virtuosi affects a genuine music-
as among the ruling passions of humanity instruments will soon fall away. Already lover much as the Shah of Persia was
and they are not sexuality, important though we find violin music played by orchestra, affected by the horse races. When asked if
sexuality be."—Bradby. and piano music for violin; songs for violin he wished to attend he said, "Of course not.
The escape from false philosophy is and piano, etc. I already know that some horses can run
mother-wit, and the summit of mother-wit is The player-piano score is helping us to faster than others."
art—not Freud and Jung and Adler and the generalize all musical value,—as thought—
into conventional readings giving the sub Equally it seems a crime that thousands
rest, but Shakespeare, Bach and Beethoven. of college students grow up with jazz as
"The infinite and the eternal — the two stance of musical thinking without its acci
nightmares of the homesick—must be incar dents. We are fast moving towards the a culture background in music. "Back to
nated in matter, art, before the crucified musical book, in which the outer form of the classics" might be a shibboleth but that
souls of the seekers can rise from their the letters and printing will be invariable we have never caught up to them. Forward
tombs. Even Schopenhauer, Pontiff of Pessi and uniform, the variety coming in with tne to the classics might do. "Let us go back
mists, found the way out in the idea made way the symbols of musical thought are to the past," said Verdi to his classes in the
used to affect the musical imagination. Naples conservatory, "it may be a step in
real in art forms. The subjective is a advance." Our popular music taste has
stagnant sewer—the objective is heaven." In short, we are confronted with demon struck bottom and it is time for us to
strations of music literature. It may be retrace our steps. I feal that some one
In connection with the organization of the that the "deadly show down" so afforded, ought to plead: first, for the literature of
Intrinsic Music Foundation I shall be glad will come more and more into general use music-ground between the upper millstone
to demonstrate the new method and plan to as a criterion for testing the worth of musi of the virtuoso and the lower millstone of
those who may be interested. cal compositions. At all events it is certain printed effigy, made the football or sport of
It has been recently shown in England that no work not of essential interest in theatrical ventures; second, for the hungry
that "children can execute first class music itself without the addition of the performers and passionate musical enthusiast removed
and find in it a means of liberal education skill can live a minute under the glaring from musical opportunities, soul hydroptic
as well as intellectual discipline beyond the light of publicity to which it will be sub with a sacred thirst which cannot be fed,
range of anything conceived by humdrum jected by musical demonstrations. The unable to buy the costly piano and with no
teachers and administrators.'" This refer moment the protecting arm of the performer means of acquiring the necessary technique
ence is to ordinary hand-playing. What I to play it. Why should music-lovers be
will attempt to prove is that it is possible to "Manchester Guardian Weekly. Review of "The spoon-fed and wet-nursed forever by Euro
School of Life," by Charles T. Smith. Lon
begin music education by leaping the fiery don, 1921. Grant Richards. pean artists?
THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC Page 7
Why shouldn't we give over our small the standpoint of efficiency. Material effic one will listen or act. It is necessary in
town provincialism and add something to iency based upon the laws of physical effect this matter not only to convince but to
musical progress? Why should we not go must give way to the efficiency based upon convict.
to the original sources—take up a first-hand the laws of life. Consequently, music liter The thesis of intrinsic music can be
relation to music literature and serve the ature must now be reclaimed and established proved but no proof can demonstrate any
world by so doing? on a firm foundation as a. literature of thing to those who do not wish to be con
We have been dependents too long. The intelligible ideas. vinced. It is obvious that self-interest is
present lords of the manor are the virtuosi The theory of Intrinsic music which it the grandfather of belief. "Has it ever
and their managers and publishers of sets forth is not a mere hypothesis of a struck anyone that throughout this wide
music. The public which foots the bill may single mind or a speculative opinion. It world, there does not seem to exist a single
now determine, if it so wills, the nature of rests upon induction from experience and is being who has a conviction which conflicts
the music supply it receives for its money. capable of complete demonstration or abso with his interests"?i
Competition in popular inanities is down lute proof. Every audiscript score is such
grade on the slopes of taste. a practical demonstration. Musical disarmament down to the in
It is, therefore, not for nothing that decent The agency of reform is drastically prac trinsic music basis implies a scrapping of
people react from the softening effect of tical. We shall criticize by creation — by a huge apparatus. It is sure to be fought
music conducted as a public show and enter supplying a concrete educational method tooth and nail by the arms makers. But
tainment. Place music on the basis of a which works. No power of the human will what can tooth and nail avail against a
communicable literature of ideas and the or opinion of man or clique can bring in the liberating thought if the thought reaches
fungus growths will fall away. greater musical state. Nothing can avail through and ignites the tinder of a broad
The general result of the elaborations of but spreading of the best musical literature public desire as yet smouldering and in
the technology of sense-effect inaugurated itself through the veins and arteries of the articulate? Such an idea, according to my
by Wagner and his tribe is to drive the ship body politic of music. best belief is the notion of freeing in
of musical state farther and farther from No one can legislate for another in mat trinsic music from the backward-dragging
its moorings in man's mind and spirit and ters of taste. We can merely lay down the forces of a commercialism without respon
deeper and deeper into channels of material best in various fields and let each hearer sibility.
istic luxury. make his own choice. The truth that is in music apart from
Thus is imparted to music, not only the The indications are that it is time for rhetoric and outer dynamics and color, is a
feelings of tragic seriousness and hyper the prophet's art to adjust itself to the new truth based upon the nature and being of
borean gloom and pessimism of which philosophy which has come into the world, the soul of man as it really is. Spiritual
Nietzsche complained, but the outer ex to knowledge, and to the eternal ground of music provides its own demonstrations when
pression of the fighting spirit which the spirit. Only so can the art resume her it is heard. The force of the movement for
characterizes the modern mind, or did function of feeding men's imagination in world peace in music lies in this—that it
until recently. One would think that music stead of merely appeasing their appetites can recapture the authentic might of the
was a gladiatorial arena, and not a field of for sensation. human spirit in music now concealed be
cloth of gold whereon is staged the Festival Under the twin-dominion of luxury and hind a gigantic smoke-screen of effect—so
or Pageant of man's spirit. laboratory processes, the soundness and that the inner voices cannot be heard above
All signs point to a powerful reaction health of the musical vocabulary has rotted the din. The analogy is more than fanci
against the spirit of military efficiency in away. Shall it not be reclaimed? ful. Wagner, Strauss and the Kaiser are
modern music and everywhere else. We The various articles in this pamphlet are symbols of a similar aim—viz.: EFFECT
must remind ourselves that the true strain frank propaganda for a musical instrument A TOUT PRIX; prix meaning in Wagner's
of the spirit in this art stems out of the that does not yet exist, and for an editorial case, the cost of force—to which Wagner
Mediterranean Basin, that our culture roots project for a cyclopoedia of practical music as an advanced chemist added the force of
are in Greco-Roman soil and not Scandinav equally non-existent. It is written in the poisonous gas—the soporific type—to put
ian or Teutonic, that music, above all, is the hope of causing these things to come into the higher faculties of his hearers asleep
product of the warm and golden Mediter existence. I have aimed straight at secur without killing them and so losing his
ranean sun and not of the northern forests. ing concrete action upon a definite plan clientele. Either Wagner or the Kaiser
Here we renew our youth. Mediterranean of musical education of wide public benefit. would, and one of them did, view with
culture is the chief sustenance of all the I have not sought to make, nor could I horrified scorn (as his followers do yet) a
civilized minds of western Earope, whatever have made, a dispassionate thesis with a proposal to sit in at a conference for uni
their blood (Germany included). The nice balancing of arguments back and forth. versal peace.
infallible signs of Mediterranean art are an My thesis is an engineering plan—not an The appeal of intrinsic music is to intu
incomparable sense of life as expressed in academic treatise. I have a flaming faith ition. We know the living truth by "the
grace of undulating line, in free and joyous that an entirely new era of music can now energy with which it strikes at the heart,"
rhythmical forms, in the spirit of gaiety and be inaugurated, and desire to cause action not by the proof which it offers to the
joy which characterizes healthy minds every to that end. This will sufficiently explain mind. If an ape looks into a mirror no
where. The instinct of the north is archi outspoken and often scathing terms in prophet can look out — "intuition compels
tectonic—it builds up great structures which I have analyzed the musical situ an emotional assent." . . . "Logical
which slowly crush out the life of art by ation. thought can never establish absolute valu
sheer overweight. It elaborates devices for I am not a writer and have merely drawn ations and absolute morality, proof against
theatrical sensuousness which work with together and printed in one place some all objections. These can flow from nothing
the fatality of machinery to destroy at its thoughts written at widely different times, else than the absolute—the inviolably
root the creative principle of art which is dealing with the liberation of intrinsic divine."
imaginative realism working by suggestion. music from the trammels of commercialism We may safely leave it to Bach and Bee
A Mystic Prophecy and professionalism. thoven to sustain their own claims. They
"When Wagner's music appeared defying There is really but one leading thought. will break their own horoscope by going
and revolutionizing the simple harmonies It is that the incomparably noble and higher than the stars.
and melodic methods of earlier schools with precious art of music is lying in the dust—
buried under a mass of debris which has It would certainly be a wonderful achieve
out in any way criticizing its artistry or its submerged its creative principle. It is paw ment if music were now forced to undergo
value as music, she instantly sensed in it a ing to be free. I have approached this for educational purposes a grand resimpli-
change in the human spirit—music being thought from many angles and stated the flcation back to its original and native state
the externalized voice of spirit and declared arguments as I see them from each angle. of puritv of inspirjti in, to abanicn the
that music foreboded a spirit which would In my anxiety to make everything unmis false Dionysian of outer stimulus in favor
presently declare itself from Wagner's takably clear I have repeated a good deal of the true inner stimulus; —to recover the
nation that would shake society to its foun —being more concerned to give my propa "sensoric" energy of inner feeling, and
dations." (W. L. Wilmshurst article in "The ganda a teaching power than to pass the leave the "motoric" rhythm of merely
Quest" on Mrs. Atwood, an English mystic). test of formal order. I have overstated be dynamic energy and musical hysterics—to
The Intrinsic Music Foundation is being cause I wish to be overheard. However ' depart from Teutonic plethera of archi
formed and is preparing to give expression troublesome such iterations may appear tectonics,—of profusion and elaboration and
to an intensely practical method of study to some readers they may yet do a service get back to the Greek ideal of Apollonian
ing musical literature, to demonstrate its since "reiteration is the secret of convic harmony: —perfection and grace of outline
truth, to instigate reform action and to tion." (Lord Fisher). in which the part is always greater than the
point out a practical method of bringing it No one can be counted upon to read more whole: to lose its false unrest and proclaim
about. than a few sections of a book like this, anew, the gospel of peace at the heart of
The promoters of this society believe that therefore, if, by the principle of repetition, things. It remains with the music lovers
it has a pregnant idea; that music as a which is the secret of advertising as of of America to decide. If they wish the
spiritual and intellectual art has been teaching, the cause of intrinsic music can purely excitatory movement to hold sway
destroyed by synthetic commercial substi be started on its path—if the public mind over the spontaneous rhythm which releases
tutes, the direct product of materialistic can be turned away from the virtuoso and our inner energies, or if on the contrary,
efficiency; that modern music in short is in the direction of the literature of music, they wish to revert to the simplicities, to
attempting to exemplify the insane doctrine ro one will quarrel with the means em the primary factors, they may have it so.
of militarism. This in an error even from ployed. Without intensive statement, no •Walter Rathenau.
Page 8 THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC
THE HARP UNDER THE by the words? Music alone can talk. All The performance of music presents, as a
the words that were ever printed can never rule, difficulties which can seldom be con
ASS'S HOOF elucidate music, for it is just the special
function of music—as thought—to say what
quered even with a life time of study and
application, equally Impossible of course to
no words can say. the vast majority of music lovers. The same
A Theme With Many Variations love of music drives people to teachers and
Public School Music schools of music in the hope of becoming
It is well known that music teaching in artists. The reflection occurs, why should
"Whatever is desired in Nature, becomes neces it be necessary to publish so many methods
sary as soon as possible."— (.Weissmann) . the schools has failed more than any other
subject. The reasons are plain: —First, ls if any one of them would actually do the
At the present hour the literature of the failure of personnel. Excellent books work of conveying musical instruction sup
intrinsic music is as good as non-existent— exist, but teachers who can "put them over" posed to be contained in these publications
buried in the limbo of printed effigy. There do not exist. If music could be "put over" and methods?
is, properly speaking, no musical education more time could be given to it in the school. The answer is that they do not and can
anywhere. Schools there are by the thou Beethoven, Bach and Schubert could be not do the trick. For music is sound and
sands, college and university courses in taught as easily as Shakespeare, Tennyson not printed books, and the translation from
music, and hundreds of thousands of and Scott. The only cure is to give the one to the other is commonly beyond any
teachers and pianos ; millions of books music teachers the actual music to teach but a few experts. Music is the only possible
describing music—still more millions of with, and this can now be done. Attention teacher of music and on the day on which
printed music scores, the records from of music teachers and music supervisors is the publication of living models of the musi
which music may come, given those who called to this fact. cal forms, processes, technique for piano,
can read and perform them,—a mere frac violin, organ and all instruments are laid
tion of all music lovers; ample training in Musical Foundations before the student, the real education in
playing and singing, in harmony and coun Millions are generously donated to encour music will begin.
terpoint, — which are the technology of age the growth of music, but as they How delightful to look forward to the
music,—but nowhere is there a first-hand operate to continue and expand the present time when by laying down fifty cents on a
access to the literature of music. Ninety- system of artists and concerts, it is money counter you can buy a work of Chopin which
eight per cent of all music is shut out from thrown down a rathole. Until we can sup carries with it the ability to play it; when
ninety-eight per cent of all hearers all the ply the music literature itself, colleges and you can buy a series of scores of Bach and
time. Obviously music is the only teacher music schools may be built and staffed to Mozart which you can immediately play, no
of music.—"// faul apprendre la grammaire reach in a solid phalanx from New York to matter whether it be a violin sonata or a
par la langue et pas la langue par la gram Chicago,—it will not help a bit. A new out 'cello or piano concerto or a symphony or
maire."—Nowhere is there any real publica burst of virtuosi may appear who will con- string quartet; when you can buy treatises
tion of music—publication of records,—yes, certise from noon to noon in every city of on harmony, counterpoint, aesthetics, folk
but no publication of music to the ear and to the country,—they will never accomplish lore, consisting of living examples from
the mind. In this sense it may be truly said access to music literature. Works of music which you can really learn something, with
that not a single work of music has been can be printed by the million, ornamented only enough text to explain thMr meaning
published to the ear and mind since the art by pictures in blue, green, red and purple so and interpretation. Yet you will be really
began. Millions of scores have been printed, as to exhaust the imagination by the appeal playing all this music as literally as if you
—records in which the treasures of music to romance,—music literature will not be were using your fingers: —in a very much
lie as in a morgue. They are "published better known because of that. more real sense, because most of the music
and not published," as Aristotle said of the you are now playing would be impossible to
works of Plato. There are concert exhibi Music Literature versus Artists execute by hand, yes, even if you were
tions without end, in which the musical We hear that this community is not "musi Paderewski himself. As you play over the
compositions play their part, as vehicles for cal" and when we ask the test we find that music you will soon become so accustomed
the display of virtuoso art and leave only it refused to pay a singer two thousand five to associating the sounds you hear with the
vague impressions. No real and lasting hundred dollars for an afternoon of song, or visible score that you can take up the score
knowledge of m|u sic literature can be that it could not support a series of orches and read it without any sound at all, merely
acquired in this way. tral concerts. But if the same community by memory. When you can do this you will
Take up any history of music and read a absorbed literature from its libraries and have become a musician.
list of the works of say living composers, booksellers and failed to support a theatri
and ask yourself how many of these works cal venture, we should not call it unliterary. Modern Music Degeneracy
you know. You'll be surprised. These works One of these fine days our musical philan Why is it that "real men" are so contemp
have had no chance of becoming known and thropists will wake up to the fact that it is tuous of musicians as being In Carlyle's
never can have one under the expensive vir music literature that matters and really words, "a strange wind-baggy kind of
tuoso system. getting it to the people,—not conductors and people"? It was not always so.
The most frantic attempts have been prime domic and school buildings,—and A careful investigation of musical profes
made for many years to popularize music then they'll discover (let us hope before sionalism would show that the softness of
by means of printed scores. All such they all go broke) that all this terrific out the man-musician (who is not a scholar) is
attempts are, of necessity, doomed to fail lay for concert singers and players, however the product of the pursuit of music as an
ure, since the product of the press cannot delightful the result, is only theatrical enter appetite for sensation.
reach beyond the narrow professional and tainment—that the enjoyment and spread of The unethical "color" view of the world
amateur clique—relatively expert in musical music literature may be brought about with finds its apotheosis in the "creations" of the
technology. The vast literature of European out all this ridiculous expense. theatrical contriver of musical delights.
music—to go no further afield—is still as Why, even the musicians themselves The huge apparatus of modern science is
unpublished as when it lay in manuscript. despise us for our overvaluation of their used to set up a physiological titillation for
services in dollars and cents. An Eighteenth the amusement of the degenerate.
The Bach Society devoted 46 years to Century Italian musician, after reaping a Thus not only are degenerates created,
"publishing" the works of Bach. In vain— harvest in England, built himself a wonder but all the weak souls are irresistibly drawn
they are still as unpublished as they were ful castle outside of Bologna and called it towards this art. In the end we find the
before. Then they decided that the original "England's Folly." And only the other day shrugging shoulders, the high pitched voice
scores were not practical, so a new Bach a German musician slapped a friend on the of the exquisite.
Society was started, which will take another back and said of his wife's American t">urnee
fifty years to publish practical pianoforte How far this is from the rough hammer-
—"George, just think, my wife sings in blows of a Beethoven or the incomparably
editions of the formerly issued scores. In America and gets paid for it!"
vain—they are no more published now than majestic masculine strength of a Bach is
Billions of educational text books, repre obvious.
they were before. The same has been done senting many different methods, have been
with hundreds of thousands of other works. printed covering training for piano, violin, To reconstruct the house of music we
Pretty much the whole record of the musical singing, organ, harmony, counterpoint, must put the creations of musical man-
imagination is buried in printed notation as fugue. Other billions of copies of alleged milliners through the bath of mind—so as
sterile and unproductive as could be. There "music" are annually sold to amateurs and to winnow away the sensation view of the
is the difficulty of learning to read music, of professionals across the music counters of art and allow musical ideas to be circulated
learning to play it, of finding out what to the world. These publications have one and in a form to appeal to the imagination only.
play and of actually getting to it. Even all the same character. In their mute and The lovers of sensation having nothing to
then the difficulties have scarcely begun. ineffectual way they call upon the buyer to attract them must then either "fish or get
These works together with the extensive do something which, as a rule, he cannot do. off the dock."
riches of this art will never be published They call upon him- to read and play and Hear Mr. Krehbiel on one of the newest
till they are lifted off the paper into the air. sing or fiddle and hammer. It is a common Desecrators of the Temple of Art.
To do this we must have, a real system of place that the music publishing business is After writing the Brocken siene in Faust,
publication. ~ supported by the sale of music to those who Goethe told Eckermann that 'he was glad
What on earth is the use of printing a cannot play it! However, the passion for he had used up his northern heritage and
magazine full ot words about music unless music is so great that people keep on buy could turn again to the banquet of the
we can have the music which is described ing it and the publishers keep on printing it Greeks."
THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC Page 9
This remark, which is quoted with great "The Blocksburg," said one of Goethe's sations. If you grunt or groan and say that
point in Mr. Krehbiel's powerful criticism commentators, "is the congregation of the this is the way you feel, no one can dis
of Prokofieff'8 music (Dec. 12, 1918), may evil ones, the collection of the rabble who pute it.
point the moral to the whole modern musi perversely follow mistaken views of knowl Emotion and ideas are different matters.
cal development. edge, will and power." So are the composers Musical knowledge from this angle is now
For the Blockenburg is "the congregation who are mixing the elements of music in a really communicable. It is now at last possi
of the evil ones, the collection of the rabble witches' caldron and offering a hell-broth ble for people to share in the delights of
who perversely follow mistaken views of under the guise of an elixir of progress. If music without spending their lives in learn
knowledge, will and power." musicians and public had the courage of ing to play—and without befuddling the
their convictions they would send the brood mind by a plethora of sensations.
"So," adds Mr. Krehbiel, with fiery but packing." The chief secrets of the hold which litera
Justified scorn, "are the composers who are It is time that Americans learned to put ture has over us are first the fact that in it
mixing the elements of music in a witches' their foot down hard on these diseased life is completely intellectualized so as to
caldron and offering a hell broth as an elixir European artists who seek a home and appeal to imagination only, and second the
of progress." money success in America, by impudently lightning-like speed with which the eye may
The whole criticism is so extraordinarily presuming upon our easy-going amiability glance at the page and take in its messages
keen and pointed and vigorous that as a in matters of art. and absorb them. Both of these desiderata
sermon on art it deserves to be spread Let them keep their filth for home con are repeated in the absorption of music
broadcast. sumption, and not attempt to use it to pol through the Audiscript Score.
"Mr. Prokofieff's pieces have been contri lute the free air of America. At the same time it must be remembered
butions not to the art of music, b u t to it is almost impossible for people who love
Priest versus Mountebank music not to attempt to sing when playing
national (we shall not yet say racial) path
ology and pharmacopoeia. As such they Commercialism, in its search for effect, the Audiscript Score, and thus they are led
were not only not needed, they were dis has pushed the theatrical arts to the last by a natural path into the field of perform
tinctly unwelcome, for Germany, since it ditch. ing with the great gain of having the means
came under the sway of moral and political of playing music ready to hand.
Now, in the last resort, the theatre is for
degeneration, has provided quite as much the eye, and a gorgeous spectacle, however
musicial guano as civilized soil could bear. "Gas Alert"
trivial or flimsy its dramatic basis, will out
As the companion of the Russian Gorky we bid the best drama in popularity. On entering a modern concert hall the
have had the German Richard Strauss, who Similiarly music, at the last resort, is for wise listener must wear his mask and listen
has gone on from year to year increasing his the ear, so that the concert-hall perfor for the warning "gas alert!"
dose of the stuff which he hoped the people mance of music which makes the greatest The only answer to all this nonsense is a
of the world (to use a simile employed by and subtlest appeal to our nerves of hearing, volley of silvery laughter.
the most recent editor of "The Arabian will have the largest following of the long
Nights") would buy for reasons analogous Music is the language of dreams and has
to the purposes for which Jenkins's Elixir est ears. As long as music has her chief primarily nothing to do with all this flood
used to be taken by old gentlemen." home in the concert hall, that which appeals of theatrical devices for the illustration of
chiefly to the nerves is bound to have prece events and persons.
"This, we know, is plain talk, but It seems dence over that which appeals to the soul Au-dessus de la melee.
to be demanded in rebuke of a tendency to and the mind.
make a popular appeal with what we are High above the uproar, like the dove In
Joachim used to say that there were only the ark, floats the genius of musical inspira
constrained to call filthy music, which two kinds of artists, the priest and the
reached a climax at yesterday's concert. tion. The waters rise higher and higher.
mountebank, adding that Strauss belonged She is always at the highest point.
We do not refer particularly to the piano to the latter category and that he, Strauss,
forte solos composed and played by Mr. knew it, as well as anyone. Melody might he compared to the tiny
Prokofieff's for they, we are sure, invite their forest bird in Mischkiewicz's "Wedding
own damnation, because there is nothing in Now a good mountebank is a valuable Feast" (Gody Zycia). Pursued by hawk and
person. Nothing is sadder, Joachim added,
them to hold attention. The curiosity wnich eagle in the air and by weasel and serpent
they irritate is satisfied in a moment, and than to see the mountebank accepted as a on the ground, she esoanes all her enem'es
thereafter they are a bore. They pursue no priest. —flies to the highest branch of a pine tree
aesthetic purpose, strive for no recognizable Theatre music has a perfect right to its and begins to sing a hymn to the sun!
ideal, proclaim no means for increasing the vogue as an entertainment. Our mistake is As long as there was no means of check
expressive potencv of music. They are to fall into the trap of assuming that public ing the musical product by testing its intrin
simply perverse. They die the death of abor concert performances are the test of the sic worth, the commercial musical artists
tions. The challenge to indignant protest, value of music literature. They are a test reaped a perfect harvest from a public
not only against Mr. Prokofieff, bit Mr. of nothing but theatrical effectiveness with unable to formulate its own tastes and
Altschuler as well, was the so-called sym crowds. Many of the most subtle works of desires. Now that the means are at hand,
phonic picture "Hyrcus nocturnus." Why music are of an intimate character. A the the artist must stand a test as severe as
do these Russians eive us so much witch atrical performance kills them dead. that afforded by the printed book to the
music? Liadoff's "Baba Yaga," which we It is only in the fortunate privacies of the makers of literature.
have often heard and heard again Tuesday study—I was going to say only In solitude— When we can learn to absorb music as a
night, has grotesque lightened with amia that the Imaginative and spiritual values of literature, the aboriginal might of a Mozart
ble humor. This new piece is sheerly bestial music literature can come into their own. or a Schubert, can attract its natural audi
in its assaults upon the ear, fancy and intel About the surest way to debase the public ence.
lectual decency. The passage from a Russ taste is the habit of steadily marking down
ian poem which it is supposed to Illustrate The production of music for "effect" upon
values to wh.it will instantaneously thrill audiences has. of course, played havoc with
is a palpable theft from the scene on the the largest number of hearers.
Brocken in Goethe's "Faust." The familiar the spiritual foundations which first gave to
elements are there in turn — the flying The matter is very simple. it the immense hold it has ever had upon the
witches, the will-o'-the-wisps which Mephis- There are three possible worlds in which human mind.
topheles compels to act as guides, the all of us live, more or less. We can live in As long as music is chiefly a Journalistic
screech owl and the buck goat, in the the world of sensation, which is purely auto affair—the sport of virtuosi, no one cares
description of which Goethe is forced to the matic, we can live in the world of emotion, anything about its philosophy or aesthetics
use of dashes instead of words." in which we make a choice of what we shall or its history.
call our reaction from sensation, or we can The effect of pure music is always to
They crowd and push, they roar and clatter! live in the world of ideas, or reason. strengthen and to invigorate the soul—never
They whirl and whistle, pull and chatter!
They shine and spirit, and stink and burn! Now what the modern musical purveyors to depress it as a drug. Only when we
are in effect saying to us is that the Ameri revive and spread a knowledge of the
"Goethe wrote the score because he found can public cares only for the first or animal classics can we be rid last and forever of
it necessary to his poetic and philosophical stage—for the music of sensation, refined the unlovely and diseased culturists of
scheme; but after it was done, as he told or gross. I don't believe it. excitement who have cast a blot upon the
Eckermann, he was glad that he had used I propose to see if the American public art.
up his Northern heritage and could turn can not be given a chance to vote for itself The great trouble with all the color excite
again to the banquet of the Greeks. Mr. on this important question. ment is that there is not enough excitement
Prokofieff rejoices in filthy orgy. He delights in it. Compare, for instance, for sheer
in rending our ears and outraging our sensi As to Sensation excitement, for real color, a work like
bilities. Fortunately the Russian buck, after Strauss.' "Also Sprach Zarathustra" with
he has been acclaimed by the accursed rab The weak point about the sensation aspect
ble, doffs his skin and discloses himself as of music is that sensation is anti-social. No the arietta of Beethoven's last sonata.
the merry wine-god, and the witches and one can share my sensations, nor can I "I have, I think, always been a Puritan In
warlocks fly away in a purple sunset—which share another's. The artist who records his my attitude towards art," says Shaw. "I am
enables the composer to give relief to sensations has destroyed criticism, for no as fond of fine music and handsome build
exacerbated ears and insulted taste." one can know anything about another's sen ings as Milton was or Cromwell or Bunyan,
Page 10 THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC
but if I found that they were becoming the THE LIMBO OF PRINTED For futility they may be likened to the
instruments of a systematic idolatry of sen- song of the cuckoo, who has been saying
suousness, I would bold it good statesman EFFIGY cuckoo since the days of the Romans, and
ship to blow every cathedral in the world "he is saying it still," ten thousand times a
to pieces with dynamite, organ and all, with day without its ever occurring to him that
out the least heed to the screams of the art Why Music Has Never Really "his meaning, whatever it may be, has been
critics and cultured voluptuaries." expressed." Npture even supplies him "with
What do you suppose Romaln Rolland Been Published five hundred cat-rpiilars a day that he may
means when he writes in his essay of Bee have the strength to go on with it."
thoven: —"Le monde etouife. Rouvrons les Bona Fide Music Publication Cuckoo Calls
fenctres, Faisons rentrer fair libre. Respirons We must first get out of our heads the
le souffle des heros."i Do you suppose he Our millionfold copies of unintelligible
means that we are to breathe the air of the erroneous notion that printing in music is printed scores are a kind of cuckoo calls.
theatre— "the place where beauty dies,"1 or equivalent to publication. A printed English No conceivable growth of a system which
the air of the concert hall or the atmosphere book can be read by every lettered English- has been proved a failure for four hundred
of the virtuoso? No, it isn't more theatre speaking person. A printed music book can and nineteen years will help matters. The
that music needs, but less. One can hardly be read only by those who can read music. concert system is little, better. No conceiv
go among music lovers without hearing this A distinguished authority reckoned that able increase of dispersed and uncoordinated
ridiculous twaddle about opera artists having regard to all types of music score, musical examples heard but once will ever
uttered by those who know next to nothing one person in a hundred thousand can read add up into a practical system of education
of music literature. and enjoy a complicated orchestral score. to serve as the basis of popular music cul
Great foundations, as now conducted, will Music from type came in with Petrucci at ture.
not help. It isn't money that music needs, Venice, in 1502. Printed music has there The probability is that musical poetry will
or men, or teachers, or virtuosi, or more fore been in use 419 years. It has supplied repeat the history of verbal poetry, in which
b -ildings, or more concerts, or more scholar trained musicians with the records and the imaginative inner readings have outdis
ships.—It's just the freeing of its literature materials of music culture. But for the tanced any but ideal performances. Most
from all these encumbrances, the shifting of people at large its culture importance to the lovers of poetry prefer their own imagina
the points of emphasis to the art work itself people has been slight. tive readings to any performance whatever.
as the chief thing, and access to that made Musical technique is of all orders. Thou So perhaps in time the lovers of song poetry
easy. All these encumbrances are devices sands can play a hymn tune or an easy salon will care less and less abo':t hearing it sung.
to make music more expensive. They are piece for one who can play a Beethoven Certainly performances less than ideal will
side shows.—We need to go back to the Sonata of the last period. Perhaps one become unendurable in the degree in which
main tent. player in ten thousand can read and play the song literature itself becomes familiar
Nor is it a question of whether music an orchestral score. Even he can't really to them by imaginative reading in their own
lovers think they will enjoy the pure music play it—though he can give a rough sketch. "mental theatres." For such imaginative
or not. It is a question of whether the art About ninety-eight per cent of all the higher readings we need a form of publication to
is to be sarVeged and delivered to the music is too difficult for ninety-eight per the ear which all can read.
world, through an educational system, cent of all players to read, to play techni
opened to all. cally, or to interpret. Thus ninety-eight per Literature About Music
-* cent of it is shut out from ninety-eight per Side by side with the development of the
1Romain Rolland "Beethoven." cent of all humanity, all the time, since it art of music there has grown a prodigious
'Materllnck. can neither be played, nor heard, nor sung. literature of exposition of explanation and
This music must be enjoyed and absorbed description of musical origins, analysis of
A Prophecy— as a literature or it must remain forever musical forms and processes, theories of
WHY? unknown and disregarded. The use by pub harmony, musical grammar, syntax and
For domestic reproduction of the most lishers of the word "publication" is a mis prosody, musical history, aesthetics and
spiritual and intimate of the arts we nomer. Instead, therefore of announcing criticism. This field of enquiry will always
employ an instrument which: "Publikation alter Praktischcr Theoreticher make its appeal to enquiring minds whether
(1) Weighs a ton or more— Musikwerker, herausgegeben von der Gessell- especially skilled in music or not. As such it
(2) Has 60,000 pounds of tensile strength schaft fur Musikforchung." would it not be is open to question if its human interest, as
in its frame— more accurate to say, "recorded in steno satisfying the spirit of scientific curiosity,
(3) Requires four to six giants (costs graphic hieroglyphic symbols which require does not entitle it to rank higher than the
$25.00) to move— a lifetime of skill to read and to play—a task art it celebrates. Certainly its appeal is
(4) Costs $1,000 to $4,000— impossible to all but the chosen few." very wide.
(5) Compels every one in a radius of We have then the records only of a great Thus, the literary descriptions and his
blocks to listen and which in a fair mass of treasure, which, in its present form, tories of music, encyclopedia, dictionaries
wind can be heard a mile— cannot be used or enjoyed by more than one of music language literature and aesthetics,
(6) Virtually no one can play it. per cent of the people. We must enable monographs on expression and interpreta
these jewels to shine again. tion and the whole extent of musical science
No wonder that 75 per cent to ninety
per cent of all the pianos now made are Count Eugene D'Harcourt commenced the are in no better case. Thase too, however
players! "publication" of standard music in Ration ingenious, remain largely sterile. Count
Why should we force back into the home ally Abbreviated notation. This also is less human lives have been spent in
an instrument made to impress 2,000 to futile. Notwithstanding the thousands and amassing and writing and printing literature
4,000 persons in the concert hall. thousands of editions which have been about music. But the public cannot under
published, real music literature is scarcely stand it and so the endless treatises are
any nearer popular dissemination than it unread by any but scholars and students.
Why Not? was fifty or a hundred years ago. Nearly The great public is still out of doors as to
What might be—A "Ford" Player. the whole land of harmony is still a terra the knowledge they contain.
A student's "Reader" could be made as a incognito, awaiting discovery and occupa For this field of knowledge, too, a practi
small instrument of precision for read tion. cal system of publication is a sine qua non
ing music. 'lt must be clear then that no conceivable of popular education.
(1) To weigh 50 pounds or less. number of new editions of printed scores The Audiscrirt Score affords this means.
(2) Could be moved as easily as a writing will help much. The only thing that will The educational importance of the Audi-
break the embargo is the complete annihila script Score is therefore measurable in
(3) To cost $100 to $150. tion of the fetish of printed music scores, terms of the extent and richness of the
(4) Could be played without disturbing a and of descriptive and analytical accounts treasures waiting to be awakened to life.
sleeper in the same room. of music ln printed words, and the substitu
(5) Would nevertheless play all music. tion therefor of living. I.e., sounding scores, There exists a world of traditional or folk
immediately intelligible to every reader- melodies and dances closely bound up with
hearer. human interest and belonging rather to
The Music Score of the Future. literature and folk lore than to the art of
The obvious and undebatable advantage of music itself.
Just as it has already become absurd to living scores will make a clean sweep of the
buy a piano that will play one way only, delusive printed vehicle because it will Not the least interesting of the services
when for the same money only you may actually fulfill the mission and do the work to be performed by the new notation will be
buy one that will play two, viz.: either by which the printed scores only promise to the freeing of this imprisoned wealth of
hand or by perforated roll—so the time is perform and do not. delight so near to every heart as being a
rapidly approaching when it will be equally part of our unconscious inheritance.
absurd to pay a dollar for a music sheet Our Groaning Library Shelves Demonstrations of musical science in liv
which must be played by hand, when for Printed records of sounds may pile up to ing musical examples will fascinate all the
the same money you may buy a score that the stars, in millionfold reduplications, but lovers of exact science whether they care
can be played either by hand or by the until the records themselves begin to live for music or not. Incidentally, such demon
action of pneumatic fingers! as sounding forms, what good are they? strations are as interesting in the field of
THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC Page 11
the ear as the movie film in the realm of process of simplification, i.e., by segregating THE PASSING OF THE
the eye. Demonstrations of mathematical the musical ideas expressed in significant
musical forms to the eye when accompanied moving forms of rhythm, melody, harmony VIRTUOSO AGE
by demonstrations to the ear can transform and phrasing and in these only. The facts
the art of music in one generation. of musical compositions must be laid bare
in a reading version approximately the same
The excessive valuation given to singers to every hearer and reader as a starting- Compact Analysis of the Musical
and instrumentalists over and above the point for his imagination. And they must
value of the art they reproduce, has an be made absolutely definite and clear and
Situation
analogy in the book collecting mania. Both unmistakable.
are a species of fetichism in which the
intrinsic value of the object is ironically Lastly, the resources of intrinsic music The leading facts of the musical situation
occulted in favor of externals. There is not literature must be made universally accessi may be summarized as follows:
. much to choose between paying $1,000 to ble to all—without manual labor and with
hear Madame X sing a great song like "Du out the necessity of learning to read an I. Music affords one of the most fasci
Bist Die Ruh," which can be known and inscrutable and artificial set of hiero nating experiences of the life of refined
enjoyed for fifty cents, and the $4,500 glyphics. human beings;
recently paid for the 1836 edition of Pick II. For centuries composers have been
wick Papers which can be read and enjoyed ldentity of Works of Music Art pouring out their hearts on paper. A small
as well in an edition costing twenty-five The question finally arises, where does part only, of this product has, by good luck,
cents. the identity of a work of music really lie? happened to get printed;
Until we can learn to distinguish the Is it in the mere notes or is the composition III. About two per cent of this printed
theatrical side of music from its creative altogether dead until it begins to live as an music, viz., that which happened to have a
idea or principle of its literature and put artistic expression? It is here contended theatrical value as an entertainment in
this distinction into practice, no real music that there is a middle ground. Obviously, public concert halls, is occasionally per
culture can begin. the notes contain only a record of the com formed;
poser's thoughts; as they lie on the page
If these are the materials of musical cul they are as good as dead to ninety-eight per IV. About one one-thousandth part of
ture, we may say that real musical culture cent of all who look at them. one per cent of the music-loving public are
has never even begun. Our present day favored to hear these single performances
musical clture in this sense is nothing Between the dead score and the bloom of which are pedagogically of little or no value.
short of a gigantic fraud. A review of these a full artistic performance, there is a tertium
conditions discloses three important facts: quid—viz., an intelligible reading. Just here V. Even If several dispersed perfor
the perforated score comes in to enable the mances of particular works could be heard
(1) -There is a complete lack of any prac dead notation to start to life in a way to it would not enable p.opie actually to
tical means of acquiring familiarity with the make the musical ideas intelligible and form know these works as they know works of
actual materials of music science and cul a sort of rough analogy of the printed book literature, by careful and attentive reading.
ture. made audible. This is real music publica VI. It is demonstrable that even the most
(2) The incessant pounding and scraping tion. musical people who go constantly to hear
of hundreds of thousands of inefficient ama When music can be really published, the the best artists really know little or nothing
teurs throttles all the real artists. serious-minded man of affairs will begin to of the repertory of music; that is, they can
(3) The result is a depression of public grasp the fact that art, so far from being a not select the one hundred leading works
taste by an unconscious, but ruthless con negligible ornament, is a means of arriving of the repertory and prove that they know
spiracy of professional amateurs, artists, at the mastery of life and at a deeper mas them intimately.
manufacturers of musical instruments and tery than he can ever get by science. VII. Only two per cent of the best music
player rolls and phonograph discs. The Man has two worlds to live in. One, the is heard; the other ninety-eight per cent
commercial aims of the latter are of course life of the senses, a crowding mass of con remains unknown, as long as it is merely
unveiled,~but it is not so generally known crete objects, of unrelated facts and happen printed and not performed — "one silent
that many artists derive their chief income ings. Everyone philosophizes this mass as score piling up upon another forever more."
from singing and playing inferior music on well as he can and makes his own picture —Wagner.
a commission basis. of the world by which he lives.
VIII. As a consequence of this condition,
Can any one show any good reason why The tendency of philosophy is to become the state of public taste remains at a level
we should sit still while nine-tenths of the dry and fruitless from being too systematic, which is incredibly low. When, as recently,
brains in the trade and musical profession, while life itself staggers us with its chang at Columbus, Ohio, $200,000 is spent for a
under the pressure of commercial necessity, ing face. We have, then, what has been pageant of music for a religious centenary
are engaged in a gigantic conspiracy (uncon- described as our "pair of opposites." We and is devoted to the orchestral enhance
scio-s, of course) to depress public taste to are confronted on one hand by "a concrete ment of the alleged "works" of fifth rate
the lowest point? multiplicity divorced from intelligence," choir leaders, it is time to reassess our musi
The only possible cure for this state of and on the other, "a formal unity divorced cal values and standards.
things is to disinter the best of the actually from life."
existing music and place it before the ama Art is the "mediation between these two IX The bulk of the kingly treasure of
teur music lovers. music literature must forever remain
poles, the synthesis which unites them in a unknown unless or until a universal reading
It seems to me that this is the work of mysterious and living whole." system arises which will do for the litera
the amateurs. We must do this work of ture of music what the printed book did for
bringing out these wonders as a sort of the literature of articulate thought.
sacred duty.
But for Mendelssohn, Bach would never Chopin and Shakespeare X. Furthermore, even when the desired
have been known to the world: —just as we If we look at a printed play by Shakes repetitions are forthcoming, the conditions
owe our Shakespeare to two of his fellow peare and one by Bernard Shaw or Barrie, of the public musical entertainment for the
players, John Heminge and Henry Condell, we find that there is very little difference senses are unfavorable for planting the
the editors of the first folio who thought it to the eye. It is to the mind that the differ ideas of the composition, the creative prin
a pity that the world should be deprived of ence glares. ciple of mind in music, in the brain and
srch treasures. Only by such an effort can heart of the hearer, short of which the
we enable the sound factors in the art to Similiarly a sonata movement by Bee transaction of art never really takes place
throw off the theatrical excrescences which thoven and one by Chopin are not very at all. Therefore, no conceivable increase
have gathered about it in the long process unlike to the eye or ear. It is the way the in the number of piano students or public
of professional and commercial develop symbols, visual or sonorous, build up into concerts can open a broad pathway to the
ment. musical sense or thought—the connections house of music.
of the symbols—that constitutes the intrin
The reign of music as entertainment must sic difference. XI. Thus music is suffering from over
give place to the reign of music as litera organization of effect. Man has committed
ture, i.e. to the intrinsic essence of musical Our judgments of Chopin and Beethoven
invention and imagination. should have a medium as clear as print in the crime of "lese-beaute" by building a
which to discriminate their qualities. Frankenstein monster of theatrical effect
Putting Music Through the Bath of Mind by
which can reason more logically than its
A plan which can provide for that will creator. This monster has crushed the life
the New Form of Publication really achieve what all the personal teach out of music. The flower of man's musical
ing and playing, all the printed literature, spirit is lying in the dust—"a harp under
The coming shift in musical education all the endowed concerts and conservatories,
must put the overblown product of the music the ass' hoof."
all the musical congresses in the world are
art thro "gh a bath of mind. trying to bring about and cannot, viz., the XII. Indeed, the complications and
Intrinsic music must be forevermore dis spreading of the best music ln wide circles enfoldmentn which have gathered about
tinguished from musical effect by a grand throughout the world of hearers. music in her guise of entertainment, are
Page 12 THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC
"emotion," "harmony," "dynamics," "color," deemed indispensable. Imitating from a THE MUSICAL "BOOBOISIE"
'"personality"—these are the catchwords of model was then and is still the most natural
the theatrical-effect music of today. of all principles of instruction. Exactly this
All honor to theatrical-effect music and principle is involved in teaching with new "Calling out the House of Lords to Cook
the infinite entertainment it produces. But scores. Every student may start off as a an Omelet."
may we not discriminate music as a theatri matter of course, with an intimate familiar
cal entertainment from music in its creative ity with the ideas of the work which he is "This unhappy country (England) would
principle?—music as a native product of to play, down to the smallest detail. Only, be as prolific of musical as of literary com
in the new way, he is provided not only posers were it not for our schools of music,
poetical inspiration. This division was never where they seize the young musician, turn his
with a model which he can reproduce as attention
practicable till now. often as he desires to, but, also, with a ment in his forcibly away from the artistic ele
art and make him morbidly con
It would not be very difficult to demon practical accompanist or repeteteur to sup scious of its mechanical conditions, especially
strate that music in itself has no descriptive port his own performances and adequate 'a composer, but anuntil
the obsolete ones, at last he becomes, not
adept in a horribly dull sort
expression whatever (think of John Brown's information as to the nature and meaning of chess, played with lines and dots, each
Body, and the Battle Hymn of the Republic of the work he is learning. This of course player having different notions of what the
and a thousand similar instances), but only applies with redoubled force to the practice right rules are, and playing the game so as to
a greater or less appropriateness to poetical of song in all its branches and suggests a flourish his vlew under the noses of those who
differ from him. Then he offers his insufferable
texts or dramatic scenes; that color and new field of boundless possibilities. gambits to the public as music and is outraged
dynamics are merely reenforcing agencies; because I criticize it as music and not as
that most of the so-called "emotion" is not With real access to music literature, chess."—Bernard Shaw.
the inspired recoil from a flashing shaft of music can once more be made to appeal to
imagination, but only a reaction from phy instinct. The professional ideal, as the The reproduction of music by artists is
siological stimulus. standard of the cultivated listener, must be essentially a form of theatrical art and
In the case of literature the paradox is forever destroyed. Then, at last, we' shall depends upon exaggeration. The theatrical
that, so great is the influence of the expres appreciate what music is. side of music, i. e., its artistic performance,
sive tones of the human voice, the value of has gone so far that it has gained ascend
a poem can only with difficulty be judged by People react with joy to the "barbarian" ancy over the claims of musical literature.
hearing it dramatically read. music of Russian and Spanish and Hungar People have been led to believe that the
ian Gypsies, of Italian peasants. Why? theatrical side of music is the "all-in-all"
In music where the attraction of mere Because the music of these "uncivilized of the art.
sound is so much more pronounced, the barbarians" goes straight to the untouched For years America has been fed on a diet
difficulty is even more obvious. Therefore aboriginal core of human nature, sub of the theatrical side of music, big orches
if we wish to know the intrinsic merit of merged in every man and quite untouched tras, famous leaders, sensational works
music we must reduce the external expres by the forms of modern life. It wakes us involving thunderstorms, the bleating of
sive devices to the point at which its ideas up and makes us look about. Oddly enough, sheep, windmill machines, babies' rattles,
alone are audible. This is now feasible. the uncilivized music turns out, on closer and perambulators—alleged musical illus
As a correlative of the color-effect ideals, scrutiny, to be actually more complicated trations of paintings, geography, literature',
musical criticism has become very largely and subtle than modern music—so subtle in accompaniment music for premieres dan-
its phraseology that it is doubtful if the
the analysis of the means by which these civilized man could learn to reproduce it. scuses, "Pleasant Sunday afternoons" of
effects are produced. It is the language of man's deep nature Fauns, awe-striking weirdness of mystical
Obviously the whole business of technical when uncribbed, unbridled, unconfiaed — drama, etc., etc.
analysis is technique of color-effect and does hence of real and free feeling. Its sorrow As Americans always welcome the best
not carry the hearer one step toward eluci is real sorrow, its joy, the joy of the soul, when it is intelligently presented to them
dating spiritual meaning. Not only is it not not of the muscles, its longing, the nostalgia and as these were the best in their "line"
necessary to be able consciously to analyze of people wandering without a home. In they have swallowed the gaff to the tune of
a work of music while we are listening to it; vigor and suavity, in finesse it can hardly 800 millions of dollars per annum.
on the contrary, it is necessary not to be be matched among more educated peoples. There is no more pitiful sight than the
able so to analyze it, since it is precisely It employs sound not as an entertainment, annual influx of young women to New York
because we cannot so analyze it, yet feel but as a magical incantation, as a means of to enter into the round of professional
obscurely its subtle magic of form that the escape into the universal world of spirit, musical life and ambition. "Every singing
peculiar glory of musical experience comes not as exercise of physiological stimulation teacher's studio is crowded. How many
to us. or technological harmony. It has the sim students of vocal art are there in these
But while it is not necessary for us to be plicity and directness and force of a really United States? There are no statistics, but
able to analyze a work of music while we sincere feeling which baffles imitation. the figures must run high into the hundreds
are listening to it, it is necessary that we Music of this kind must be reborn into our of thousands. How many of them attain
should hear it, that we should select what art or it will become suffocated under the prominence? To what end is all this strug
we are to listen to and that we should mass of expressive devices. Think of the gle, all the heartaches, disappointments,
repeat it as often as we desire, through a power of a song like "La complainte d'El- tears, despair? To no good end whatever.
conventionalized reading system as a stand liant," dating from A. D. 700, sung by a Ninety-nine out of every hundred of the
ard. peasant who had perhaps 500 words to students of singing have no talent. They
describe the desolation of a plague-stricken can merely make a few small and not
I propose to show this possibility has now city, but who really saw it and whose soug unpleasing sounds with their voices."
arrived. The recent invention of the perfo is the only method of expression he knows. "The true story of the song recitals of a
rated score furnishes the required crucible single season in New York City has never
in which effects are separated from under been told. It never will be. The bald
lying creative ideas. truth about most of them would seem to be
so brutal that even the indifference of
A wide circulation of the best examples The Musical Criticism of the Future. hurried newspaper readers would be broken
of musical art will help to set up standards and there would be a storm of protests.
of taste so much needed in America. All Works about music are difficult to grasp Time and time again the musical editor of
the puritan races have been non-creative in if the music which is discussed cannot be the New York Sun goes away from a song
the plastic arts and their standards of taste made to have a living meaning. recital and does not write a single line
have suffered. "Taste, to be sure is not The way is now opened for a new and about it. Nothing but pity for misguided
art (though Edward Fitzgerald remarked
that it is the feminine of genius), but it is delightful kind of comparative music- effort could be expressed, and why should
the atmosphere in which art lives and out study in which the sounding musical ex it be? Impudence, charlatanry, trickery,
side of which it cannot live."—Edith Whar cerpts is the great thing and makes the might be met with stern condemnation; but
the futile blunderings of the poor deluded
ton. comment live. The alternation of intelli creatures who have been cajoled by dis
Repetition of the best music is the only gent ideas and their musical illustrations honest teachers or flattered by ignorant or
path leading to the temple of true musical and correlations makes the pianola as inter mendacious friends call for nothing but
appreciation. A pupil entering the High esting as the movie. It becomes in fact charitable silence."
School of music in Berlin in Joachim's day a kind of musical movie. The plain fact Money Backs Musical Battle.
was led, day by day, from class-room to is that modern music is so largely program
class-room to hear the Mendelssohn con music, that without a definite understand "Yet if one of these unfortunates has
certo played and analyzed, bar by bar, ing of the text which is "set," the whole in money, or friends with money, the battle
before being allowed to attempt it himself. tention of the composer is missed. What tor is
acceptance goes on. Recital after recital
given at a heavy pecuniary cost and still
To know the work in hand intimately, in all could an amateur, ignorant of the text, the purchasers
its details, was deemed the necessary pre of tickets do not materialize.
lude to his own performance. make out of Debussy's "Iberia" or Ven- The longer the struggle goes on the more
cent d'Indy's "Istar" Variations? In Audi- agonizing must be the final admission of
Tills drill, with the subsequent guidance script Scores the sounding texts are accom defeat. Yet this is the sort of thing that is
in overcoming playing difficulties, was panied by full literary exposition. encouraged by the misdirected munificence
Page 14 THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC
of some rich men, who honestly believe that One or two telling opinions are as good creations of the human spirit. It is ridicu
their money can buy anything and every as a hundred in support of this assertion. lous to accept as our standard, the fourteen-
thing."—W. J. Henderson in Sun, N. Y. Mr. Krehbiel in the Tribune comments thus year-old mind. This is what has happened
As for the schools and homes where musi in the Alpine symphony of Richard Strauss: under the aegis of the commercial system
cal culture is desired or where the teaching "From a strictly musical point of view the of exploiting artists as a business instead
of music is attempted, the need is almost "Alpine symphony" is little else than of the music itself.
equally urgent. "sound and fury signifying nothing." ^Esthe- It is because I believe that we can now
It is plain that the day of the influence of tically it is a reversion to programme music set up a better standard that I make my
musical technique must soon go, now that in its earliest and lowest estate—the type protest. In so doing I am emboldened by
the whole field of technique is thrown open. which is based upon imitation of nature's the consciousness of being for the moment
All the wonder and mystery of technical noises. It has its moments of striving after the spokesman of all those who really care
execution has gone forever—the performer higher ideals, and in these it is a triumphant for music as an art of the spirit. When we
of the future must give us real musical exhibition of what mastery of the technical think of music in terms of entertainment
imagination or the world will have none of elements of composition can accomplish for the sensorium all the high romance and
him. with simple melodic material, more particu spiritual stimulus dies out of it.
Teaching Music in the Schools larly of what a master of orchestration can It is no longer possible to create. For
do with instrumental color." that we must go back to the past: the seeds
Obviously the brave attempt to teach of the future development lie in the crea
music in the public schools by present "Its large appeal, however, is made to the tive past. Only by a renaissance of buried
methods is doom mI to failure. Music is a degree of intelligence and taste which had
its exemplification in the popular love for treasures can we get at musical truth.
time art and cannot be cramped into an odd
half hour once or twice a week. Kozwarra's "Battle of Prague." Those who Some further signs are significant. When
found their sensibilities most deeply stirred sixty thousand persons attend a football
Music ltself ls the Only Teacher of Music by it would have perceived its beauties still match at a university in which only two
more clearly if it had been accompanied by students are "taking" musical composition,
Familiarity through repeated hearings of moving pictures. It is, indeed, a splendid it would look as if something is awry in our
the best music literature is the only con piece of cinematographic music, but little educational approach to music—and how are
ceivable method of instruction which is fit else. In its pastoral scene cowbells tinkled we to account for the familiar sight of
to serve as an introduction to this art. All most ingratiatingly, but they were no more people seated at tea tables in our smart
the learning of the scales and notes is use musical material than as many cows would hotels and attempting to talk against a
less unless the music itself can be made have been had they been driven across the battery of jazz?
familiar. platform. The sun rose out of the depths Surely it is not volume or variety of color
The simplest explanation of the musical of Wagner's Rhine; the scintillant waters of in sounds that tell the story of music, but
aberrations of the present day is that in the Alpine cataract had the silvery shimmer only the spiritual intensity of meaning of a
proportion as art takes on the professional of the bridal rose in the "Rosenkavalier;" few sounds. Sounds are like words in this,
dress, the sense of humor so natural to all the thunders rolled and the winds whistled that increasing the loudness does not add
musicians fails. The coils of organization exactly as they have rolled and whistled in to their meaning or significance. Energy
gather round the unhappy muse and she our theatres for decades, and generations, decreases with magnitude. Science is turn
becomes helpless. and centuries." ing to the atom for the secret of power, for
We heard not long since of Lincoln Stef- "The noises were not new, and no more atoms are expansive and will not be con
fens walking down Fifth Avenue arm in arm musical than they were when first we fined.
with the devil. Suddenly they saw a tiny heard them in the theatre; but they were There is no music in sound as such. The
spark. "What is that?" asked Steffens. mixed with musical elaments of most ingen music is in our mind. Relations of sounds
"That is a spark of truth." "Aren't you ious contrivance. In that circumstance, per merely unlock and free it. What I am trying
afraid," asked Steffens, "that it will grow haps, will lie their future justification. But to say is that neutral score readings of any
and destroy you?" "Oh, no," said the devil, in the still, small voice of Beethoven's work of intrinsic music will infallibly unlock
"pretty soon they'll organize it and that will "Pastoral" symphony there is more of the and free it. This experience in our minds
finish it." spirit which rides upon the tempest than in effects a contact between the mind of Bee
all of Strauss' turmoil." thoven and that of his hearer.
It would seem that the only cure for pro
fessionalism is for shafts of humor to be Musical forms are transitory but the
"We expected the audience to be delighted relationship of sounds contains an eternal
thrown upon the screen to right men's with the childish exhibition, but it was not.
minds and so enable them to se the absurdi It remained staid, and calmly and respect meaning.
ties which have gathered around music in fully applauded the novelty." It is clear that the musical conception
her effort to attain theatrical effectiveness. resides in the thought, i. e., the sum of the
To see it is to destroy it. Mr. Henderson in the Sun encourages the relations of pitch and rhythm and phrasing
Professional practices reflecting the man conductors to explore the catacombs for which sounds bear to one another. This,
ners of the virtuoso have profoundly novelties: in its aspect as characteristic movement—
affected the character and objects of what "Such music as this is worth many tons the mimicry in sound of all forms of
is called "the art of music" and very of the vapid new stuff which is too often activity, muscular and vocal—is evidently
naturally. The naive revelation of the heart brought to us with prefatory proclamations the ultimate fact of musical invention.
as a sincere communication has been trans of its importance." In artistic performance the product is
formed into a huge apparatus for teasing quite another thing. Here the tone-relations
the nerves of the public and naturally the Mr. Ernest Newman in the New Witness:
are used merely as a basis for special
nerves respond. The virtuoso is no more "Every student of the newest music must "effects" of all kinds due to the necessity
necessary to music as poetry of the heart have noticed one unmistakable sign of awk of a histrionic presentation when music is
than a cathedral and choir and altar boys wardness in it—the absence of rhythmic presented as an entertainment. The speed
are required by religion of the heart. (The flow. The new composers—even composers is modified in various subtle ways, both as
comparison is hard on the Ritual of organ of such different types as Schonberg and to general pace and in the infinite small
ized Religion, but let it pass). The composer Debussy — are almost wholly engrossed changes which occur within it and reflect
is enabled to spin out his verbosity far either in the undiscovered possibilities of the players' feelings. Dynamic changes,
beyond the capacity of his argument's harmony or in the suggestiveness of timbres. both sudden and gradual, are inces
staple so that it will not stand the strain. The result is that they not only think dis sant. The character of the result is still
connectedly, but move stiffly; some of this further affected by the actual sounds of the
"Cinematograph" or Real Music music creaks along as lumpishly as music instrument or voice through which it
must have done in the days of the infancy chances to be reproduced. Now if all these
Every instructed musician is aware of the of the organ, when the keyboard resistance changes or modifications are subject to the
gulf which separates real or "pure" music was so great that nothing short of the whole will of the player, as they ought to be, have
from adulterous substitutes of colors and weight of the fist at once would get the keys they any necessary relation to the musical
dynamics—employed for realistic painting down." thought of the composer? It would need
of scenes suggested by poetical texts. the sword of Solomon to tell which is the
All signs point to the fact that it is time
He knows moreover that program music to draw a double bar and stop the domi part of the composer-author and which of
has been carried so far that the diseased nance of false musical procedure—to set up the player. Precisely this confusion has
formulae of a decaying psuedo-romanticism in short the intrinsic music ideal. Music is upset all popular musical opinion, and is one
has broken under the strain that realism a subjective expression of the composer's reason why a clear knowledge of musical
has laid upon it. Now, more than ever, a mind and heart or it is not worth bothering literature has never been presented to the
preference for such "music" is the infallible about. general mind. It seems clear that if we
sign of a childish artistic intelligence. We want to determine the literature of musical
must abolish the domination of the fourteen- Music For Grown-Ups
thought, we have only to remove the inci
year-old mind. There is no quarrel with the musical dental effects of reproduction; seize upon
It is not nature's noises that are the stuff entertainment as such. It is often delight the thought itself as embodied in the mar
of art but their spiritualization—the spirit ful, but it is childish to mistake it for the velous symbolism of the movement of pitch
of nature transformed by imagination. art of music—one of the subtlest and finest and rhythm and phrase-articulation and
THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC
make these intelligible by making them musical creations themselves, minus the art disgust. The passion for music arises
sound. We have then the intrinsic musical of the reproducer for which we must pay naturally from disappointed and defeated
thought, the generalization and idealization so heavily. players. All this is ridiculous; it ls now
of line which is the only practical basis for It would certainly be a great triumph for unnecessary and should stop.
delivering the artist's mind to the hearer's the composer thus to pay him the homage It is worse than ridiculous. Unable to
mind. Certainly in this case, less is more. of severity and to judge him according to come into contact with the phase of music
Ideas are the natural subject matter of mus his merit as an inspired inventor in musical which is constructive, and nutritive — the
ic, as of literature. Images and symbols are idiom. student is thrown back upon the nervous
their appointed language. If we get the vital excitements of sound ln ltself, with little
drawing of the idea we can spare all the As it is now, the orchestral composer or
rest. Nothing but musical model,ng ca i i r i- the writer in any of the larger forms, is com regard to the spiritual side. Thus is pro
duced a whole groun of occupation-neuroses
duce the impression of truth. In modeling pelled to enter into competition with others, which sap the student's vitality instead of
lies, furthermore, the true basis of color, not on the basis of his power of magnetic feeding it.
which, in music, is not pigment but form. musical invention, but, as much as anythlng, The power of attention to musical thought
"True color," said Rodin, "is like the flower for his power to invent effects which will
of modeling." It is obvious that ideas as immediately entertain audiences. Bona- is frittered away in scrappy and defeated
well as pigments, have color. Movement is fide imaginative suggestion being a mys attempts at performances.
the only true symbol of the musical idea. tery and its "effects" incalculable, he Only a weary and immoral dissipation of
A vrai dire tout est idee, tout est symbole"— is compelled t o concentrate on the nervous strength and a criminal "ocupation-
Rodin. "However paradoxical it may appear factors which are certain to produce imme neuroses" can follow the steady and vapid
diate results. This, in fact, is what has
the great sculptors are colorists as well as happened. impressionism of concert-going and the mis
the best painters or rather the best Commercial "effect" music and taken attempt to learn music by present
engravers. They play habitually with all apparatus for obtaining such physiological methods; whereas a constructive series of
the resources of relief. So well do they results are the arbiters of musical opinion. musical studies, reviewing the best music, is
unite the boldness of light with the modesty You get the "effect" but, music as a product upbuilding and nutritive, fortifying, invig
of shade that their sculptures are as deli of imagination is slain in the process.' To a orating, "freshening the understanding by
cious (saiioureus',s) as fle most chnfriya»ts refined mind and sensitive musical intelli contact with the truth and strength of
water color."i Nothing can produce the" illu gence, all this apparatus is uglv and tasteless nature; improving its vigilence against
sion of life in music except the drawing and because it is unfit. It conceals the deeper decay and danger and increasing its vigor
movement. "They are," says Rodin, "like messages of music which lie beneath, and and resolution for the discharge of duty."—
the breath and the blood of all good works." thereby destroys the essential character of W. E. Gladstone.
The immense distinction between music and music as an intimate art. It contradicts the In listening to works like the G minor
all other arts is that in music the life- very nature of as art as a mode of spiritual fugue or the Chaconne or tha Passacaglia
movement is not illusory or suggested (as contemplation, thought—the passionate of Bach, to mention three at random, we are
in painting, sculpture and architecture) but search to penetrate nature and the divine
spirit which animates her. "Art," says
actually coming into touch with the moral
real. The transition from one atttt de to the Rodin, law of proportion by which the Parthenon
next is constant. Musical movement is a sees clearly "is the joy of the intelligence which was built, and the city of Thebes.
magical transfusion of rising and falling it while llluminatinginto the universe and recreates We are recreated from the resort to the
sounds (pitch) with the subtle division of is the most sublime mission it with conscience. It creative energy which built the world.
the flow of the same sounds into similar is the exercise of thought which of man, since it Otherwise no health can be found in the
groups or periods (rhythm). These move seeks to art and we'a better drop it.
ments can be taken into our minds by obser understand the world and to make it under
vation, as outward color cannot. This dis stood." Between this and the commercial Let the teachers do what they can in
counting of the outer effects of instruments the ized virtuoso-ridden music of today there is teaching rules and technique. It all helps.
in order that the attention may be given to space of a whole world. The fact stands out clearly that if we do not
moving lines is exactly what the modern The physical-sensation side of music, the want to see our children grow up to be musi
invention of player piano and perforated organization of "kultur," must be eradicated cally illiterate, the work of the school and
roll achieves and it is by far the most from the life of art or soon this art will have concert hall must be supplemented by m isic
important service which invention has yet no life. It is a major operation. It is a made familiar by constant repetition in the
offered to art. For it makes the capital dis capital error to confound the so-called home.
There does not seem to be any good
tinction between the musical thought and laws of nature (materialistic mechanism) reason why children should not receive
its accidental performing dress,—thus set with the laws of life. — the emana1ion
of personality or spirit,—which are the guid credit in the school for the musical knowl
ting up as a standard of reference, conven edge they acquire in the home. It is for
tionalized, neutral and lmpersonal readings ing principles of art. It is to. rob music of educators to work out this correlation.
which are essential to practical education of its sentiment in favor of mere surface There is a great difference between fifty
the musical listener and to the absorption of excitement. It is enough to make a music- years ago and today in the matter of play
musical knowledge. Compared with this lover weep to see all this fine enthusiasm ing the piano. "Nobody took music seri
service, all the artists' performances and for music as a spiritual art swallowed up in ously then, and as a result every young lady
orchestral concerts in the world, are as sec mere theatric display, instead of applied to
who had passed beyond her scles wo 11 be
ondary. Printed books and typewritten the solid joys of musical experience: —to asked to perform to her mother's friends,
documents of all kinds furnish an Instruc see the music-loving public a helpless and
hapless victim of the commercial spirit. The and would do so without either feeling or
tive analogy and the objector to the type appearing contemptible. Now that is impos
written letter will probably also object to long tyranny gives sign at last that it is to sible. The musical education of the country,
conventionalized musical readings. No one be removed. thegh backward enough, as a glance at any
quarrels with the regularity of type in music seller's windows will show, has at last
literature and documents of all kinds, on the TRUE AND FALSE PATHS advanced so far as to forbid our forcing
score of a missing personal "touch." On the every girl to learn to sing and play, irre
contrary, the lack of personal touch is the OF "MUSIC STUDY" spective of any question of her possessing
essentially valuable thing about them. This If there is ever to be a real musical cul a voice or an ear, and to make us require a
is not to disparage the beauty of individual ture in America it can come only through certain standard before those who may ulti
readings or handwriting: it is simply to the destruction of the false methods of mately be able to perform, are invited or
make a necessary distinction, obvious at music teaching and false practises now ore- allowed to do so in public.""
present in the case of literature, and certain vailing. We can never get at the constru-
one day to be equally obvious as a fact of All this was foreseen in Shaw's "Unsocial
musical criticism and education. It demands tive, energizing, nutritive force in music Socialist," way back in the early '80's.
a new musical aesthetic but why should not force is:by—itgoing
except
lies
to the place where that
in contact with specific
the critical mind move ahead to meet actual works of the musical "Consider our implements of music — our
changes in the production and transmission mind. pianoforte, for example. Nobody but an acro-
These works must pass entire into the bat will voluntarily spend years at such a
of what is chieflv of value in music? Why difficult mechanical puzzle as the keyboard, and
should we pay through the nose for great minds of music lovers. Just here has always so we have to take our impressions of Bee
thoven's sonatas from acrobats who vie with
musical performers when all the time it is lain the great difficulty. The majority of each other in the rapidity of their prestos, or
the works themselves that are most worth the serious works of music literature are the staying power of their left wris's. Invent
bothering about? Why is it that the older beyond the technical powers of practically a piano which wil respond as delicately to the
turning of a handle as our present ones do to
civilizations which send us all this music all musicians both amateur and professional. the pressure of the fingers, and the acrobats
and these artists, are themselves unable to Consequently they are never taught and will be driven back to their carpets and
pay for it as we do? Why should we not set they therefore remain unknown. Instead, trapezes, because the sole faculty necessary to
up the cvlt of great music as a literature by pupils are put through a course in gym the excutant musician wl'l be the musical
faculty, and no other will enable him to obtain
itself and not as the plaything of virtuosi? nastics and in reading hieroglyphics. Natur a hearing."
Why should we not train up a wide auditory ally they hate it and soon give it up in
of those who know what is excellent in Nothing can be added to this except that
'The climax of absurdity is reached in Mahler's in the meantime the miracle has been
Eighth Symphony given by the Society for iLondon Times Literary Supplement, May 22
'Rodin "L'Art-Entretlens Reunles" par Paul the Friends of Music, which calls for 1,000 ioio
Gsell, 1912. performers!
Page 16 THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC
accomplished. The means of simplifying sign of life in a melody, often as not bor SALVAGING INTRINSIC
music and putting the emphasis on imagina rowed from folk music, and then live on the
tion has actually arrived. memory of it while the professional trans MUSIC
actions are going forward.
The simplification of music back to its
Intrinsic ideas will reveal for the first time In the midst of all this long starvation,
the true idiom of musical speech which they are so overjoyed to find a little natural What Is Meant By Intrinsic Music?
underlies all the jargon which has sub truth that they straightway become the sup
merged it. It will intellectualize the product porters of the composer of the formulae by "The one and only positive test which
and direct attention to the phases of m'isical which the truth is surrounded. The contor can be applied to a modern orchestral score
experience which are sanitive, refining and tions they go through to keep up the fiction is that of proving its contents upon a color
upbuilding. It will complete the transaction that they really enjoy the rest of it are less instrument. Pictures can be similarly
of art by stimulating and developing the amusing. Is it any wonder that, being tested by photography or by copying in
imagination. starved for melody and rhvthm and the black and white. No amount of masterly
magic of movement, and further, not being colouring can conceal bad drawing or in
The one-hundred-man standard of orches able to make anything of the learning, they ferior technique or faulty design when the
tral performances has no inherent necessity. should solace themselves with the very inexorable camera comes into play. . . .
It is merely the correlative of the audience undelirious joys of the appetite for variety So it is with orchestral music . . . arrange
of two thousand persons who must be enter of stimulating sound-sensation— the so-called them for what Bulow contemptuously called
tained and stimulated. instrumental color of the degenerates—the the "Hammerkistl," the domestic piano
Cut down the audience to one and all true iridescence of decay. forte, and if they give real pleasure to lis
necessity for the imposing array falls away. ten to as music under these black and
From these evils we can now be delivered white conditions they will have proved
We must destroy in art the idea of size; by simplifying music back to the naked their inherent value."—Sir Charles V. Stan
spirit is not spatial. If a melody has charm greatness of ideas.
or grace, or the power of kindness, nothing ford. "Pages from an unwritten diary."
is really added to its interest or subtlety or As things are now, the cult of movement, What is Meant by lntrinsic Music?
worth by one or by a million instruments. Of with its inexhaustible variety—the ariel
course there are vast special worlds of imag spirit of art—has yielded to the Caliban of I. Every musical conception or idea Is
ination and poetry connected with the effect Wagnerian .and Straussian force and color, capable of an almost infinite variety of
of sound as such, and their combinations. The leading to pessimism and tragic gloom. The expressive settings and an equal variety of
point is that these worlds are on the yonder pride which is associated with professional performances. With every one of these set
side of the creative principle of music as ism has made the art top-heavy. It has lost tings (either for new instruments or In a
inspiration. In fact, the sounds of the all its Latin humorous gaiety and fiery ele new manner of utterance) there is an obvi
orchestra and the arts of the virtuoso are ments and relapsed into hyperborean gloom ous mutation of artistic and musical char
often so entrancing that practically anything and dullness of Scandanavian sentimen acter.
heard through them is a delight. tality. Few things are more ugly and tire II. Underneath all this rich variety of
some than the vast pomposities of musical effect, there is obviously one steady and per
Just for that very reason we must be on professionalism with their forty staves to a sistent series of rhythmical, melodic, har
guard against the cup of enchantment which page of orchestral score. monic and phrasing factors.
like an insane root deprives us of our musi III. The sum of these factors makes up
cal reason. When it comes to the logical Real Music, Unencumbered by Professional the musical idea—that is, the fundamental
results of color degeneration, we find the or intrinsic thought of the composer—as
fruits. Elaborations is Therefore of Universal
Appeal, and is by no Means the Property exhibited in significant form, or, in general
It must be admitted that the worst enemy terms, the composition ltself.
of a Private Cult
of natural free joyous musical expression is IV. Intrinsic Music is that part of music
professionalism which has been defined as "We are (often) so impressed by the which represents by movement the specifi
a "device for making expression easy." It power of poetry that we think of it as some cally human will or spirit in terms of life-
ends by making the technique of art so diffi thing made by a wonderful and unusual per activity shown in rhythm, melody, harmony
cult that both tne artist's and the hearer's son. We do not realize the fact that all the and phrasing. So viewed it is the oldest of
joy are destroyed in favor of the cult of wonder and the marvel is in our own brains, all musical doctrines.
professional difficulty. that the poet is ourselves. He speaks our • Its symbol is the single column of moving
language better than we do because he is ideas expressing what lies inside the heart
Professional music can be made by any more skilful with it than we are; his skill or mind of the composer, the Dionysian
one who has the mind and the will for it. is part of our skill; his power of our power; plunge of the musical line or its significant
It is so much harder to conquer the diffi generations of English speaking men and Apollonian curves and arabesques.
culties of art lhan of professionalism, that women have made us sensible of these
it is no wonder men turn to the latter rather An intrinsic musical composer is one
things, and our sensibility comes from the endowed with insight into the life in sounds
than to the former. same source that the poet's power of stimu rather than their aspect— not the color of
This is why in painting as in poetry and lating it comes from. Given a little more musical sounds but what their mysterious
in music, every new advance is an escape sensitiveness to external stimuli, a little interconnections and relations can say.
from professionalism and a return to a more power of associating ideas, a coordina The instrumental color of composers is
natural delight in simplicity. tion of expression somewhat more apt, a antiquated in a generation, the poetical
sense of rhythm somewhat keener than the secrets of form are eternal. Bach was such
Can any one doubt that a movement of average—given these things, we should be a poet; Chopin another; Beethoven a third,
this kind is due in music today? poets, too, even as he is. He is one of and so on. They depended not in the least
us."—Nicholl. upon color and their works like all true art
Send the average man to a symphony con
cert and unless he has had some training in "Science," says Galsworthy, in a recent came straight out of the world of spirit.
the secret formulae of the composer, he is interview, "never had such a heyday as this. In this serse alone is music an a't with a
completely non-plussed. Thus there is going It is the arts with faces muffled to the eyes, principle of life in it. If it be an entertain
on daily and hourly a progressive deteriora who stand leaning against the walls of life, ment or an anodyne only—it is not worth
tion of taste in this country, composer, vir gazing a little enviously, a little wistfully at bothering about. A little whistling, more or
tuoso and entertainer each seeking his own the passing rout. This is not their time for less, is of no account.
advancement by appealing to the public carnival. Their lovers sleep heavy with war Intrinsic music may be compared to arable
taste for sensation. and toil. But it is time the arts left off poetry of which Sir Richard Burton says
leaning against the walls of life and became that "the gorgeousness is in the imagery,
Music has little or no relation to designed as creative and seductive as science. You not in the language; the words are weak
effect, and the moment the desire to make in America are at the commencement of a while the sense is strong."
an impression supervened upon the earlier new and vigorous period of fine art."
ideal of the naive expression of inner feel Intrinsic music is the essence of musical
ing, was the moment when music lost her thought.
way in the modern world. "Form is merely a synonym for intelligi There is, properly speaking, no music
bility. Exactest numerical proportion—the without thought.
The pest of theatrical effect has even pro spiritual element of the highest beauty. . . "There is no stirring of musical sound so
truded to the church altar, where modern it is the harmony of music, the music of furtive but it calls up a judgment of our
methods have gone far to destroy the spirit song; the fastidious eye of the Athenian reason. In the measure in which such judg
ual principle of music. required the delicately curved outline of the ments accumulate they captivate the intelli
temple in which he worshipped his goddess gence as well as the senses." — A. Pirro
to conform to the exact law of the hyper (L'Esthctique de Jean Scb. Bach).
What really happens is that the bewil bola and he traced the graceful features of
dered public, who can make nothing of her statue from the repulsive wrinkles of Music a Non-Theatrical Art
musical professionalism when confronted arithmetic." — Benj. Pierce, "Song of Ben With theatrical music, as with plays,
N -with a symphony, listen patiently for the Yamen." whenever the interest veers away from
THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC Page 17
action and movement, to the inner psycho vation or peace, of reverence, of recollected- Now it must be obvious what is most worth
logical factors, theatrical value and interest ness, of solace or of rapture. Nothing but preserving in music is not its outer effect,
decline to the vanishing point. Just at this barbarous noise enforced by cunning and but its idea or creative principle, if, as is
point the truly musical ideas begin to rise to efficiency. inevitable for tha purposes of education,
the attention; the meditative and abstract To recover our lost inheritance we must they must be separated. The intrinsic ideas
rise to the ecstasy of inner contemplation. go to the Mediterranean and to the east, to of music are its creative principle.
The music becomes poetry and even religion. folk music, to the sources of the art before Every one is familiar with the nuisance
We see then that the demand for theatrical it fell into the hands of the professional of reading a mass of letters or papers in
entertainment often acts as a bar to the music makers. various handwritings, in deciphering illeg
intrinsic essence of musical poetry. This What we call "a musical education" is ible words or letters, and above all, in
is exactly what happens in verbal poetry. initiation into the technique of this color- adjusting oneself to the idiosyncracies of
The theatrical value of a dramatic ballad cum-laboratory -harmony-amalgam. Of course individual scripts. Out of these confusions,
like "Atilla" of Meredith is at' one end of it is nothing of the sort. Music literature— the typewriter and printing press have
the scale, with the utterly non-theatrical and apart from technique—cannot be directly delivered us. It is not difficult to imagine
wholly spiritual value of the sonnet at the taught at all, for it is a spirit. This spirit a similar arrangement whereby the mes
other. Music follows this evolution and can be absorbed by contact with inspired sages of music may be melted down into an
nothing could be more fatuous than to com creations and in no other way whatsoever, average size and form of sound, so that
pel the inner harmonies of a meditation of save that with the naturally musical, it can the musical sense can be contained In a
Bach, which are intrinsic, to enter upon an be produced from the life of their own feel kind of uniform audible type or convention.
obscene dance in order to furnish an extrin ings. Our musical perversions are products The Audiscript Score arrives to perform
sic "show" like the Tanuhauser March. of ignorance like every other evil. this service for us, and in so doing estab
The inner values of purely inventive musi The first thing that happens to any lishes the standard of intrinsic music
cal ideas, which constitute the intrinsic natural pleasure or joy in America is that values which may be compared to those.
music, must be salvaged from the demand it attracts the attention of some enterprising Rich and invaluable is the wide variety
that they provide a theatrical entertainment. of effect of all the endless roster of musi
person who sees where he can profit by it.
Viewed in this light absolute music But as there would be little profit in simple, cal instruments and their combinations
becomes the most truly universal of the arts. natural joys, the richest being everywhere from mandolin and accordion and guitar to
"An art which imitates nothing in the cheap in their natural state, he proceeds to organ and orchestra, and none of it is to be
material universe, music could conceivably make it artificially expensive, so that it will spared. But underneath all this blooming
be written and understood by a race of men appeal to those who can "pay through the life lie the germinal ideas or conceptions
which passed its entire life in an under nose." of musical composition, the basis of this
ground labyiinth. it posseses the remark Thus before any money could be made out variety, and this is intrinsic and eternal,
able ability, through the sensuous attraction of music it was necessary to make it an whereas varieties of effect are ever shifting
of its mere tones, to ensnare the ears of expensive entertainment, an entertainment and changing. Let us preserve this nucleus
almost everybody."i from destruction.
furthermore, which everyone could enjoy or
pretend to. Heme the towering spectre of The whole power of imagination in liter
Music Apart from Artists professionalism has reared its head. There ature is shown in the play of suggestion
The literature of music today is tied up is, of course, a wonderfully enjoyable stimu and association, which goes on underneath
with artists' publicity at every point. Why lus to be got from a performance of the the vocabulary—not in increasing the re
should it not be hereafter free to live its Boston Symphony Orchestra, or from a reci sources of the vocabulary itself. It is the
own life independently of artists? Why tal by Paderewski. But the revelation of same in music, "whatever the impediment
should the musical compositions themselves spirit is not always commensurate with the in the channel of communication, the idea
be swamped by reproductive "artists"? One extent of enjoyment. In the spiritual sense, is the same."2
would think that the Kreutzer Sonata and it is not the excitement which pours over Modern composers have tried to make
Chopin's F Minor Fantasie were worthy of us in a confused flood which ennobles and the fragile speech of musical poetry bear
at least a garret in the house of Fame! uplifts and make us bigger; it is the music the burden of representing the whole
Think of it, thousands of graduates turned which we have time to feel, and which is outward reality—stories, painting and what
out each year from American Colleges, and simple enough for creative imitation on our not. But she simply cannot stand the strain
not one per cent have any real acquaintance own part. "Passion itself is not feeling, it or do the work. The overtopping weight of
with the work of music literature. All is the shape into which feeling is forced by expressive resources has crushed out the
honor to the players and singers who have the narrowness of earthly being."' inspiration of the art.
drpghted the world with their geni 's,—but This conception of music as a magic
still one cannot help feeling the call of the incantation, no longer an entertainment for lntrinsic Music Theory, An Outgrowth of
creative work of the composer to occupy the a multitude, or an entertainment at all, but the lnvention of the Perforated Record
center of the field of interest. a means whereby we may recapture our
higher spiritual personality, needs to be The theory of intrinsic music has been
End of Virtuoso Domination the necessary outgrowth of the invention
insisted upon. It is the "blood of the world
The rise of intrinsic nvsic culture means which turns the woes of night, by its of the perforated score and its instantane
inevitably the death of the domination of own craft, to a more rich delight," so that ous adoption into public favor.
music by the theatrical ring of self-exploiting The theory has arisen, as every critical
virtuosi entrepreneurs and publishers. "Winds of remembering of the ancient being theory should arise, as an induction from
What's the use of talking in old-fashioned blow experience. It was found that the new de
terms of the virtuoso system. It is dead or And seeming-solid walls of use open and vices gave the truth of music in a way
at least dying. It never was really alive. flow." which is totally new. No other explanation
The naive assumption that the s'iccess of How far this is from the theatrical effect of their extraordinary development need be
players and singers has anything to do with ideals of the day is obvious. cited.
the value of musical composition would Essence and Excrescence
It is simply a question of stages of cul
make a horse laugh. The concert-hall suc ture. I say it is time that the lovers of Thus the perforated Audiscript Score be
cess of a piece ot music is a test of nothing music as a poetical revelation should have comes a Solomon's sword to divide the
but of its suitability to furnish theatrical a rallying point, should protest against the author's share in music from that of the
entertainment. It has no more to do with debasement of music and insist upon their performer, the intrinsic music from the
its value as a piece of literature than reci own true inheritance. extrinsic, the essence from the excrescence,
tation supplies in the case of the literature so that the literature of music itself may be
of speech. Much of the purest product of The more the material resources of effect
accumulate, the faster the aboriginal might studied apart from personality.
poetical invention is without the least enter
tainment value. of the art declines. The colossal power of Both theoretically and practically, Audi-
rhythm and melody and harmony not only script Scores tend to preserve these in
So looked at the whole discussion and do not need all this modern investiture of trinsic musical conceptions or ideas; to
criticism of music exists only in an air-hell. complicatedness, on the contrary, their segregate them from the mass of distorting,
Musical opinion belongs only to professional effect tends to weaken as the multitude of effect-producing features, and enable them
musicians. They alone know the works appeals to attention increase. to be spread through the world in all their
which are the object of musical opinion. Rhythm and melo:ly, harmony and phras simplicity and purity for the first time in
To the broad mass of music lovers the ing contain nearly the whole of the power history.
repertory of music is a sealed book with of music. It is absurd to weaken them by Because they can do this, Audiscript
seven seals. confusion resulting from the appeal of too Scores appear to be destined to preserve
many factors called for by the necessity of from destruction the musical civilization of
Listen to "works" properly so-called, of making a commercial entertainment.
the American School of Wagner imitators— the past.
it is slap-bang, dash of brass and cymbals, When music undergoes its great contrac The nucleus of intrinsic music, so
every instant, with never a moment of ele- tion to simplicity, as it must if only for defined, approximates a neutral version of
■W'intbrop Parkhurst in "The Freeman," Oct. economic reasons, what shall remain?
'President Wilson's address in Boston, February
5, 1921. 'Mrs. A. Y. Campbell in "The Hibbert Journal." 24. 1919.
Page 18 THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC
quires four to eight giants to move, and
the work in question and may stand forever THE NEED OF HUMOR IN OUR which in a fair wind can be heard a mile?
as a standard intelligible and "clean" read No wonder Sadda Yacco said to Col. Hig-
ing. Thus it is the flrst practical notation ARTISTIC TRANSACTIONS ginson after a Boston Symphony Concert,
for music which has carried music to the "we passed that stage (the noise making
reader's ear, as well as his eye and mind. stage) a thousand years ago!"
Audiseript Scores may be used as start Anglo-saxons have a marked gift for
At a rehearsal of Electra, Strauss called
ing points for critical discussion by educa humor but their sense of humor has never from the balcony to the concert-meister,
tors and also serve as an illustration of penetrated into the field of artistic con "Play louder, I can still hear singing!"
music literature for all students and music- cepts. Else we should not fail to see the
lovers who wish to become familiar with joke of allowing our musical inheritance to It is recorded that not long ago, W. B.
what is best in the art. be used as a plaything and a vehicle for Yeats received a letter from Boosey & Co-
profit by the virtuoso. Nor should we see asking for the publisher's permission to set
Some one has said that although he could audiences listening to Haydn Rondos as one of his poems to music. Yeats replied
not define an elephant, he could neverthe solemn pronouncements of musical proph that he was willing to consider it but that
less tell one if he saw it. Since the poetic ecy or be fooled into mistaking the solemn he would first like to see the music. "What
charm of music is unanalyzable, the work for the significant. The Scandanavian is that to you?" they asked him. "You are
itself must be given. This is the inestim spirit of gravity and tragic gloom is not not a music critic." He answered that he
able service of the perforated score. Noth necessarily the apex of artistic impressive- once gave a composer permission to set to
ing else can explain the avidity with which ness. music the Isle of Innisfree, a poem written
refined music-lovers the world over have to set forth the wonders of solitude. It
welcomed it as shattering a breach in the What we need in all our artistic traffick-
Chinese wall of "notation" and "perform ings is the dry light of humor. The moun began something like this:
ing" difficulties and rites which have tainous elaborations and overloadings of "I will take a boat and sail forth to the
hitherto debarred them from the shrine. the true messages of music will become farthest isle, there build myself a rush
apparent the moment we send a shaft of cabin and contemplate the soul of things."
The School of Higher Pianism— humor to light up the house of art. When the composer invited him to hear it
"And when I saw my devil," says at Crystal Palace, he found it performed
Beginning Higher Up Nietzsche, "I found him serious, thorough, by an orchestra of five hundred and sung
by three thousand boy scouts!
The music-lover provided with a roll to profound,through solemn; he was the spirit of
play the notes and with the author's text as gravity, him all things fall; not by The explanation seems to be that the
reminder and guide may now take up the wrath, but by laughter do we slay. Come, Anglo-Saxon sense of humor, which is per
study of playing music in good earnest. let usis slay the spirit of gravity." haps the keenest in the world, has never
Except that he is starting further up with to Itdiscard time for music to grow up and learn penetrated to the sphere of its artistic
a ready made technique, he is precisely in favor of theall simplicities
this theatrical nonsense in
which flow from
consciousness. The consequence is that
the position of any other player. His mu you can put anything over on us. The
sical comprehension—his intelligence and the sincerities. She could almost afford musical entrepreneurs are simply trading
knowledge are to be put to the test if he to imitate literature which has never de
parted from the single line of speech. The
on the public lack of humor.
plays for others, and by himself, if he plays definiteness of poetical and of music feel We must recognize the monstrous ab
alone. ing would then approach each other for both surdity of using for the mere communica
The new education in music must reckon would be "that enchantment of sound and tion and study of musical thoughts an in
with the player-pianist who has become movement in which speech follows a rise in strument which costs a young fortune, takes
an artist. In the school of higher pianism the temperature of the soul." eight men to move and which compels
performers are rated according to specific everyone within a mile to listen to what
mental, spiritual and magnetic endowments At the present moment the color fashions you play!
in music and not according to digital skill. resemble nothing so much as the Andean Equally absurd and lmpossible is it t<,
The saving to the world in time and labor women who wear as many skirts as they compel every student of singing to pay
and muscle and money is beyond computa have years on their backs, putting on a $500 to $1,000 for a piano which few can
tion. new skirt each year and never taking any play even if they can afford to buy it.
off.
An entirely new type of musician must At the Lexington Avenue Opera House I
now be reckoned with. The player by If we wish to get back to the real lines recently listened to an alleged opera called
hand must of necessity spend years at the of the music which enshrine her magical Pelleas and Melisande in which a modern
mechanical side of his art. The player- beauties of form, we must make a clean "composer" has tried to realize in sounds
pianist begins where the hand pianist shift of all this baggage; then, and then and scenes the Materlinck play of that
leaves off. A recent writer has shown that only, can music recover "le naturel qui est name. All the familiar resources of colo*
the art of the pianola is in point of fact le fjout supreme."— (Rodin). effect were present. The one hundred man
"the least mechanical of all forms of musi orchestra—the most expensive singers and
cal performance."i He shows that the The present plight of the art is a satire elaborate stage settings—the hush of atten
player-pianist's work is almost entirely upon our sense of humor. If we can re tion as of something serious about to take
mental. "The performer has to create an cover the noble folk music of the past, redo place—awe-stricken breaths at a work
exact mental image of a rhythmical motive, lent of real feeling, of natural humor, and divine. Yet it seemed that the three fac
' with the extent, shape and individual of good humor, people will quickly leave tors of dramatic art were annihilated at
cadency. . . . What this means in the way off feeding on the husks and bran of "color their root by complete artiftcialization. The
of mental activity does not call for dem and mechanical dynamics." The personality spoken word was rendered perversely un
onstration . . . All pianolistic difficulties of the performer will give way to the per intelligible by declamation—a masterpiece
are mental ... A pianolist is gifted, or the sonality of the composer. From that hour of unnaturalness, a very travesty of French
reverse, according to his knowledge of the advance will begin, but not before. diction. Dramatic action there was none,
rhythm and to his imaginative capacity."i
Democracy arrives late at the banquet of while music was reduced to a weaker Wag
the arts; beauty is the last of the things nerian orchestral comment—one long suc
to be thought practical. But she does ar cession of puffs and snippets of melody
"Turn a child loose with a mechanical rive in the end. and color, without even the slightest con
piano and a large selection of rolls, and he tinuous dramatic development in the music
is almost sure, sooner or later, to wear out Nothing could exceed the beauty and itself; —the same ridiculous awe-inspiring
the charms of the bad and the indifferent dignity of the doorways in some of the growlings and gruntings of the cellos and
music, and fix his affections on the good, more modern office buildings which shine basses, the sudden stop, the long holdlng
which will not wear out. The day has come from the very purgation of superfluity. of the chalumeau tones that Wagner has
when many a child of ten, who has been made us familiar with. The more inane the
given the run of a player piano, is more In music we are still hampered by the procedure of the music drama, the greater
cultivated musically than the ordinary anomalies of tasteless and meaningless seemed the attention. People leaned for
middle-aged concert goer. It is largely on color and ornament. ward and held their breath so as not to
this account that I was led to say, at the Why does it strike no one as comic that miss anything!
beginning of this article, that mechanical four One could not help thinking of George
music is the greatest spiritual boon of Egyptthousand persons should sing Israel in
Ade's story of the insurance agent at the
modern times."—R. H. Schauffler, in "Col should atwrite the Crystal Palace?—that Mahler
musical party who sat so still that he got
liers." a symphony calling for one
thousand performers? — that we should numb below the hips while the music was
have as our standard domestic instrument, going on for fear that someone would notice
"The Iliad remains what it is whether a machine built to hammer out the flowing that he was there and ask him how he liked
the rhapsodists recite it or Pisistratus have grace of musical feeling, a machine costing fugue No. II by Bach."
it copied for perpetual remembrance in from $500 to $4,000?—an instrument having This crowning masterpiece of civilized
alphabetical characters."—W. F. Ambros. sixty thousand pounds of tensile strength European stupidity and lack of humor was
1 Sidney Grew in "The Sackbut." Sept., 1921. to hold the strings under the poundings of holding them in a vice. The fake really
London. the virtuoso in the concert hall, which re worked.
Page 19
I suppose that performance cost $10,000 THE MUSICAL CALIBAN must give way to an improved instrument
and there must have been seven thousand of definite and provable educational powers,
persons in the house. "Ten men love what an invention which will, I think, transform
I hate," said Browning, but ten thousand! Unused Educational Force of the the player from a toy and entertainer into a
serious and indispensably useful instrument
I- could not help thinking what Yvette Player Piano — The Future of of musical education, and thus put the
Guilbert could have done with that play, crown upon the evolution of the perforated
reciting it unaided and making it really "Mechanical" Music roll principle. The present-day player
live with the accompaniment of a guitar never reached its potential and with the
or a piano! coming of the phonograph it has besn los
Shaw's Prophecy Fulfilled. ing ground year by year. Elsewhere will be
The trouble with all this "color" art is, I found a statement of my belief that the
think, that it is lacking in real excitement "Consider our implements of music—our development of the player-piano has hardly
because it has every kind of color, but the pianoforte, for example. Nobody but an yet begun. I believe a mistaken idea of
color of life. acrobat will voluntarily spend years at its merits and capacities has driven it out
such a difficult mechanical puzzle as the of the path of progress. Recently the stress
I had just come from playing with per keyboard, and so we have to take our im has been placed upon the development of
forated score the Arietta of Beethoven's pressions of Beethoven's sonatas from acro recorded performancas of artists. I believe
last Sonata—some choral preludes for the bats who vie with each other in the rapid this to be a profound mistake, both com
organ by Bach, Gluck's Iphegenia in Aulis ity of their prestos, or the staying power mercially and artistically. It outrages, and
and the third overture for Leonore, all of their left wrists. lnvent a piano which very properly, the devotees of artistic piano
brimming and thrilling with life, activity, will respond as delicately to the turning of playing who welcome the player in its place
power, charm and "go." What a contrast! a handle as our present ones do to the as an indispensable musician's tool, but will
pressure of the fingers and the acrobats never accept it in lieu of the artist. Thls
It seemed that only the lack of humor will be driven back to their carpets and
with its "silvery laughter" could explain a trapezes because the sole faculty necessary policy comes from a fundamental misunder
contrast like that. What hope is there ror to the executant musician will be the mus. standing of the nature of the piano itself
music as long as such solemn foppery can cal faculty and no other will enable him to and also of the player mechanism and its
hold the attention of the musical public? obtain a hearing."—G. Bernard Shaw—"An function. I have a big stake in the player
and I think it a thousand pities that a great
If the common-sense view of music—as Unsocial Socialist." (The Early 80's.) and noble instrument like the pianola which
a form of distinguished and communicable is capable of conferring a great benefit
knowledge—is ever to prevail over the "La musique est la lete de la mcmoire." upon music lovers the world over should
theatrical tendency toward physiological "Prends l'cloquence ct tords son cou."—Paul be prevented from performing that service.
stimulation, it will be necessary to fortify Verlaine. In spite of all its capacities and triumphs
our musical thinkers and theorists, lay and "In many ways mechanical music is the pianola has never been "put on the
professional, with the material means for the most interesting aid democracy has map," has never been taken seriously by
getting inductive musical knowledge of the invented. Just as modern printing the musical profession or put to practical
intellectual kind. We must enable people presses made newspapers feasible, and use as a musical educator.
to get at musical truth. thereby enabled a wide spread nation to Great as the artistic possibilities of the
think collectively, the talking and play player are, they are secondary, and they
If people in general are to know the ing machines are diffusing musical have obscured the issue, diverted the in
truth about music at all, it can only be by ideas upon an unprecedented scale."— strument from its true destiny and sent it
the scientific method of cumulative evi Editorial, The N. Y. Tribune, July 11, off into a bypath. It is my object to at
dence. 1916. tract attention to these unused powers so as
And how is one to get the cumulative evi "Nur an Bcispielen, Beispielen und to inaugurate a new path of development.
dence in regard to music literature if the wlderum Beispielen—ist etwas klar zu This path is the educational one.
literature itself remains inaccessible? The machen—nnd endlich, etwas zu lernen."
evidence can't be got and the result is that —Rlchard Wacjnf.r. The educational powers of the player
ignorance of musical literature is profound "Only by example, example and again piano embody a principle capable of rich
by example, can anything be really made development, as wonderful in its way as
and it is universal. These people think clear and finally learned." — Rlchard that of the phonograph and, if possible,
they love "emotion," but, as has been well Wagner. even more interesting.
said, "unintellectual emotion, amounting to "The strongest force in the World is an
pure temperament, is no more enticing than idea whose time has come."—Napoleon. The present-day phonograph and player
a full glass of corn syrup." Putting the Crown on the piano have provided the world with part of
Player Piano. the sheer and immense entertainment af
The only musical truth which is commu forded by music but as no systematic
nicable at all is the truth of thought and History shows that it generally takes scheme of knowledge or culture accom
imagination. Only when music has been from fifteen to twenty years for the panies such experience, only fugitive and
purified, simplified and intellectualized by world to wake up to the practical ap disconnected impressions result.
the bath of mind, and freed from its bastard plication of a new invention. This time
emotions, can we once more recognize the for the player piano has passed. The catalogues of the phonograph and
divine ligaments of the muse. We must The time being ripe for a reform in piano-player omit seven-tenths of all the
see the magic of her curving lines or there music the appearance of the reform world's music inheritance and have no
can be no grace, and without grace there is ing instrument was a foregone conclu means for impressing musical knowledge
no charm, no life, but only mechanical sion. First the piano as the ideal in and musical experience upon the memory.
excitement. strument for neutral translation of all Such knowledge can not be acquired without
musical values had to be perfected and symbols. It must be obvious that without
As soon as the fundamental literature to become universal, next, a universal real knowledge of musical composition, i.e.,
can be known, its power will be felt. means of playing it arose as a natural the planting of actual forms of great music
Wealth and luxury in presentation do consequence of the universality of de in the hearer's mind, there to live and grow,
not help the life of music. sire for music which the presence of —the transaction of art-education cannot
the piano created. This was achieved take place at all. It has only achieved a
The greatest artistic nations have all by the perforated roll about twenty beginning because vague and fugitive im
been poor because the impulse to make art years ago. Now at last a critical pressions communicate next to nothing of
is ascetic. scholarly method of use has come to the composer's mind or thought.
enable the perforated roll transcripts Thus, the advent of piano players and
We shall never get the musical inheri to do their work of carrying the mes
tance of Italy by means of opera and con sage of music throughout the world in phonographs, wonderful as their contribu
cert performances — or of France by ex tion has been, has not inducted people into
a form which all can understand and real musical knowledge, because of the
changing artists and orchestras. enjoy. absence of clear and visible symbols by
We must open channels through which In 1911 it was finally practicalized and which the experience could be remembered,
the ideas behind the musical performances commissioned for its task of redeem and of any provision for adding knowledge
may flow into the minds and souls of hear ing musical literature from the evil to experience. Art is symbolism and imag
ers everywhere. Science, alone, can help quagmire into which it has fallen. ery and imagination. Without symbols it
us here. We must find a method which is impossible to convey musical knowledge
will really work. I cannot open the blade Why the Development of the Player Piano in an accurate and rememberable form, or
of my knife sideways, not if I work on it a Has Lagged. indeed any knowledge whatever.
lifetime. The strong public desire to enjoy the best Up to the present hour no system of musi
music produced in 1897—the player piano. cal instruction and no player or phonograph
"The power of sound has always been It has been the delight of innumerable devic e has appeared which could supply the
greater than the power of sense."—Joseph music lovers up to the present hour, and visible symbolism plus the sounding sym
Conrad. now, it would appear, its work is done. It bolism supplied by the living musical ex
Page 20 THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC
perience and plus the informative, critical music in terms of its creative ideas or con make music, and the quality of the music
and explanatory comment without which ceptions, and not by the mere kinds of has improved with the quantity of the
nothing can be understood. noises it makes in publishing itself to the mechanism."
These conditions are fulfilled for the ear. Tunes or figures are the natural sym It is rather late in the day to have to
first time in the history . of the art of bols of musical ideas and movement, the defend from the attacks of the exquisites
music by the author's Universal Music means by which they float to our minds. and the purists an instrument which has
Reader and Audiscript Scores described Musical figures are expressible by significant
form as their only vehicle. Significant had the lyrical praises of practically all the
herein. Accurate and dependable readings forms can penetrate to the mind of a creative artists and great pianists of the
both audible and visible of musical ideas hearer—tints and odors and flavors can present day world. It is a question of fact,
may now flow uninterruptedly into all not of opinion or taste. Here is the mass of
minds, accompanied by scholarly and au not. recorded music, which cannot be known till
thoritative musical criticism, history, Music may now be established as an it is played somehow. Who can play it?
anecdote, and aesthetic. The definition abstract art of ideas; can be furnished with Practically no one. So that either—fautc de
and illustration in concrete terms of the a convention or transmission which is uni mieux—we must fall back on the player
leading musical forms, processes and types versally understandable (because audible). piano or else live forever in ignorance of
of procedure, analyses of the contents of How far removed this is from musical the greatest works of the great masters of
musical compositions, may now be thrown representation by external "color" and lab music.
open to all music-lovers. oratory harmony and the attractions of the I take it that the following definition by
The great Chinese wall of playing and virtuoso, is apparent. They are utterly dif the present writer must be allowed to have
notation difficulties which has debarred the ferent worlds. No conflict, however, need some truth. "The player piano is a mechani
hosts of musical enthusiasts from access to exist between the two functions of artistic cal musical instrument which will play a
the shrine has yielded at last to analysis musical performance and private home given work of music at least as well as any
and scientific method. The obstructions reading, any more than there is a conflict person who cannot play better than lt."
are pushed back into the field of ancient between reading Hamlet and seeing it
history. played. Rather the experiences complement It would be great fun to arm oneself with
each other. the string quartets, sonatas, symphonies,
It is not at all a question of what you suites, and concertos of Haydn, Beethoven,
think of the player-piano, or whether you So freed and delivered to eye, ear and Mozart, Mendelssohn. Brahms, etc., and, say,
like it,—it is simply a question of whethei- mind, music may become once more the the piano works of Chopin, and then invite
or not the world of hearers are to partici organ of the subconscious mind, which we some of the player-piano objectors to come
pate, henceforth, in the incomparable de all share and which is perhaps our real and in and play them. Everyone knows that
lights of real musical knowledge. In musi ultimate personality; a new revelation and nobody can play these things. Newman's
cal knowledge alone lies the nutriment and a new joy to millions now defrauded by the treatment of the objectors is as amusing as
expanding mind and soul which music was very ingenuity of the appeals to luxury it is just.
born to supply. And, of course, knowledge and sensation with which it has been neces
implies a systematic body of ordered fact sarily surrounded as long as the art was "Another playful little dodge of the anti
and interpretation. envisaged as a theatrical entertainment for piano-player extremist is to doubt whether
pay. any one who commends "mechanical instru
The new music scores will present the • • » ments" can be. a real musician. This also
outlines of musical knowledge in scientific one can face quite cheerfully. If to praise
demonstrations repeatable at will, of the The Place of Sensation in Music. the piano-player is to work one's own dam
sheer facts of musical science and the art. nation, one has at least the consolation of
From another angle the present swollen
There is no argument. It is simply fact condition of musical sensation is due to the being damned in excellent company. Per
of unchangeable reality and definiteness. fact that the eye and mind are left hungry haps I ought not to drag in the names of
while the ear is gorging in its trough. such composers as Strauss, Grieg, Elgar,
What the printing press did for articu Scriabine, Max Bruch, Faur6, Humperdinck.
late literature, the new device will do for The more the eye and mind are fed, the Mascagni, Max Reger, Saint-Saens, Max
music literature. While defining musical less the ear demands. Schillings, Balakirev, Debussy, Glazounov,
knowledge, the Audiscript Score will reduce Liapounov, Rimsky-Korakov and Sinding
all music to its intrinsic values—since it When the mind and eye are cheated, as
in performances of orchestral music, the who have all sung the praises of one or the
shows nothing but the Greek outlines of other of these instruments. Their evidence
musical forms. ear cries aloud for fulness of sensation and
very properly. Music is compelled, so to may be tainted, these abandoned fellows,
There is no conflict with the world of speak, to stand on one foot of her tripod. together with conductors like Nikisch.
artistic performance. Histrionic or the In the private absorption of music in the Colonne, Chevillard, Landon Ronald and Sir
atrical music is a world apart. home, by the triple appeal to eye, mind Henry Wood, may also be, or have been
and ear, the ear calls far more for musical when they were alive, in the pay of the
Our problem is to salvage the intrinsic makers. But when we are told especially by
literature of musical ideas by presenting sense as revealed in the significance of
narrative moving forms, than for richness amateur pianists that the piano-player is a
clear, intelligible readings of such ideas, soulless machine which no self-respecting
entirely divested of the influence of the of sound color.
musician would be seen sitting down to, we
virtuoso. Enjoying music is a kind of trance. What may remind them that some of the warmest
And this may now be done. I am urging is that the state of trance is commendations of it have come from pian
best induced by the closest contact with the ists of the front rank, such as Busoni
I have set myself the task of attempting creative principle of the art, viz., the com Harold Bauer, d'Albert, Backhaus, Careno,
to put the pianola really on the map as a poser's ideas. Dohnanyi, Arthur Friedheim, Gabrilowitsch,
musical educator. It is Pickwickian to Mark Hambourg, Josef Hofmann, Frederic
have an instrument acclaimed by the "The Reading Convention" for Musical ldeas Lamond, Wanda Landowska, Pugno, Sauer,
world's authorities as perhaps the most Stavenhagen, Szanto, Rosenthal and Les-
useful of all musical inventions, if not tin By reducing music literature to the
nucleus of ideas as the basis of education chetizki."
most significant of any invention affecting
an art, and yet see the development go off and study, we shall set up the cult of lmag "It is evident then that whatever the aver
into defeated attempts to palm it off as an inative music prose. Under this arrange age amateur or teacher may think of the
artistic instrument by capitalizing the pian ment we can sift the products of music and piano-player, it is taken seriously enough by
ist s performances. I have bejn attempt determine the absolute spiritual and intel the composers, pianists, conductors, and
ing for a long time to impress the manu lectual values which lie back of musical singers who stand at the head of their pro
facturers with these facts. So far with lit phenomena or effect. fession.'"
tle result. The chief difficulty is the rooted
belief universally entertained among busi In view of these facts, it is more than sur
Mechanical Music and Public Prejudice prising to And that the parents of young
ness men in this field that the public does
not care for education — especially, they One of the most ridiculous charges of the people go on sending their children to con
would say, is it indifferent to serious musi anti player-piano purists is that the instru servatories and schools and teachers of
cal knowledge preferring jazz and comedy music to make artists of them. There is no
ment is "mechanical" as if all instruments demand for these artists, yet the schools of
opera. I believe this is an entire mistake as well as most players were not mechani
and that the real cause of the blockade is music continue to teach piano playing, with
cal. Ernest Newman, perhaps the most out the culture of musical literature and
that the manufacturers are uninformed of influential critic in Europe or America has
the true state of the public mind. It is the pulverised this contention in his book on history, just as if a really practical way of
object of this newspaper to furnish a test of the piano player, a book that contains the attaining to musical culture by the direct
soundness of this belief. first really critical account of the piano method had never been invented.
A new musical perspective and tech player which has yet been written.i It is a frightful waste of money, time and
nology from perforated scores can check "For probably thousands of years," he brains. For it is to be noted that in order
the growth of the sensation ideal. says, "man has been steadily increasing the to know and understand musical structure
amount of mechanism he uses in order to
The advent of the original pianola has 2 "The Piano Player and Its Music." Ernest
put into being the means of estimating 1 London—Grant Richards. 1920. Newman. J
THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC Page 21
and meaning, it is necessary to have a direct idea of what our piano study comes to. He The Hunger for Music
relation between the composer and the predicts a great future for the piano-player. The manufacturers strongly maintain that
hearer and not via any intermediary teacher It "will make plain people lose their irra the American people feel little interest in
or player or printed text book. tional terror of good music by the simple serious music, in musical education. I
Mr. Newman laments that long as the process of repetition." suspect that this is the natural mistake of
piano player has been before the public, "it That the piano-player and the gramo the marooned New Yorker who imagines
is still only in its infancy as an artistic and phone can be made "two of tha mightiest of that the center of America is tj be found on
an educative force." the musical forces of the future" no one can Fifth Avenue and Broadway. Let him go
All this increases a thousandfold the won doubt. "A quarter of an hour of the piano- out to the West and Middle West and see
der and the pity that nothing has ever been player each day would give him [the child the huneer for music.
done with this really miraculous educational in the remotest districts] in a few years a The difficulties of reaching to the great
tool to advance the cause of musical educa repertory that his father could not have hungry auditory may be underestimated.
tion. The most wonderful of all musical acquired in half a century."—Newman. But to me it is inconceivable that the most
inventions is used as a toy and entertainer. romantic people on earth, should not care
In fact, even its use as a toy is dying out. The players and teachers and concert
managers and publishers have been in to know about the most romantic of the arts
What is the reason? The reason is that on which they spend nearly a billion dollars
the managers of the business, not being charge of music up to date. It is about time
to put it down in the records of the race a year.
musical scholars, do not understand the real Nothing can shake my faith that the
merits of the invention and will not listen to that in the first quarter of the Twentieth
Century the control of music passed out of American people are more eager for educa
anyone who does. At least I have been ham tion and especially for the best in music,
mering at their doors for years to put into their hands and into the hands of the musi
cal auditory. than any other people.
operation a genuine application of the labor- It will be interesting to see if it be a fact
saving and time-saving merits of this inven Creative Use of the Player-Piano that the music lovers of America do not care
tion to the actual needs of musical life. for musical knowledge and education.
They have no belief whatever that the Of late years there has been a great run All that is really needed is a public
American people care to know anything on recorded performances of the player- response to these proposals unmistakable
about music. My object in writing this paper piano. With all due respect to the artists, enough to prove to the manufacturers that
is to force their hands for their own good I think too much emphasize on the repro there is a widespread public interest in
and prove that there is an immense public ducing artist is a mistake. The miracle of
the "player" is that it releases music from knowing the best music.
awaiting a properly designed system of
musical culture. the control of the virtuoso and sets up a Music the Only Teacher of Music
direct line of contact from composer to
hearer. The recorded rolls are interesting Are we going to permit the art of music
as models but we ought to take our Bee to be run by manufacturers and publishers
THE EXPANSION OF MUSICAL thoven and Chopin "neat." of jazz, and encourage the music salons of
Department Stores to determine the stand
TECHNIQUE BY THE Three-quarters of the joy to be got from ards of taste for us?
PLAYER-PIANO the player-piano lies in its creative use. You Educators must awake from their dream
play. It is your performance, your own han that a faculty of teachers and fine buildings
The expansion of technique in modern diwork; you are the artist; you make some and libraries can make a music school.
music has carried it beyond the possibility thing that never existed before (just like
of hand-playing. lts whole development has that) and will never exist again. You may Buildings cannot teach, at least not music,
evidently been leading up to the player. use a model if you like. Get the record of nor can teachers teach. Libraries of music
When the player is really applied to the pur an artist and copy it directly. Imitate every books cannot teach for the scores are all
poses of art-training, it will be found that the feature of his interpretation. It is still your dumb. Endowments of millions cannot teach
perforated roll will enlarge the technique of own performance. You have merely been so long as they merely carry on the existing
the piano itself to a point hitherto unimag presented with a ready-made technique system of capitalizing the virtuoso.
inable. Composers will write for it directly. which enables you to play. You are the con If music-school buildings and teachers and
They can then write free of the limitations ductor of an orchestra, if you like, but libraries cannot teach, neither can concerts.
of the fingers. Thousands of new sonorities emphatically you are the man behind the The principle of education is not in them
will come from new groupings and spacings gun. You are in fact an artist in the making for the principle of education is ordered
of chords impossible to the hands. There is and stand in the same position as any knowledge.
sure to be a wide development in the use pianist of ability to the instrument beneath Only the music can teach, just as only
of arpeggio. Orchestral works can be cut his hands. Your control of technique is mul literature can train a man of letters.
for rolls from score instead of from piano tiplied by ten thousand—that is all. Movement the Essential Factor in Music
forte versions, etc., etc.; in short, we shall Now to go back and put the virtuoso in
see an unparalleled enrichment of true between the composer and yourself is to rob The essential factor in musical composi
musical effect. yourself of a great joy and to injure the tions, considered intrinsically, is movement
The present music roll is a survival of the —movement of pitch, movement of rhythm,
earliest crude manufacture. It carries no purity of the original message. It may be movement of harmony—the Dionysian swirl
sign of the rhythm of the music to be valuable on other accounts—but here it is a of liberated energy or meditative dreaming
played, nor of the tempo—not a word of loss. pace of thoueht, not the "color" of musical
description of the music. It does not even It needs to be said repeatedly that a good sounds or the personal touch of players
contain the composer's expression marks. pianola reading is far better music, yes, which are ephemeral and changing things.
Very frequently there may be a change of better art, than nine-tenths of the hand per It is obvious that since movement is what
time-signature for one bar. This sign is also formances. By this I mean, it is actually distinguishes music from painting and sculp
left out. Much modern music is unintelligi closer to the original—cleaner cut and more ture, it is the type or character of move
ble on rolls for this reason. No clue is given attractive to mind and ear. "A good per ments that interests the hearer. The whole
to the frequent changes of movement. All formance upon a piano-player would give of piano music is entirely a matter of styles
this is changed in the Audiscript Score. more pleasure to a musician than most of of movement and figuration. Even in th&
The effect of first giving the roll the the performances he is likely to hear upon largest orchestral forms nothing really inter
natural position for reading and then of the hand-played instrument."—Ernest New ests the hearer but some form of movement.
adding the authoritative notation and man. This is probably true of at least three-
printed comment to the roll, is more import All this is not to disparage in any way fourths of all music, whatever, which is
ant than might at first appear. The eye is the specific enhancements of individual founded on dance rhythm. Rhythm, said
said to be a hundred times quicker than the artists and concerts. It is merely to suggest Beethoven, is the soul of musical expression.
ear. What we hear is always influenced by that so far as education and culture are con The eminent charm of the works of Bee
what we expect to hear. So that when eye, cerned, the concert entertainment and the thoven lies in the wonderful variety of
ear and mind are enabled to cooperate in artist-player do not and cannot take the movements which he invented—never in
understanding music a wonderful thing hap place of an organized system of understand their orchestration. Movement is the cen
pens. able knowledge. Until these are added to tral heart of all melody; movement of pitch,
The eye comes to the service of the ear our educational system we can have no and movement of time or rhythm. If we
and we fill in by imagination what is only musical culture worthy of the name. Nor should abstract the rhythmic movement
sketched to the ear. In other words, we can the player-piano ever reach its potential from the symphonies of Beethoven, nothing
hear piano tones sustained far beyond their till we have an organized system of knowl would be left, whereas we can take away
actual sounding tone; eighth and sixteenth his tone color and the music would still
notes to the ear become quarters and half- edge. Until that hour its merits are theoreti remain in all its purity.
notes to the ear. because the eye tells us cal and speculative only. The pianola reproduction of Tschaik-
that they are half and quarter notes. The' merits of piano-players will never owsky's Pathgtique Symphony preserves
Mr. Newman con°lu 'es his account of the come out till we have a regular system of the Dionsyian play of movement and figura
piano-player by showing that ninety-nine musical education actually embodied in tion, on which the effect depends, in all its
per cent of all music students are deplorably pianola rolls of the improved order, with the purity, despite the omission of orchestral
ignorant of music — "profound ignorance appeal to the eye and mind added to that color, and so delivers the essence of the
acquired by long and painful labour" is his of the ear. feeling of the work.
A"
Page 22 THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC
Still more true is this of the magnetism THE COMING OF THE MUSICAL This is equivalent to the first practical
of Bach. And what is the appeal of Mozart's notation for music ever offered to the world,
Figaro Overture or the Great Leonore III BOOK for the reason that it is the first and only
overture of Beethoven if it be not their notation appealing to the ear and mind, as
movement?
well as to the eye. Everyone can therefore
Once the mind has become accustomed to The World's First Practical Method of "read" it at the first attempt, because it
follow the flowing curves of a single line of appeals to a natural and universal instinct,
music, it can listen with joy to several lines Reading Aloud the Fundamental and because it translates the dumb symbols
at once. Here again it is its counterpoint of the familiar music texts into a series of
of rhythmic movement which fascinates, not or Intrinsic Literature of Music
living sounds immediately intelligible to
only the harmony as such, and not the colors every hearer.
of his orchestration. In the case of Bach, Description of Twentieth Century Music
for instance, the orchestral colors are gener Reader— Rise of the Living Music Score,
The various factors need to be noted with
ally obsolete or unknown. a Scientific lnstrument of Precision for
care.
The outlines of musical forms are the cor Transmitting the Pith or Heart of First, we have the composer's own nota
relatives of rhythmic and melodic movem mt Musical Thought as Literature tion, the ultimate basis of musical authority,
and contain the heart of musical invention and the final court of appeal.
in a kind of musical drawing. Now this Second, the composer's own notation is
drawing containing the rhythmic and melo The Problem translated, so to speak, into the perforated
dic ideas of the composer constituting the There are only three possible ways in score, which is the exact mechanical draw
intrinsic essence of his work, is exactly which musical knowledge can be communi ing of the formal o-tline of rhythm, pitch,
what the perforated scores carry over to cated. phrasing and harmony. Each note appears
the hearer's mind and imagination and form to the eye in its correct mathematical posi
the basis of any real knowledge of musical 1. We can read it by the eye alone and tion, and exhibits clearly its relative dura
art works as such. play it or hear it in the brain.
2. We can read about it in printed books tion, the whole becoming a picture instead
In the case of Bach and his school, and of the cryptic symbol shown by the ordinary
many of the earlier schools, the drawing is of history and criticism.
3. We can hear it without any help from notation.
accompanied by use of ornamental design Third, these two eye-notations are auto
in the form of figuration. the eye or the mind.
matically translated into sound, the vernacu
In Bach especially is found a kind of Comment lar of the ear, whereby the music is made
incessant variation or busyness,—the notes instantly and instinctively intelligible to
of the melody being broken up into a multi 1. Music to the ear alone is vague and
baffling on account of the multitude of con every hearer without the least study or
tude of passing notes which give an inde preparation.
scribable charm to his thoughts and keep fused impressions beyond the power of most
the hearer's attention on the stretch in a minds to analyze and hold. Effect of Combined Appeal in Audiscript
most delightful way. These also may be 2. Music to the eye alone, i.e., printed
notation is blind and unintelligible to prac Scores
perfectly reproduced by the perforated
Bcores. tically all music lovers, who can neither The combination of these three appeals in
read or play it. one experience is the feat performed by the
What gives a special certainty to the hope 3. The same cbnsiderations apply to Audiscript or audible score and visible music
of actually accomplishing the redemption of merely printed verbal explanations of musi texts constitutes an unbreakably logical and
intrinsic music is that it is based not upon cal knowledge and opinion. These can be accurate scientific method of access to musi
private opinion but upon the unchallenge made to have a clear and living meaning cal knowledge and experience and delight.
able method of scientific demonstration. only through example. It provides the world with its first practical
All the inventions which the world has "reading system" for the art—the mutual
accepted, however much they have been Living Music Texts corroborations of the three avenues of
misunderstood or ignored in the beginning In the normal player-piano the music roll approach being equivalent to nine times the
have had this in common: —they worked. travels toward the player. In the Universal value of any single impression. The fact
Given the conditions any one could get the Music Reader the music roll, now trans that the Audiscript Score simplifies music
result. formed to the Audiscript Score, travels to a point where it can speak to us naturally,
It is proposed to pub 'sh on Audiscript before the eye of the player from right to makes it the only hope for the redemption
Scores a practical summary of audible and left in the natural position for reading and of music from its present state of confusion.
visible music knowledge—the first summary bears upon its face: The final effect of the combined appeal to
of this character ever attempted. Prelimi eye, ear and mind is:
nary organization of this work is now pro A. The composer's text of the music
ceeding. being played—the ultimate authority. A to transform the roll from a mechani
I am frequently told that people generally B. Critical summary and description of cal feature of a mechanical instrument into
do not know how to play great music the music being played. a bonafide music score or audible reading of
because they do not understand it. The The result of this simple and obvious the work being played, thus a piece of uni
answer is that every important roll will con change in construction is to join, in one versally intelligible music literature.
tain a model performance, a competent experience, the appeal to the eye, the appeal B To transform the player-piano from a
artist giving the outline of the speed to the mind, and the appeal to the ear. As toy and entertainer into a practical instru
changes, i.e., the general pace, the acceller- these three appeals embrace the sole paths ment of precision for communicating musi
andi and ritardandi and the variations of of music from the brain of the composer to cal art and knowledge and criticism as a
loud and soft. This will serve the player as the brain of the hearer—as they are more literature—thus to duplicate for music the
a model reading. From this starting point or less helpless singly and have always been service which the printed book performed
the player can turn off the automatic and isolated hitherto, the result of their com for articulate literature.
imitate from point to point the given "read bination will be found interesting in a high
ing." degree. The perforated slots themselves, as charts
The accompanying illustrations show sec of the tone-lengths and positions, afford a
He may also vary the interpretation to further aid to the eye in recognizing and
suit his own idea of fitness and effect. All tions of Audiscript Scores with triple par remembering the sounds and their relations.
the master musicians learned their tech alltl texts, that is.
nique by imitating models, and now the In a letter received in 1914 from M. Mau
1. The regular staff notation. rice Emmanuel in regard to the presenta
amateur may do the same. In this way the side by side with
amateur pianist, removed from musical tion of this invention to the French Academy
opportunities, may learn more without a 2. The perforated or graphic notation, of Sciences, the writer lays great stress on
and using the perforations themselves as a visi
teacher in three months than he could learn 3. The text of song or other work of
in three years under a master. ble audible notation. He says: —
music.
It will make little difference whether he 4. Descriptive or analytical annotation. "In view of a communication to the Acad
plays with his hands or uses the roll. The emy of Sciences it will be very useful to
psychology is the same in both cases. NOTE—in this analysis the claims made for have the divisions of the m-isical measure
In the one he is the struggling student of the neutral readings have reference to the coincide rigourously with the chronometri-
finger technique; in the oth°r, he is vir transmission of musical ldeas for the purpose cal divisions of the bars. In a word it is
of education and culture. necessary that you should present an instru
tually a conductor using a ready-made tech They do not raise an lssue between the bloom
nique far beyond anything he is likely to be of artistic performance and the claims of read ment of precision which realizes in perfec
able to do himself. ing versions required for education and for the tion the dream of Marey, etc."i
spread of music literature in an audible con
In either case, he is playing the piano and vention. The Audiscript Score therefore provides
probably both he and his friends will vastly for music a scientific instrument of precis
prefer his assisted to his unassisted perfor "Upon the accuracy and precision of its ion, for the accurate transmission of musical
medium, the whole fabric of music depends.,:
mances, and he has in his own control a —Edmonstoune Duncan, "The Story of the ideas. With the addition of printed verbal
"scientific instrument of precision for pene Carol." texts, ear, eye and mind combine their tes-
trating to the pith of musical thought. "Approaching is the end of the age of Copied
Law."—Saiho, Buddhist Priest. 1 Letter to C. B. Chilton, June 14, 1914.
THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC Page 23
timony, and all the difficulties and labor of setting up a constant association of symbol and not entirely unlike the movie film. The
reading music, as well as those of playing and sound we soon learn to read the so and new music notation is a species of "musical
it, are pushed into the background of by seeing its sign exactly as we have all movie," being not only visible and intelligi
ancient history. The neutral reading which learned to do in reading a book. There is, ble but audible as well: —it is panoramic
results is not a question of greater or less however, an important difference. In read and translates the dead hieroglyphics of the
perfection of nuance in artistic delivery, buting printed words we read a series of single art to the life of sound. But there is some
goes back of the personal equation to the sounds, in music we generally find a multi thing more. It provides what might be
underlying art work itself. The sheer musi plicity of sounds going on together. We called, painless musical transcriptions, i.e.,
cal ldeas become intelligible by being made think in bundles. The task of remembering the intrinsic essence of the living musical
audible. .Thus the heart of every musical and recalling music is greatly simplified if idea disembarrassed of mere elaborations
conception, lying beneath all outward effect, we can see at each moment a series of pic and reinforcements of artistic performing.
is now laid bare, as under scalpel or micro tures which corresponds with the sounds we The readings are conventionalized into
scope, being revealed by clear and definite hear. To supply such memory-aid is the sonorous images which can appeal only to
readings of its intrinsic content in terms of purpose of printing the musical notation on the Imagination.
audible movement. That the composer set audiscript scores. In order to transmit music as a literature
down certain signs precisely indicating a Direct Relation of Author and Hearer for universal popular use, the sense-enter
series of connected sounds having a fixed tainment feature must be subordinated in
relation, is obvious. When these signs are The new communication of musical litera favor of the naked idea of the composition—
translated into their corresponding sounds, ture is achieved without the intervention of its creative principle—and the effect of this
they become matters of fact from which a third person. No performer or middle man procedure, so far from destroying the enjoy
there is no possible appeal. The delivery comes in between the mind and heart of ment will be, I believe, (for all intelligent
of the author's thought to the hearer's mind the composer and that of the intelligent music lovers) greatly to enhance it.
follows as a matter of course,—is absolute, hearer. The composer's notation is there as
and beyond debata. When the constituent basic authority; this is translated into the A New Thing in Music
factors of a musical composition are pre perforated score forming an accurate mem What people do not yet grasp is that the
sented to the listener's ear, it is absurd to ory picture: both are then translated into perforated Score, considered as a clean read
stipulate for personal touch in delivery. their corresponding sonorous images of toue ing of the ideas of the composer is a new
If, as I believe, this invention contains the
successions. thing altogether in music, never heretofore
germ of a useful and far-reaching reform in It is demonstrable that the fundamental imagined and exhibiting the essence of musi
popular musical education, comparable only basis of all music lies in the movement of cal ideas by unbreakable pedagogical laws,
to the revolution made possible by the rhythm and pitch, and their articulation or failing in some ways to satisfy the critical
advent of movable types and printed books, phrasing—rhythm as the abstract of all mus by sensuous delight it is nevertheless, from
an elaborated explanation of it should be of cular activity, pitch as the abstract of emo the point of view of art-education, of greater
interest. This will be followed by a study tional cries and phrasing, their welding importance than the most ideal performance
of the new possibilities which it opens up together into narrative form (as phrases, thrt could me imagined. For the music-
and some hints as to how its resources may clauses and sentences). Essential musical reading has now been subtilised and simpli
be applied to the actual necessities of ama literature may now break over its dam and fied, standardized into a species of audible
teur and professional music study. flow into the hearts of its admirers. stenography, intelligible to all, which abso
I believe that the dissemination of musical The long incarceration of musical crea lutely compels activity of imagination on the
literature, science, knowledge and crit.cism tions in the limbo of printed effigy may now part of the hearer. (This is by no means
will place the study of music upon a basis come to an end. Music may now be trans the case with the artistic performance,
comparable to that enjoyed by articulate mitted to the world as a literature, without which the hearer may enjoy for the sheer
thought expressed in printed language. The in any way interfering with the normal delightfulness of its mere sound combina
piano-player has already made the piano a methods of prblicatlon by printed text, or tions as such). This "stenography" has four
positive force in general music culture. But the wide appeal of public or private artistic main uses:
this advantage has been to a great extent performance. 1. It gives the imaginative hearer immed
negatived by the inability of people to play
it. A long forward stride may now be taken Nor is this all. It will be found that the iate knowledge of what the work is, by
in the development of the most sensationally reduction of music to its intrinsic ideas also instigating an inner performance, thus ful
useful of all inventions for the spread of achieves an amazing simplification whereby filling the main function of art, which is to
serious musical knowledge and culture. the endless variety of modes and effects in celebrate the glor^f of the universe through
performance,—the personal delivery of art the imagination.
Summary ists, varieties of sounds of musical instru 2. It is the best of all preparations for
ments, etc.—are averaged down to a clear hearing artistic performances in the concert
"The performance of music," said Bulow, transparent convention. Thus it will now hall.
"should be first accurate, then beautiful, be possible for millions of music-lovers to 3. As a reminder or memory-aid: the
then interesting." absorb the literature of music from a com stimulus to reminiscence and the reviving
Probably one player in a hundred thou mon starting-point of experience. As it is of buried impressions of music formerly
sand can play (a very limited repertory) now, the myriad performances of music are heard constitute a form of service, both new
with a technical accuracy to rival the Audi- all transcriptions, which differ among them and unique and of intense practical signifi
script Score, and add besides, a musical selves and present no common starting-point
quality which no reproducing instrument for accurate knowledge. The only universal cance.
could ever approach. But the other nine standard is the printed notation which not cal4. compositionsThese Raphaelesque drawings of musi
supply an entirely new and
hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hun one person in a thousand can read and play. fresh world of musical
dred and ninety-nine can obtain through The importance of the present method lies arouse and pique our experience. They
imaginations and
accurate audisclipt readings without labor, in the fact that the visible standard as sup memories without overwhelming u s with
a better technical and musical result than plied by the printed notation, is lifted into sense experience or with the interference of
they could ever produce by the st'ldy of the plane of audibility, which enables the intervening personality (however delight
playing—not to speak of the thousands of hearer to combine the impressions of eye, ful). They bring the composer's mind into
compositions of complicated orchestral and ear and mind. direct relation with the hearer's by allowing
chamber music which they could never play the work itself and the personality of its
at all by hand and which are now thrown
open to all. THE FUNCTION OF AUDISCRIPT creator to loom into prominence, obviously
the condition required, sine qua non, for the
The sonorous diagrams are not themselves SCORES establishment of access to music as a litera
works of art. They are skeleton outlines of
its ideas, i.e., its sounding forms — which The function of the improved instrument ture.
awaken images in the mind of the hearer. is not primarily artistic, but practical and So in the same sense in which it may be
If I draw for a child, a man or a horse—the educational. It is an instrument of precision said that the printed book made modern
less it looks like the originals of these for reading music aloud and provides stand literature possible, as furnishing a clear
objects, the more delighted the child will be ardized reading-versions of music accom channel from mind to mind with the mini
at being able to recognize it. The symbol panied by reproductions to the eye of the mum of error in the mode of transference, it
has stirred his imagination. author's notation and of critical and analy may now be shown that the Audisclipt
Now all imaginative art is symbolism, and tical texts. The inventor's idea is that the Score will make possible a new type of
the feelings of the grown man are like those combined appeal to eye, ear and mind opened music literature, (beside a new method of
of the child. The imaginative activity is the up by the Audiscript Score is the first really testing the old), in which the requirements
whole point, a single trembling of imagina practical notation for music ever presented of theatrical and artistic entertainments are
tion being a thousand times stronger than to the world, and he believes that if he can quashed in favor of direct access to musical
any appeal to the senses. secure the requisite business counsel and ideas if s'-ch there be, and a fascinating and
Such appeal is the function of intrinsic assistance in t'h e production of a small subtle appeal to the imagination of genuinely
music. Music "Reader" at a popular price and a musical hearers.
Musical notation is printed musical spell library of Audiscript Scores to carry out a In short, music literature may now be
ing. The act of following (step by step) comprehensive educational system, it will be established and made accessible for the first
with the eye what is heard by the ear will a useful public service second only to that time in history. It is well to remember that
impress the printed symbol on the mind. By performed for the world by the printed book, the new audible readings preserve, in all its
Page 24 THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC
purity, (by the very fact of separating have blinded the producers of player-pianos the composer's original text, actually printed
essence from theatrical accessories) that to the real merit and function of the player. on the music roll and unfolding to the eye
which is precisely the central heart of the The brains and energy have been directea as the sheet unfolds the music to the ear,
creative principle of the art; namely, every to the development of the player-piano as but, also, critical and descriptive interpreta
type or character, nuance, manner and style such, instead of to the music, which it repre tions of the music appearing from point to
of movement, and the shapes which these sents. Thus has arisen an extraordinary point on the panoramically unrolling music-
create. Not only is the nuance of movement situation, viz., the most sensational educa sheet. These two features complete the tri
preserved, but it is clarified b y being tional invention for serious music is sold as une symmetry of eye, ear, and mind and
detached, simplified, and conventionalized, a home-entertainment and toy, while its true form a practical implement of popular music
thus facilitating observation and compre function as a musical "reader" and educator education which really works. This instru
hension. with powers and capacities for practical ment so completed opens the way to the
On the practical side of many advantages utility absolutely unique and indispensible third requirement, viz., a summary of music
has lain dormant. Again—after the player- knowledge such as is described elsewhere in
two more may be mentioned. piano had performed the miracle of setting this document.
There ls no Turning of Leaves up a direct line of comnrinication between
composer and hearer, without intervention Armed with a practical instrument of pre
The necessity of turning the leaves of of the personality of the player, recent devel- cision for the transmission of music litera
sheet music has always been a source of ment has turned back to the capitalization ture, thought and criticism, supported by a
annoyance to both professional and amateur. of the intervening performer and we are strongly based pedagogical method, we can
The Ai-discript Music Scores turn them now offered, not the mind and soul of Chopin begin to build up a new civilization in this
selves, unfolding before the listener's eye at or Bach, but Bach and Chopin as trans art, not by theory only but by analytical
the precise speed required for playing. formed and influenced by Bauer and Hoff exposition and demonstration. We can teach
man. It cannot be denied that it is well to music by the method of the clinching exam
Thus, in future, every hand-player and ple. Examples tell their own story and
singer and listener will have set before him preserve these records of individual per
formers which are bo t h interesting and admit of no appeal. We can demonstrate in
living technical models of every bar and concrete practice that the transmission of
passage which he may wish to learn, and to instructive. But the real genius of the
player-piano lies in the fact that it gives us musical Ideas may be so simplified and
reperform if he can. standardized as to become a universally
the music in impersonal versions and the
On the side of pedagogy and memory reason is plain. The virtuoso is necessitated intelligible speech, appealing instinctively to
building, the aid which the eye and mind to exploit himself; that is his business. The the intellectual and imaginative faculties of
give to the ear in remembering music is result is that the clear Greek outlines of the normal men, as distinct from the profes
incalculable. work itself are emotionalized to a point sional appeal to sensation, t o specialized
which is apt to obscire the essential idea as learning and to technique, as shown in the
It is easy to show that the eye is a hun worship of the virtuoso.
dred times quicker to discriminate color or it came fresh from the composer's mind, and
forms seen than the ear is to discriminate got put down on his music score. Great as We can demonstrate further (1) that the
sound heard. the so-called artistic merits of the piano- exposition of musical ideas or concepts is the
player versions may be on the practical side, sine qua non of the establishment of funda
For a proper mnemonic system for music, (and they are obviously closer to their orig mental music literature apart from the vir
the appeal to the eye to assist the ear is an inals than any ordinary player can be,— tuoso, which is certain to be the primary
indispensable necessity. often actually far beyond the capacities of musical education of the future; (2) that
The normal approach to memorizing music any conceivable player) these merits are such musical ideas (i.e., significant moving
is through the combined appeal to eye and obviously secondary to its essential merit as forms) make up the intrinsic worth of all
ear and if we can add the appeal to the an intensely practical system of reading all music literature.
mind, so much the better. music aloud for the purpose of study and
reference and imaginative enjoyment. What Meanwhile, it is preposterous that the
Now that the three appeals are united we we need and what the world of music lovers literature of man's most popular art should
have to consider the next and last require were quick to grasp when the pianola first be buried in hieroglyphics which few can
ment which is repetition. This with the appeared, is the possibility of coming at read or play and that only a small rill
new scores is made possible for the first the experience of works of music literature trickles down from the mountain because it
time; and, as experience shows that it is and criticism, great and small, witho-it the happens accidentally to suit the necessities
perfectly natural for us to repeat what we distraction or refraction of an intervening of performers in creating effects in the con
hear and enjoy, the pedagogical circle is personality, without the necessity of a pub cert hall. The literature of musical thought
complete. lic function, or of going into concert halls at can now be made free and accessible to all
Neither by printed notes alone nor by stated times and paying high fees to hear, exactly as the literature of articulate
colors alone nor by sounds alone can we once, in a miscellaneous company of thought was freed by the art of printing.
build our house of musical memory on a strangers under all sorts of uncontrollable
natural foundation but only by connections conditions, a fixed program of that which, This is a cause far transcending any pri
of sounding notes or tunes, which are only through solitary private communion vate or selfish interest, and, as such, I desire
and saturation in our periods of active imag to offer my plans to the world of music-
rememberable by their charm and not as a lovers. If these plans can be carried out, it
task. ination, can be perceived at all.
will bring about a world reform in music and
"But," say the objectors, "you do not get This is the great gift which the "player" musical education, such as has not over
the benefits of the music unless you play it has presented to music lovers—the liter taken any art since the invention of the
yourself." That's where the "player" ature of music subject to their private printed book; it will operate to sat a new
scores. You are enabled to play any piece selection and appraisal and ready to hand standard for the musical mind and spread
of music at sight, whether or not you have no matter where the student may reside. intelligent musical education and enjoyment
musical technique. If you have the tech Somewhat late in its history has come the in ways hitherto unimaginable.
nique all right; if not, the humble mechani chance for the liberation of the rich litera
cal slave is there to serve you. What is to ture of music from the double-barred There is no doubt that there exists a
be noted is that you can vary the speed and prison house of a generally unreadable text strong prejudice against perforated music
expression to a great extent so as to make and the necessity for muscular and mental arising out of the carelessness with which
your own individual interpretation and yet playing skill or technique. But, oddly the instrument is played and the mediocre
try as you may, you cannot play a wrong enough, the new wonder acclaimed on every or trivial nature of the music selected for
note. side by laity and leaders in the profession it. Refined musicians feel, moreover, the
alike, as an epoch-making invention —as lack of personal nuance in these perfor
Except in this sense, the necessity for per mances as a fatal bar to their enjoyment.
sonal expression in musical performing is a "the future educational force in music"1—
has yet to come into general use as an edu This is a rather short-sighted view, and fails
delusion. to take into account the educational results
cator. Three links in the chain were want which are possible with the right use of the
For a cltivated musician it is enough to ing to make it complete. First, a scientific
point out that the most popular of all forms memory-aid so that what is heard may also player. In actuality, it is not necessary to
of musical entertainment is the orchestral be seen—Second, an intelligible verbal guide consider the so-called artistic merit of the
concert at which personal expression is vir to the meaning of the music, and third, a instrument. In the sense of these critics, it
tually unknown and everything concentrates, practical means whereby the truly miracu may be admitted that the artistic value of
as it should, upon the personality of the lous merits of the player might be applied to the instrument as ordinarily played is small.
composer instead of on that of the per the concrete demonstration of musical Art enters with the personality of the per
former. Imagine a Boston Symphony or science, art, history and criticism, I mean, former. For education however its merits
Philharmonic audience drinking in the a summary of musical knowledge in usable are better than artistic, they are practical.
delightful personality of Herr Taubelmann, form. As a supplement to the world of art enter
the concert meister or Monsieur SifTleur, the tainment, they provide music lovers with
All three of these wants are supplied by intelligible reading transcripts from which
first fluitist and Herr Zapfenstreich, the the Audiscript Score—which carries on its
double bass player. the works themselves can be learned before
face not only the undebatable authority of going into the concert hall, so that when
From this point of view, it is clear that 2 Sir Henry Wnod. "The Future Educational music is artistically performed, the hearer
the exigencies of commercial exploitation Force in Music." can appreciate it. In this the perforated
THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC Page 25
score supplies us with a conventionalized UP-TO-DATE MUSIC SCORES Analyzing the New Form of
reading version—like printed type in a book
—rigidly uniform and unvariable, but per Player-Piano
forming the immense service of transmitting Audiscript "Living" Music Scores for The
the composer's thought directly without any Universal Music Reader—An lmproved
"Outs" in present-day player construc
personal equation. It turns out in the end tion.
that the very lack of personal nuance noted Up-to-date Player-Piano and its Educa I. The roll travels in the wrong position
by the musical exquisites, constitutes the tional Music Scores—A Study in Musical for reading, i. e., towards the player instead
chief merit of these transcripts and is what Efficiency— lllustrations of Player Devel of panoramically, from right to left. A
will enable the musical convention actually opment
fundamental fault in construction.
to be set up. II. Absence of Notation—The present
Audible reading transcripts give us the roll lacks the composers' notation or text—
necessary starting point for challenging the the indispensable basis of authority in
reader's imagination to activity, so that he music.
can reperform the music in the private thea III. No Playing Directions—It has no
tre of his own mind exactly as he does in hint to teach the player how the music
reading a book. This enforced cooperation should be interpreted.
of the listeners mind will develop his artistic IV. It does not even tell the Key of
nature and will make him a musician. the Music which he is to play.
V. It has no time signature.
Even economically the future of music VI. It tells you nothing of the com
ls with the most efficient means of transmit posers' life or of the time and circumstances
ting music. Why should any one in future in which the work was written, or of its
buy a piece of alleged music for one dollar place in history. It gives no analysis of
when for that money he can buy a roll with the content of the music as a guide to inter
the sheet music printed on the roll and pretation.
thrown in for nothing? VII. It does nothing for the eye or for the
He is then in a position to play the music mind and presents a mere patchwork of
by hand in the ordinary way exactly as slots without educational value to eve or
though it were sheet music or he can turn mind, both of which are indispensable to
on the automatic and it will be played for musical understanding and memory.
him as a model which he can then imitate VIII. Lastly—No system of orderly intelli
and transform into a musical performance gible knowledge has ever been compiled for
by adding his own interpretation. it. Yet we love it for what it has done and
ORDlNARY PlANO-PLAYER OF PRESENT till now there was nothing better. It is a
It might bo safely predicted that in fifteen DAY CONSTRUCTlON AND EQUlPMENT giant in chains.
years sheet music will be a curiosity like a
horse and buggy in a modern city. It will
have been ousted by the two-way music A Giant in Chains
score. The two-way piano has already sup
planted the straight piano. Seventy-five to The above illustration shows the player-
ninety per cent of all pianos sold today are piano of 1897 to date. This invention was a
player-pianos. Why should a man spend one gigantic stride ahead. It has accomplished
thousand dollars for an instrument that few wonders. But its shortcomings were many
can play when for the same money or less —it was never really applied to the music
he can buy a piano that all can play by roll education and so has remained a giant in
and which is equally serviceable for hand chains.
playing?
Classical Models for Students
The world of music-students and music-
lovers can now have set before them exam
ples of perfect classical models by which to
estimate the worth of their own efforts. JN- iy,oi7 A.D. 1912
Every student of music can have, as a mat
ter of course, first-hand access to the leading
piano music of the world: to the concertos THE MODERN WAY— READlNG MUSlC
O.i.V ol /fl.'/ll.c .ilnni. JnUnK. Wl2
sonatas, suites and salon music of all the Cwnltvtv ni_n.-cifti .it.iUi Lefl- fjlli Q\r ., 13i2 fCKpM, Mli inne, l9li ALOUD FROM THE ROLL
great masters which he knows he will
never be able to play with his own hands. f'llm lMiis.U. M'HlKUAi ln\. Above—the Improved player-piano— the
(mprovotuouU in or.iTlaliiiK U» Mrcli.inii. ally Oporaleil Muilcal
Universal Music Reader and its Audi-
Every student of violin or cello can learn script Score—the piano-player and music
by heart the concertos and sonatas, quartets, llliU'liuiqilM.
score of the future.
trios and suites and miscellaneous works of l. l'inmiu. Mmim 1' n\. i|l "JWl'V l sim-i, W.i-lnngiim. in llir tyydilrt
ii| l nlnmln.l. in |lni l inliil M.il€~ i•( A Ud. .,i ni,-»S,il rr-iilmu iil ilJ, Tnvi- Note that the music sheet is still
Bach, Beethoven, Spohr, Paganini, Mozart, • ixi .TUT. in llir Limii iil 1.4,1 Anllo.r mil Hilar, iln lir"liv ilnliirr llir
on the music-rack but that lt is
Mendelssohn, Bruch, etc. n.ilnri' ..' lli!> iilirinnin ln ll .i> |illimw»
now wound upon a roll which can
Tln>^|nii.nlnni irl.in~ ln im- lnn lK i.li-i.il.-il limiiv.il ni-li nnn-nl- |vnlnn-
He may use them as models to play from, 5 l.nli il.i«- nflli, krinl li)i-. nlirilni npi.ilnl ln nnm l llir krf> or nllirraii* play the music.
adding his own interpretation, or merely to mi a ali i .i ir ilm.ilnl inn. n -lml " iU.i,1,- r,. l'Nirr*r ,i liir krr lmi (.ininlril Willi
.i|iiln.i- alirli ill nil.-iin |rrii/ii" . ..nr.|i.iil Hf i.-jrii.lrr nilh lln- iirlni.iliona
learn the literature of his instrument. But in lln' .ilniv-.int -lni-l miil innM- lln- in Him iil Jnn-nrnalir nr nlliri il- n . The Universal Music Reader and the
in any case the mere brute labor of playing "' n lnn-lii llir mim" mn1inni-in.il HMrnlml. Audiscript Score the new way of reading
U niilimilik nii.m".il |l„. |la. kri linr i. ili-i—nl i~nui'lrl nr lln-niili.nl- i.
the notes for reviewing the standard litera t ln- Li \ l miril iiinl (ln- m'mir inlU. rir., |ln' aimliali miil ll nn nnlinp lnlU - music which all may enjoy without previous
ture of the subject will be taken off his • ini|'> imHinni nn rilln-r .onlr nl iln- naal iiinkrr Uir an llmI llir mnm iln-ri
i lniin). llir |iri'"nia nl |iln\in|* n |iiiii' iil inmn .~|ii>ni inrr ilir liinkrr lmi
study or training. Ninety per cent effi
hands. u lri'in ll nr rHllrr ln llir' ..lhri. llir wimlinp nillrr LinK ilii|—iil rillirr mi ciency. lt is the least mechanical of all
ll |i-r nr ilir lnwrr linl i-l li.i' nill Uiv lialaa ln llir lrmlrnrv ill lin- i 'i .-' forms of piano playing.
Every student of song can be free to l.. i.m- r nnnlnri, ln ihiinlr lmin n iil:lil lini' in lini.-llin" frnm lk*
review the leading song literature without iinninilniL' mil ln Hir wlmlin" mll vnrmn- ilniiri i'F .i nnim' nr lmi inni|iln .iint The Universal Music Reader is playable
being stopped at the door by performing K •i ilir linir lnn |in'|i.-iil lnr Hir |iniiii*r nl rinililinn- llir aa■ lalnf ln kmp
lin- |i-ilninlnl rarrl in ininil.nil -liui- rrl.iln.n ln lln- lr.nknr liar m - ln nmid
at the first attempt by every member of the
difficulties. He can have the same access lln |i-rlninlmn. in llir ' 'nrnirr nirrlrppinl: nr rin niniliin); '.ii ilir nnjninit family. The player's technique is multi
niirlnir- in lln- l.illir nln-rrni ili-inriln im- priilm-iil ln inlililimi l lir ininir plied by 10,000, that is all. Observe that the
to song literature as young poets have to i-lirrl. iinlilnn-llv |-i". "'. 1 lnr n-r in ninlni lmn Willi pliilri in. . I. mi i nrr noi
poetical literature. .nl.i|i!.-il ln niil l lm n|imlnr in llm iplirrina; 'ln- minimi tnilri prnlmr.1 ilnrin|{ actual composer's score is printed on the
lln- |i-tfniinnnrr. 'lln- .-n-.ni invrnliim in ili-iipnril ailli n vn-w in ■implitvintf roll and travels before the player's eye as
And finally, the music hearer will be able llir innilrin ljmj nml rniilinif iiiminnv in llir . ml n( |.i.il ^ i n^i i n .l-
to review the whole literature of the art nl lin- kmil nlmir .. i l ln.
• An nrilinir ln lliii inirnlimi lln' lrinki'r lwii l llir iarrirui|i i . 1 1 . i ln)trll.
the roll unwinds and plays. The appeal to
without the slightest regard to performing ailli llir li-nrin"i nr imanil in"- lnr lln- ilrlm li.ililr rnllrr i nrtvinlr llm lUUin' eye and mind is thus added to the appeal
difficulties — symphonies, concertos, over-'0 -lirrl nirnn"iil in |ih |i-r|i-ln li. illin in- n|i|irnkimntrlv m ln ili.- k. v- to the ear.
li'.iril -n llml ili in piln-rl ii ml.i|*lril ln lniirii- llir lmrkrr Knr lmm iln
tures, quartets, songs and the endless series lnllrt ln lln- nlln-r ili n liilrml ililnlinn. 'tin- i... ii i.- ^ mil. i in lnrmril ..- The technical educational efficiency of
of works for piano. n-n.il mili .i limk nr nlln-r inrnni lnr nlimliinn l ln- rm| nf ilir inn-ir ilnfl nlirn the piano is raised from fifteen to eighty-
in-rrlinl: ll Hi-ii mll in |mi-ilmn in lln- nil |i.\ lnr nnrrnlinn ilir in-1 rinnrnl
Tin. -.ml mili. i ii nlm lnimiil nr |nnvnliil Willi .i H.inlrr nl nr nrnr rm li rnil five or ninety per cent.
Then and then only can we boast of hav- * lln rnil nnil .i. lln-'.nrrl lnn .i imlnrnl lrinlrm i .' * ninkin|f ln nrnvilnla llin It is estimated that seventy-five per cent
ing musical culture and understanding. lnarr ll.inrr nn l rir inriiinn mltrf nlli.iili n ilnp. nin| n |rni,lr aWrrlivv tli« trnr
li.nkimr nl llir mn.ii ■ln-H ii rnnnrril. lln- liillrr n-i.linfj n-min'l llir .iforrmin of all pianos now made in America are
Musical beauty, now submerged by a mass lm.ii il inn.- nm| Mn-rilil irnilriin" in i...i.i lli■'|ni- nf ilrinii i•( n i'nni|ili- player-pianos. The reason is plain. A
of extraneous color-effects and dynamics and ,0 . il.il .li.il4.l.-i. nlniln-r |nnnm.iln . im. li.nin.il i.i mlirran.f liir .iilin.linlr nml
nMiali i.'.lln. lrnikinc lln- mll. nui li- ilinrn lrnni llir innlnr nl llir n.nnr machine for making music that is com
artists' personalities, may rise at last kn.-i |.r.-l.n.il liv nn-imi •.( i lmm ..i niln-i -nil-.lili' KynriaiC IV lntl..* inn i/n pletely responsive to the will of its user is
refreshed and purified and resume her l/'rl.i .t/J bound to be preferred to one that only by
sublime function as a joy-bringer, and the years of intensive labor can be made to
cheerer and inspirer of men's hearts. PATENT ON AUDlSCRlPT SCORE answer that will.
Page 26 THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC
Audrftnpr Combined visib/c and audible Tttt, for CM/ons Unrversal Musrc ffaadtr ought to give the submerged music a show.
Men are trivial, they like to fight off large
views as lons as they can. Well, I wish to
show that the last moment has comoe in
music as it has in the matter of war. Some
thing has to be done and done quickly or
the ship of art will go under. Personality
doesn't count any more. So I say to the
amateurs I can do nothing but you can do
all.
Education is man's greatest need-
especially international education. Inter
national understanding of the feeling and
action of cooperation is the disarming of
the mind, without which it is useless to
disarm the body, or our coasts.
Yet though it is the "key industry" of
world reconciliation, and everyone knows
it, we do not hear of the world congress to
bring it about.
To treat disarmament alone without
penetrating to the "thought-habits which
are older and more tenacious than civiliza
tion" is like treating a man for fever by
wiping out the numbers on the thermom
eter which registers its temperature vari
ations.
Education and reason are stronger than
FACSlMlLE OF AUDlSCRlPT SCORE instinct and can overcome it. We need to
knit up all the links. Music, as the uni
versal language is such a link and is em
The lmproved Two-Way Music Score and suggestive notes and hints on interpre phatically one of the most powerful. But
Shown as lt Travels Across the Field of tation for the guidance of the player not music as a commercial entertainment.
Vision of the Reader's Eye — Visible, whether singer or reader. The part of music which is universal is its
Ninety per cent of all students of song are creative ideas. We must build thsm into
Audible and lntelligible to All. unable to play their own accompaniments. the constitution of the human mind or we
A genuine piece of music—carries the A collection of standard songs of this shall never attain the true rhythm which
ordinary "sheet music" score—the ultimate character will become automatically indis is peace.
basis of authority—unrolls panoramically pensable to every student of singing and Music is both a pastime and a revelation
from left to right in the natural position every teacher of singing from the moment and symbol of the diviner side of man's
for reading—gives time and key signa they are placed before the world. intellectual and spiritual freedom. The
tures, playing directions, metronome marks. Songs in Audiscript Score can be read concert virtuoso system has crushed out
To occupy the place of the present music and enjoyed and understood by non-singers these angles in a successful attempt to
sheet on the piano desk, but lives and or by those who sing a little in an amateur transform it into a show that men will pay
moves and does the brute labor of pro way—all songs are a variety of lyric to hear and see.
ducing the notes. You do the rest—no poetry and may be so absorbed and ap By emphasizing the more serious aspect
turning of pages. The first really practical preciated. of music education, we can teach people
notation for music which has been given to the joy and stimulus they are missing and
the world. which is theirs by right. When they see
The Luxury ldeal Expired in 1914. that clearly something will be done.
Audiscrlpt Living Score of a Song Ready The domination by the commercial
It had to go and was economically out mind whether as publisher, manufacturer,
to Be Played and Sung. lawed. All informed observers recognize teacher, manager or artist may have been
Song Roll bearing on the face the exact that but do not know what to do. a necessity. It is no less a calamity. Mu
reproduction of the composer's original The same urgency to salvage civiliza sical works are twisted and contorted or
score text (words and music) with a sep- tion that prevails and must prevail at ignored altogether under this dire tyranny
arate displayed version of the words alone Washington now confronts the art. We of compelling them to earn a living for
their authors or distributors.
(Continued from Page 28) method by which students may learn to play
automatically, the existing less perfect the piano? Ncthing of the kind has ever been
«L instruments. But the ultimate good is to projected. This is simply bad business.
the greater number. The managers apparently have no idea of
kO » Music literature and education must be the value of the instrument and have stead
made cheaper or they can never spread. ily refused even to listen to any proposal to
A similar situation exitted in the days of supply these wants. Scarcely has there
8i when printed books ousted hand-written been a serious attempt at the application of
copies. These were in themselves, works the education efficiency of the invention to
ST of art and a wail of anguish went up from the actual needs of musical life.
their owners when it was proposed to aban The player without an educational equip
don them. The logic of efficiency and ment and without the reduction of its bru
greater economy made short shift with these tality has no future. It is impossible now
11 objections. The printed books were not only for the player to benefit the student and
-■5 Hi easier to read but more people could have
them.
Types revolutionized book making for one
reach the class which really need it. The
proper educational material does not exist
and even if it did— the player piano is too
w reason only:
Printed books were one-twentieth the
expensive for them to own it.
That something Is radically wrong with
.53 tj A cost jf the hand-wKt^en ones. To see the the distribution of music rolls for the player
C3 .*»
w logic of this in application to music we have
only to remember that the rehearsal and
piano was revealed by a careful investiga
tion. It was found that the average number
performance of a symphony costs today of rolls actually owned with each instrument
Ss T
$2,500, while for a few dollars the apprecia was eight. Obviously, the value of any
,as
-~> ' to
tion of the same symphony can spread to
millicns of hearers!
player is strictly limited by the repertory of
music that goes with it. A pianola costing
There can be but little doubt that authen $750 with el^ht rolls, means that each roll
1* tic works of musical literature published in has cost about nlnetv-three dollars. As the
<U 8 "audible-visible" texts will have, in time, a size of the roll-equipment rises the cost of
currency and a favor equal to printed copies each rolls declines.
*>,«! of literary masterpieces. The purchaser only begins to have a
bo ■ ,«K' Many cool judges have predicted that all sound investment when he has say one hun
T*
3 frture "publication" of music is to be dred rolls that he really enjoys. And the
2.5 absorbed by player rolls and phonoeraph quality Is Important.
as discs. "The Author," an English magazine—
lately declared that composers would be
As the vapid stuff which is bought bv the
thoughtless ages very rapidly—it qould be
n»ia wise to seek what protection they can now argued that the value of the instrument
get from producers of rolls and discs as very declines with each piece of trash that is
^'2 !' 1* so~n there will be no other form of publica acoulred.
tion. If the rolls manufacturers knew how to
It is of much more than personal interest. sell the stuff they make no Instrument could
It is the question of whether an art is to be be found with less than fiftv rolls of pood
saved from destruction. music of whl"h the repetition is a delight.
*si? m. ffn * * «
It is always difficult to establish a har
TV>at the trade "should have abandoned
15.000 stencils of st"tv-nve-note music on
COMPROMio- AUDibCRlPT SCORE FOR mony between conditions of business pro the mere whim that thev did not cover the
TEMPORARY USE WlTH PLAYER- cedure and the path of free mental inquiry. entire range of tve niano. Is in'l"ati"e. For
PlANOS AS NOW CONSTRUCTED In this case the difficulties have been insur It needed onl" a little thought to t''ach f'em
Audlscrlpt Scores of songs and other mountable by any method of discussion. that ninetv-five ppr cent of PT«f't classic
music can be Immediately applied to player- There was nothing left but the appeal from st^n^ards come within the siytv-f,y°-ncte
pianos as now constructed by the simple Philip Drunk to Philip Sober. ran"e anvwav, and cou'd not possibly be
device of printing the music in very large Here is an educational invention capable bettered bv the wi^r scale.
type covering the entire width of the roll. of transforming the world of music. Tn the entire well-tempered clavl"hord of
A singer standing at the right side of the Millions of students could be taught to Pnch oflv one nrte runs out of the fifty-
player can easily follow the words and play the piano and to understand music from eight-note compass!
text. The player himself can follow them living models; millions of singing students
by a slight inclination of the head. This could be relieved forevermore of the neces Visual Education by Audiscript Score.
opens the way for the adaptation of Audi- sity of having accompanists. Audiscript Scores are the movie films of
script Scores to the 800,000 player-pianos Do these accompaniments exist? music—the player piano only the projector.
already made. When the printing is so made One of the latest catalogues contain forty- The vast movie business in America is
the perforations are virtually invisible. three accompaniments! Does there exist a made possible by the existence of 20,000
projectors.
Think of the 800,00 player pianos each a
music projector.
«r«
Isn't it clear that when intelligent brains
are applied to the roll promotion—that the
roll will prove the essential commercial fea
ture of the player and control and determine
its future development.
Audiscript Scores add to the roll the
whole world of visual education—scores of
music, pictures, etc.
THE REPRODUClNG PlANO.
There has sprung up in recent times the
practice of killing out the player-piano
proper in favor of the reproducing piano.
We are given not Chopin or Mendelssohn or
Grieg but some particular artist's notion of
how they should be emphasized and exag
gerated for emotional effect upon audiences.
This undoubtedly has value and interest,
but it is opposed to the use of the player
for neutral or conventionalized readings.
What Is more natural than that two methods
should have been confused? Accordingly, it
Is proposed that the new society prepare the
material for a practical summary of m isical
knowledge in a way to utilize both func
tions of the player-roll. First the scholarly
selection and arrangement of the musical
and literary subje't-matter, printed on audi
script scores; second, tn order to overcome
ABOVE (right) OBSOLETE VERTlCAL ROLL; (left) MODERN HORlZONTAL ROLL the difficulties of teaching people to play
Page 30 THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC
with effect, some of this material could be against playing himself, it is probably Now the real explanation of all this noise
given in recorded form objectively inter because he ueyau on a piayer taut vvas nara is the attempt to crowd into the home an
preted. Ihese tne piayer may employ as to DIOW. instrument made to resist the- poundings o(
nun, els and then turn on' his automatic and Uive uini a sensitive mechanism and teach the virtuoso in the conceit hall. The vir
reproauce them as well as he can. But far him now uo piay, auu he win preier tne iOut- tuoso for his part must "astonish the na
better than any reproducer, is the straight power player every time, as Uueoterton tives" with power or he loses his job and
roll laid down by calculation from tne ieixiarkeu, "soon peopie will De uomg our the public is taught to imitate him. In this
author's score and uninfluenced by any vir laugmug tor us." way everyone is happy—the manufacturers
tuoso. The idea of the average pianist being .fc-veiyune is aware that unless manipu- and dealers' interest is in keeping up the
able to add anything essential to the spirit lateu by a player witn a natural instinct ior custom of making the public pay from $750
ual messages of tne great revealers of the music, tne piayer piano is a norror tj every to $1,500 for a domestic musical instrument
human spirit, is, as the boys say, a "sketch." stnsitive musician, Out it is seiuorn as great on which to play the exquisite music of the
Besides, the effects of the artist are limited a norror as stumming ana awnwara nana soul and spirit. They laugh to scorn any
to piano music. This is perhaps, the small piaj ing. suggestion that it is criminal to compel
est field of the player's usefuiness. How Vvneu played by the foot-power player the everyone who wants a home keyboard
about the chamber music field; orchestral reproducing roils are oiteh comic cust-irtions instrument, to lay out these sums. The aver
music; song, organ, violin music? The true or travesties of tueir originals. None can age price of a piano in Europe—the home of
service of the player is to produce music far oe piayea by tne player witn as mucn ettect music is or was one hundred dollars. Isn't
beyond the reach of any artists's fingers. as tiie reguiar hand player roll or tue mathe it rather strange that they can reproduce
hi very music lover is aware that the player matical arrangement. '1 he iuea that tne uis- their Beethoven and Mozart with such
piano is man's most wonderful invention toitions can stand for an time as standard tones?
and that the wonder comes in with its power reauing of the classics is preposterous. The million students of music and the
to read music aloud so that we can become Only neutral versions from which the all 600,000 teachers fall into the yawning trap
familiar with it exactly as we become famil emotional exaggerations lor effect have been of accepting the dreadnought piano and duti
iar with authors by reading them. Unfor eliminated can stand tue test. fully follow suit. I wish some of these
tunately the piano first came out as a The foot-power player is the standard might have got a "look-in" on that famous
manual instrument, and people sought to instrument of the perforated roll invention occasion when the piano manufacturers met
express themselves by the manner in which ana always must be. in solemn conclave at Atlantic City in 1912
they played. Thence arose the artist. In This is because of its unique power of and offered a holocaust to their God—by
player development these two distinct fields enabling the player to do his own perform publicly burning over nine hundred old
of usefulness have become mixed. The busi ing. The present craze of the wealthy and square pianos which interfered with sales.
ness is standing on its head. With magnifi lazy for the reproducing instrument will end These were Steinways, Chickerings and
cent disregard of educational miracles which in nothing. ether early makes of the general type of the
it can be made to perform, the managers of People used to say that the player would instrument for which the early music was
the business have turned back to capitaliz kill the manual piano, yet the hand-played composed. Now if a chord of wood and a
ing artistic performances and placing them piano is flourishing. half a ton of metal are necessary for a do
on the rolls. The three leading concerns of Later it was said that the phonograph mestic instrument of music, why were they
the industry are at the moment busily would kill the player—it hasn't. Ihis is not necessary to Bach and Mozart and Bee
engaged in trying to foist the reproducting because the central principle of the player thoven and Hydn? Mozart composed the
instrument on the world to the exclusion of is not that it plays music for you, but that Magic Flute on an instrument that yon
the foot-power player. A child could see you play the music. could carry under your arm. It is asinine
that purely mechanical performances rap that we should not be able to distinguish
idly become a bore. The "reproducers" can The human and artistic interest in the between an instrument desigued to play
never be anytning but toys. They are not player piano are essential to sustain the to 4,000 persons and one for private use in
player-pianos at all, but elaborate and expen interest of the hearer. the home as imaginative suggestion.
sive toys for the rich. Under perfect condi The foot-power player Is therefore the For sonority we pay a heavy tax. It is
tions, which are seldom attained, they do only true piano player. bought at the cost of definition and sharp
produce a few idiosyncrasies of special per The reproducing piano is something quite ness of musical results. The tones of a mod
formances. What the devil do we want apart from an elastic playing mechanism ern piano, compared with those of the clavi
with any new personality added to a work which the player can control and through chord and spinet and early pianofortes are
of Chopin and Beethoven? Isn't Bee which he can express himself. The turning round and powerful but dull and thick.
thoven's personality good enough? of the dead and buried notation into liv They will never content those who love
As a matter of fact it is pure fake. ing scores which all may read play, enjoy sharp logical clearness.
There is no personality which can add any and understand is one of the great land
thing to a master-work of music which is marks in music history. Business Blindness.
not better spared for the enjoyment as That this should be palpable fact, open as
literature. What passes. for that is the sum day to any perceiver; —that the player should The great need is for intelligent use of the
of dynamic or rhythmic changes employed be acclaimed by the world's educators and player piano's ready-made technique for
by the virtuoso to get "something differ-' that the job of making it achieve its destiny musical ends—for intelligent leadership and
ent" by which he can be distinguished in the for the practical application of the player to
should not even yet have been begun, is an the tasks for which it was designed.
concert hall from the other virtuosos. amazing instance of the blindness of the com
These changes are and can be only distor mercial mind to its own best interest. At From all these causes it would appear
tions of the pure lines of a classic work. the present day the player is an undeveloped that the development of the player has
They make the roll unplayable on a foot- toy and drawing-room entertainer and noth hardly begun—nor can it begin until there
power piano. ing more. In spite of the steady unbelief of is a radical change from the present policy—
the application of educational science to the
I repeat, the reproducing pianos are its manufacturers it can and must be trans conduct of the business.
not player-pianos at all—they are simply formed into an instrument of educational
expensive toys for the musically gullible. efficiency. Only when this is done will it We see the trade going on from year to
They are the true mechanical music against become indispensable to the educational year, making their luxury-toys for rich
world. purses; treating the educational factor— the
which so great an outcry used to be the
fashion. This criticism is based on repro Just how the trade reached the momen manifest destiny of the player, as if it did not
ducers under ideal conditions. Ordinarily tous decision that the American public does exist and laughing out of court any one who
the effects they make on a refined musical not care to acquire serious music knowledge ventures to suggest that actlcn be taken.
ear is. brutal and blatant to the last degree. it would be interesting to know. The in They have killed the goose that laid the
fernal cheek of the judgment is obvious golden egg and left untoched the great
But even at the best the absence of the enough. It cannot be that the public is tired bonanza which lies under their noses.
human element removes them from the of the musical classics since they have never For a blind business policy, this would be
sphere of art —whereas a sensitive human had a real chance to know them. The trade hard to beat. Even from the business stand
pianist with a technique which he can con opinion is a satire on the minds of those point the lack of intelligent leadership is
trol is on the way to become an artist—is who utter it. I think it can be disregarded an awful waste.
actually expressing himself through the as nonsense.
music he is performing. Any player-pianist The unexplored riches of music for practi
Sonority. cal and culture purposes possess a positive,
knows this and knows that mere passive lis
tening is tame beside the fun of actually If I attempt to play softly with any ordin definite value as literature, quite independ
making our own music. ary player I am greeted with a voice of ent of their suitability to players. There are
upwards of 600.000 teachers of music in
Apart from human touch and apart from thunder. What this has to do with music is not America. Everyone should be using the
adequate editorial development, I believe explained. player but how many do?
the player is doomed. Especially in the bass an explosion of I cannot find on the part of the manufac
The idea that the average American power like a young earthquake follows each turers any real understanding of the true
music-Iovpr is too lazy to play his own music attempt to play a soft chord. function and destiny of the player. Had
is a result of too close study of a certain In these conditions the poetic spirit de there been any grasp of these facts they
type of New Yorker. It he has a prejudice parts from music altogether. would long ago have called in the necessar''
THE DE-ASSIFICATION GF MUSIC Page 31
brains and would have actually placed be Eventually, Why Not Now? manufacturers. Once the scores are on the
fore the world courses in musical history, "l.es Scythes out conquis le monde." market the old style player piano is doomed
criticism, science, grammar and apprecia to go into the discard.
tion which would have firmly established This job of cleaning up music has got to The Society is starting without endow
the player as an educational necessity. And, begin some time. It mlght as well be tacKled ment or press reclame, or social or profes
on the practical utility side, courses in now. My hope is to start the ball rolling. sional or business support—a tiny office and
piano-playing-singing, etc., giving a resume 1 he presentation of music as an expensive no staff, and it asks none of these things,
of practical technique from the elementary luxury is doomed by the law of economic for it does not yet need them. It merely
ground up to mastery—the whole illustrated ueterminism. The world has an instinct announces its project and puts it up to the
in living examples and models for the stu ively ruthless and remorseless way of pre musical amateurs of the world to cooperate
dent to follow. No personal impress of the ferring the most efficient path to what it —secure in the belief that either musical
artist is here needed-—we do not want desires. If the lovers of Beethoven, Mozart, enthusiasm is a sham and a pretense or
scales chords, trills, and arpeggios as in Schubert, Chopin and Bach can be dralted— else the only practicable way as yet offered
fluenced by emotions. These are the same if they will show that they wish some action of participating in the ennobling delights of
material of which music is made. We do to be taken—lt can be brought about in great music, will receive the practical aid
not mutilate them in printed books. Why short order. Our present difficuities are the required to carry through the enterprise.
should we in music? Educational material resuit of the push,ng in of the snout of tem I believe that with adequate business
of this kind is the sine qua non of the contin porary trade elllciency; of using music as organization, the publication of a digest of
ued life of the player piano as a commercial a public entertainment and the assumption musical knowledge could be made a safe
instrument. of the direction of the art by the journal .undertaking. My primary object, however,
istic and theatrical spirit. These factors can is to enable the many millions of music-
Practical Utility Courses. and should be ousted. lovers the world over to share in the incom
There is a persistent belief in the Ameri Nature of the Conflict. parable joys of the musical imagination
can business mind that the public cares which I have experienced. The vista of this
nothing for education and above all that it The nature of the conflict before us may service actually accomplished is the meas
does not care for music education—does not now be seen. The heaping up of external ure of my excitement about it, and justifies
wish to know anything about the great resources tends to destroy the primary me in my plan, of making myself a nuisance
music which it pays about a billion dollars character of music as a psychological art to everyone I know until the work is started.
a year to hear. This to any one who knows which analyzes the soul in its finest mani Compared with the attainment of this end, a
America outside of New York, is a joke. festations. They tend to give it the char private advantage to any one is comic.
But supposing it were correct—that people acter of a psysiological art, a synthesis of
do really prefer jazz and comedy opera slush natural phenomena, instead of a sword of
to Chopin and Schubert and the folk songs the spirit to probe the soul to its depths. General Description of a Player Roll and its
of Italy and France. This would not excuse Not in the accumulation of external means, Function ln Playing a Piano
the manufacturers from the stupidity of fail but through resort to creative energy of
ing to see that there is the great angle of imagination within, does art really grow and "The playing of a piece of music involves
practical utility sill undeveloped. acquire power over men? It3 progressions the accurate performance of four separate
Here we have to do with things people are are algebraical—through incessant height and distinct acts, namely:
doing now and which the player piano can ening of significance, not in the arithmetical
do with special efficiency. I refer to (1) accumulation of sound nor in ingenious com (a) Playing the right note.
teaching people how to play the manual binations of timbres. I feel these things so (b) Attacking it at the right time.
piano by the imitation of model; (2) teach strongly that I wish to state them with all (c) Releasing it at the right time.
ing people to play the piano by means of the the force in my power. I expect these ideas (d) Using the right degree of force.
roll in a way to bring out their own artistic to be attacked vigorously by all who imag A player-piano roll consists of a long band
capabil1ties and those of the "player." ine that they will be injured but neverthe of paper sufficiently wide to accommodate
I mean the application of the perforated less, in spite of all objections,—if the eighty-eight narrow slots, which are exactly
score to "master and pupil" series in sing thought is sound—if this, in truth, be the aligned with eighty-eight openings in a
ing and violin playing. Here is the great path to the salvation of the art—if princi brass plate (called the tracker) over which
function of the perforated score. There can ples of this order can be set clearly before the roll travels when the instrument is bsing
be no doubt that millions of students of the world, and if it can be shown that they played. Each tracker slot connects with a
piano playing could learn more in a month are capable of practical demonstration, no pneumatic device, which, when the slot is
with -a properly devised method of Audi- fear need be felt for the result. It will have uncovered by the corresponding slot in the
script scores with models for imitation from been written on the walls of Heaven and it paper roll, operates that particular piano
the best masters than they could in years of is as celtain that men will mark up to that hammer, th"s striking the proper string and
ordinary lessons—or that the ninety per standard as that there are any men. producing the tone.
cent of song students unable to play their It is a pioneer job. It is well known that
own accompaniments could be freed from no institution or business organization will If the perforated roll travels over the
their difficulties and given the free range of do any pioneering work if it can help it tracker at a uniform rate of speed, and if
son";; literature. because of the apparent danger to existing the roll has been cut precisely in accord
The same is true of the preparation of the interests. My hope is to show that, in this with the printed copy of the music, the
cyclopaedia of the facts of musical science, instance they cannot help it, which is instrument will give a perfect metronomic
grammar, syntax, prosody, such as I am pro only to say that the higher destiny of an art performance. The location of the slots from
posing. These things are so obvious that and the interest of all men are greater than right to left determines which notes shall
it is difficult to keep on stating them. To the interest of any particular group. sound. Their location lengthwise when they
have failed to see and act on them is a shall sound. The length of the slots deter
crime. Romantic and Business Aspect of This mines when they shall cease. Finally, the
The execution of these tasks would long Appeal. amount of wind in the bellows at any par
since have driven the player-piano through ticular moment determines the force of the
the sullen wall of indifference which now I am inviting people to come in and co hammer blow and the consequent loudness
holds it back from its development and its operate on two grounds: first, because of of the tone.
usefulness and limits its employment in the the romantic appeal of public service It thus appears that of the elements com
cause of education to one per cent of its involved in the attempt to establish the prised in the rendition of a piece of music,
capacity. It would have made the instru study of music literature on a firm founda all four are apparently provided for in a
ment an indispensable necessitv of musical tion, and second, because with proper man player-piano roll; three are included in the
life; it would have been, by this time, in agement the Audiscript Publishing Co. can roll itself, and the fourth (the force of the
every school and college in the world and be made a paying investment. hammer stroke) is controllable by the per
as a matter of course. It would have cre Here is an improvement as Important as former by varying the vigor of the pumping
ated a world revolution in music by sett'ng the self-starter on a motor car. Advantages or by the use of certain (loud and soft)
up standards of musical knowledge which so obvious make it seem highly likely to levers. I have already spoken of the metro
people would be ashamed not to strive supercede all other types. This means that nomic precision that results from merely
to atta'in. As it is, all this work must Audiscript Scores will become universal running a roll through the instrument with
row be done and this is a call to arms. necessities to all owners and also to the out interference by the performer. But
The new movement in musical education hundred and sixty manufacturers of player there is provided also a tempo lever which
must get under way and the sooner the bet pianos. Taken in conjunction with the fact controls the running speed of the roll or
ter. If the manufacturers or publishers will that the music-roll has lagged far behind in may indeed entirely stop it on any desired
not see the point; if thev persist in their the development of the player—almost the note or chord. Other hand levers control
blind preoccupation with the trivial aspects whole of its amazing value and merit as an the two piano pedals, so that, in the hands
of the piano-player, as an entertainment for educator lying unused—it would seem a safe of an intelligent musician, who at the same
the lazy, and absolrt?lv refuse to apply it to bet that the preparation of the materials of time has mastered the technic of the
the purpose for which it was designed, popular music education in authoritative instrument, that is, pumping and the con
namely, general broad musical cu'ture, then scholarly dress would make an enormous trol of the tempo and other levers, the mod
a new society such as I have outlined in the appeal to the music-loving world. This ern player-piano becomes an instrument of
'■ agenda, must undertake the work. appeal can not possibly be ignored by the truly artistic import."—Arthur Johnston.
Page 32 THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC
PROSPECT OF A RENAISSANCE spirit and mind is the only crucible for as Much nearer to us is the whole extent of
saying music. For only the mind can judge music technology: i.e., the explanation and
an idea. In the last analysis we can know description of musical grammar, syntax,
Forgotten Works of Music to Be Set nothing but ideas, though some are purely prosody—all appealing strongly to sci
rational and do not apeal to our emotions entific curiosity and abundantly able to
Free—Sketch of An Alexandrian and others by their association awaken a gratify it. This too remains to be made
whole series of ideas which move us pro universally intelligible by practical Illus
Library foundly. tration.
Finally musical ideas can be defined only Think a moment of resources of this art
by living examples. awaiting their freedom — of the golden
"I cannot rest contentedly on the past, treasuries of Belgium, France, Italy, Spain
I cannot take a step forward without its The die is cast for a contest between the
composers and the virtuosi—to see who and Britain and of Germany before she de
aid." The hope of musical development generated. Something we know of the art
obviously lies in making the actual wonders can bear away the palm. It is interesting
to remember that keyboard music arose and literature of these countries. But of
of music known to the world of musical their music how little! The propaganda
lovers."—James Martineau. and developed to a high state through in
struments like the organ and the clavecin for German music carried on among us for
on which personal touch is impossible forty years, or during the time when she
A Musical Renaissance. was preparing her attempt to overthrow
Hence, of necessity, the movement and the
What is proposed is therefore nothing idea counted for everything. the world, has familiarized us with the
less than a musical renaissance, a step glories of Teutonic music, but at what a
towards the recovery of a new-old world, This accords with the acute definition of cost. Amid the din of the Wagnerian bat
i.e., the life which lies entombed in musical P03try by a modern poet. "Poetry is that tle we have lost sight of the wonders of the
ideas—the intellectual and spiritual values enhancement of sound and movement by Latin spirit which after all is more cognate
of musical literature. which speech follows a rise in the tempera to us than the Scandinavian or Teutonic
ture of the soul."—Sturge Moore. mind. The Greco-Roman culture is bone of
This is obviously something quite apart The prospect of thousands of homes, our bone and flesh of our flesh. We are
from the theatrical or entertainment or so- especially in districts removed from musi thrall to her subtlety, her grace, her power,
called artistic values. No more helpful cal opportunities, having suddenly opened and her charm, it is t ie thrall of
thing could possibly be done for music at to them, not only the world's best music feminine artistic sensibility—the passion
this time. The method employed is the (this in a limited way is now available,) ate appeal to beauty. Italy and France and
method of science, and taken on the edu but a systematic digest of the materials of Spain have entranced every Anglo-Saxon
cational ground, the educational results are broad musical culture is exhilirating. traveller ever since the time at the begin
undebateable. The player-piano is educa ning of things when "the daughters of men
tional or it is nothing. If we were to represent the whole field first began to weave their toils round the
The redemption of an art may perhaps of modern music development as a circle of sons of God." These feminine nations are,
light, and then indicate by a diagram one however, masculine to us. We share the
sound extravagant but we need only re inch in diameter the extent to which real
member that the mass of the best music sensibility, but they have the dominant
literature has never penetrated to the gen. knowledge of it has penetrated through taste and must in the end bear away the
eral mind—that it can not ever penetrate to the general mind, the proportion would palm. It has been said that Romans pos
there under the virtuoso system of regard probably be indicated by a pin head. The sess in its highest terms "the gift of cri
ing music as an entertainment,—that the reason is plain. Nine-tenths of printed terion."
pressnt educational plan can remedy the music is beyond the technical capacity of
lack, and that nothing else can. even the most expert professional players. They share the Greek horror of deform
These, of course, can only play what can be ity—hence their contempt for the preten
No conceivable number of concerts of reduced to pianoforte score and brought sions of northern music.
haphazard music for effect can ever make within the scope of ten fingers. Most of the
this literature known. Music can be learned greatest works of choral and instrumental It is estimated that in England one man
only by saturation and saturation from counterpoint lie outside the capacity of any in a thousand has the artistic temperament
isolated and unrelated performances Is gen human player. It is easy to understand —in Italy one man in ten. No wonder we
erally impossible. why counterpoint has fallen into neglect. bow the knee to their artistic prowess. Even
It is nearly all polyphonic or many-voiced. a distant view of Florence in a photograph
With a Universal Music Reader and a Now such music is easy to play with per harmonizes the soul.
complement of roll scores presenting organ forated score. Its revival and spread for
ized knowledge, a familiarity with 500 education and enjoyment is therefore equiv These Latin people have created Uie
works of music can be gained in a few alent to a veritable renaissance of poly thing we call art in the modern world. Why?
weeks! phonic art. Because the Latin mind in its vision of
The Higher Auditory. truth, of beauty, is a non-myopic mind. It
It is only when we begin to summarize is his vision of reality which has made the
The most conspicuous defect of American these fields of artistic delights that the pro Latin "the creator of art." "The Italian has
musical culture at the present time is the portion of the occulted treasures begin to only one use for an idea, hence he strips
absence of independent ideas among its loom upon the mind. everything, tears away its drapery, ex
mi'sic-lovers. We. have been content to lie poses it to the garish, pitiless light of fact
down under the German music culture, to Take the medieval contrapuntists, the
composers of madrigals, mottets, villan- —he has no faculty for the mystical self-
remain mere recipients of musical stand deception of the northerner. That un
ards dictated by the German publishers, elle, etc., Flemish, English, French, Italian,
Spanish: interrupted vision of reality which has rele
teachers and propagandists, and by the gated moral vision to the second place, has
spirit of journalism and professionalism Arcadelt, Orlando di Lasso, Willaert, bestowed on Europe, not what is crude and
centering in artists and their performances Festa, Cipriano da Rore, Porta, Zarlino, naked and bare, but another mode of see
rather than in the works themselves. The Croce, Gabrielli, A., Gabrielli, G., Morales, ing, of feeling, of being,—one of the great
reason for this is not far to seek. It is Penalosa, Ribera, Juan del Encina, Vittoria, modes of human expression—Art."i
chiefly because we have not had a chance Jannequin, Gombert, Certon, Goudimel,
to absorb music independently of artists Palestrlna, Marenzio, Nanini, Anerio Fran The Latin spirit in music is a living thing
and to form our own opinions. cesco, Anerio, G. F., Aston, Davy, Tye, Tal- today. But what do we know of the
To train an intelligent and enthusiastic lis, Edwardes, Farrant, Whyte, Byrd, Dow- records of its past in music—the expres
public of music listeners, not by technical land, Wilbye, Gibbons, Bates, Phillips, sion of the same spirit which built Venice
instruction but by immersion in the rich Purcell. and Florence and Rome and Ravenna—
experience of music in which the ideas which created the frescoes and marbles of
alone are actually heard and assimilated, The forerunners of Bach and Handel, Michaelangelo, the pictures of Tintoretto
is the only conceivable way of advancing Sweelinck, Froberger, Reinken, Buxtehude, and Raphael and Lulnl and Francesco and
the cause of musical progress. Pachelbel, Schutz, Schein and Scheldt, etc. Leonardo da Vinci, the Cathedrals of St.
Peri, Caccini, Galilei, Rinuccinl, Corsi, Marks and Siena, the Square at Pisa and
Short of this there can be no real devel the Campanile? What do we know of tie
opment of the art on American soil. People Carissimi, Cesti, Cavalli, Legrenzi, Viadana,
Vecchi, Monteverdi, Lulli, The Scalattis, musical equivalents of these wonders
nowadays seem to think that the cult of which, as the poet said, nature has "adopted
playing the piano or the number of con Jomelli, Piccini, Paiesiello, Couperin, Ram-
eau, Pergolesi, Gluck, Hasse, Mozart, and into her race and granted them an equal
certs organized are somehow measures of place with Andes and with Ararat."?
musical progress, but music is not an affair a host more, are as unknown to the great
of pianism at all. This view exalts those mass of musical devotees today as if they
had never existed. Yet our library shelves bend and groan
able to perform difficult muscular opera under the weight of the books recording the
tions above those who find such feats be Nor is this all—there is likewise a pro triumphs of the Latin mind. This music
yond their reach. digious wealth of folk songs and dance— has been discarded by fashion, which has
Neither can we go on forever with the better almost than the more self-conscious passed by on the other side. Public taste
contrasting delusion that sensational effect art and as unknown as if it were printed in i -'Koine," by M. A. R. Turker and Hope Malle-
is the final test of musical value. Man's Archaic Greek. son.
THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC Page 33
has altered its perspective and calls for yond anything since imagined. (Grfitry, 26. Heinr Finck, 4 stimmig Lied "O
something hot in the mouth. To such, the Monsigny, Martini, Pergolesi, etc., etc.) Frau" (1536).
appeal of poetry always seems insipid. The And above all, the lighter sides of art in 27. Heinr Finck, 4 stimmig Lied "Auf
technique of the older music is gone, like its most human aspect as the cult of Joy gut Geluck."
the throats and the instruments which pro instead of Teutonic hyperborean gloom— 28. Hofhaimer, (1459-1537) 4 Stimmiges
duced it. Yet that part of it which is subtle wit, irony and downright laughter and Lied "Meins traurens 1st."
essential or intrinsic, the naive and pas fun-making "La mort du mari," "Le joli
sionate revelation of man's spirit has not vin," "La Me de Fontenay," etc., and a 29. Jannequin, 4st. Chanson "L'Alouette"
lost anything of its worth. It is for us to re thousand more examples from the past, not (1529).
discover and revalue it and bring it again to speak of the irresistibly witty and bril 30. Sermisy, 4 stimm Chanson "Au Jolis
to life, not as public entertainment but as liant, if sometimes naughty, products of bois' (1529).
part of the history of man's imagination. the French chansonniers in the Parisian 31. Anonym (1530) Pavane und Galll-
The more we value art in terms of imagina cafe-chantants of today—one of the few arde in einer Notierung.
tion, the less the older music will appear genuine creative impulses now active in the 32. Ducis, (1480-1530) Geistl. Lied "An
to suffer. And it will always appeal with world. Hugo Reimann made a list of 149 Wasserflusses Babylon."
overwhelming force to minds passionee for examples of the best music from the 13th
beauty and perfection—God's greatest gift to the 18th century. Only a savant could 33. Gombert, (1530) Chanson "C'est a
to man. The long record of the growth of mention as much as the titles or even grand tort."
musical art in the most subtle of artistic recognize more than half a dozen names in 34. Verdelot, Madrigal "Divini occhi"
peoples in the modern world—the so-called the list, for the occultation of the planet of (1535).
"old masters" of European, especially Latin musical wit by Teutonic effect is complete. 35. Morales (1512-1553) Weihnacht mo
art is waiting to be read. Here is a list, selected by one of the tette "Puer natus est nobis."
greatest scholars in Europe, as represent 36. Cavazzoni, Orgel- Ricercar a 4
Torchi's "L'Arte musicale in Italia" con ing the course of music from 1300 to 1800, (1542).
tains hundreds and hundreds of specimens; five hundred years.
Chilisotti's "Biblioteca di Rarita Musicale" 37. Arcadelt (1514-1560) 4, stimm Chan
to mention only two out of many. Gabrielll One could safely offer a thousand dollars son "Quand je vous aime ardentment."
Diruta — Quagliate, Sodermi, Frescobaldl, to be claimed by any music-lover in New 38. Dietrich. Geistl. Lied "dominus
Pasquinl, Rossi, Merulo, Bnachieri, Zipoli, York who could prove that he knew more prope est (1542).
Casoni, Porpora, how few music lovers know than three or four of the works mentioned. 39. Send. Deutsch Lied "Es jagt ein
even as much as their names: compositions It is, undoubtedly, as careful and typical a Jager."
for violin, for organ, for cembalo, for voice: series as could be chosen, and as condensed
and then the marvels of the bet canto style as is consistent with the claims of a repre 40. Buus. Orgel-Ricercar a 4 (1547).
in the 18th century composers and the sentative series. 41. Fuenllana (1554), "Fantasia sopra un
school of ornament—the perfection of the passo forcado" (fur Laute).
Living lllustrations of Music History. 42. Willaert. Orgel-Ricercar a 3. 1599.
Greek spirit of purity of line and harmony
of proportion. In France the same endless 1. John of Fornsete (1240), "Sumer is 43. Palestrina (1526-94) Ave regina f. 4
richness of material. Twenty-three volumes icumen in." Frauenst.
of Henri Expert's "Maitres Musiciens de la 2. Anonymous (13th Cent.), "Three part 44. Lasso. (1532-94) Madrigal "Sotto due
Renaissance Francaise; thirty-eight vol motet S'on me regarde." negri" Hymne Alme Deus.
umes of Chefs d'Oeuvres Classiques de
l'Opera Francaise; Lully, Campra, Ra- 3. Joh. de Florentia Madrigal "Nascoso 45. Lasso (1532-94) Hymne "Alme Deus."
meau, Salieri, Gretry, Gluck. Henri Ex el viso" (1330). 46. Vittoria. (1540-1613), Motette "Tene-
pert's "Les Maitres Francais du clavecin 4. Machault (1300-1372), Ballade "Pleurs brae."
des XVII et XVIII siecles.", Louis Diemer's dames." 47. Croce. (1557-1609) Sanctus der Messe
Clavicinistes Francaises of the 18th century 5. Landino (1325-1397) Ballata "Se in 3 Kirchenton.
—Couperin, Claude Daquin, etc. In Spain Pronto Non Sara." 48. Gallus (1550-1591) Mottete "Ecce
a similar treasure. 6. Fontaine (1400) Rondeau. "J'aime Quoraodo."
bien celui. 49. Maschera. Canzon da sonore a 4
There is said to be on the shelves of
Ricordi at Milan, enough unpublished music 7. Dunstable, "Veni Creator Spiritus." (1584).
to set up the world for a long career. (1425). 50. Annibale Padovano. "Ricercar a 4."
Meantime, in the past forty years, an enor 8. Le Grant (1419) Rondeau "Laissies (1584).
mously rich critical literature has been moy coy." 51. Merulo. (1533-1640), "Canzon do
produced by indefatigable labors of a gen 9. Lantins (1430) Kanonisches Duett "A sonor a 5."
eration of musicologues, who have dived ma dame." 52. Giov. Gabrieli. Ricercar a 4 voci del
back into the past, "disinterred the soft 10. Binchois Ballade "Amours merchi" Xo tono (1595).
pearl of distinction" among the mass of lost (1430).
of forgotten works and brought it to light 53. Morley. 5. ptlmmiges Tanzied "Now
with critical and explanatory notes in 11. Dufay (1400-1474) Sanctus der Messe is the Month" (1595).
print. i "Se la face ay pale." 54. Wilbye. Madrigal "Lady when I be
12. Enrique (1480) .Spanische Ballade hold" (1598).
The wonders of forgotten music, brushed "Mi querer." 55. Orazio Vecchi. Fantasia a 4 (1600).
aside in the mad race for theatrical effect, 13. Ponce (1500) Trinklied "Ave color
would be beyond belief if they were not 56. Peri. Gesang des Orpheus aus
vini clari." "Euridice."
demonstrable facts. Early French, Italian,
English, Spanish and Portuguese art-music 14. Adam Von Fulda (?) (15 Jahr) 57. Banchieri. Sinfonia (canzon alia
and folk song, long since overwhelmed by choralfiguration uber das "Pange lingua." Francese) a 4 per sonore o cantare (1607)
productions merely louder or touched with 15. Busnois (1492) Chanson "Chi di: "Jubilate Deo."
some fashionable craze of a moment. Of Benedicte." 58. Caccini. Gesang der Orfeo aus
these riches the hungry amateur gets an 16. Okeghem (1430-95) Sanctus und "Euridice."
occasional glimpse in the performances of Benedictus der Messe "Pour quelque pey- 59. Caccini. (1500-1618) Gesang der
great artists and we are startled to hear nes." Euridice aus "Euridice" (1600).
miracles of artistic beauty such as L'Amour 17. Obrecht (1450-1505) 1. Teil des credo
de mol, or Amarili (of Caccini) or Eliza 60. Banchieri, Sinfonia senza parole a 4
der Messe "Ave Regina Coelorum." (1607) Canzon in aria francese.
bethan gems such as "Flow Not So Fast, 18. Isaak (1400-1517) Sinfonia "La
Ye Fountains," "Come Again"—and music 61. Hasler (1564-1612) Choral: "Ein
of lighter charm, such as "My Lovely Celia" Morra." teste Burg," Fugenweis bearbeitet (1607).
of Munro, or "Charmant Papillon," of 19. Stoltzer (1400-1526) Drelstimmige 62. Hasler. 5 stimmiges Madrigal "Ardo
Campra, or "Jean de Nivelle" or "Plaisir Motette "Der Gottlose drauer." si."
d'amour," "Dimanche a l'Aube," "Sylves- 20. Mouton. Crucifix"s der Messe "Alma 63. Melchior Franck. Intrada a 6 (1608).
trik," "Mignonette," etc., to mention a few redemptoris mater" (1516). 64. Melchior Franck. Pavane a 4 (1603).
titles that come to mind—each in its way 21. Brumel, 1. teil des Gloria der Messe
an incomparable gem—music of the heart "De Beata Virgine" (1516). 65. Melchior Franck. Allemande a 4
touched with the exquisite grace of line and (1603).
ornament which must be the deepest things 22. Fevim, Agnus der Messe "mente 66. Monteverdi. Gesang der Euridice
in art or Chopin, who embodied them both, tota" (1516). (1. Akt.) aus "Orfeo" (1607).
would not be the most adored of all modern 23. Josquin Despres, (1450-1521) Sanctus 67. Monteverdi. Gesang der Orfeo (4
composers. der Messe "L'homme arme\" Akt.) aus "Orfeo" (1607).
The charm of life is here celebrated not 24. La Rue, (1518) 4 stimm. Chanson 68. Gagliano. Gesang des Apollo aus
by noisy sensation but by graceful line and "Au feu d'amour." "Dafne"; (1608).
curve, by naive tenderness and formal sym 25. La Rue, Kyrie der Messe Ave 69. Ant^gnati. Canzon da sonar (a5)
metry; by ease, simplicity and brilliancy be Maria. La Moranda (1608).
Page 34 THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC
70. Frescobaldi. Canzon da sonor a 4 114. Draghl. Arietta der Psiche aus printed books which contain its records it
(1608). "Psiche cercando Amore" (1688). only the contents are described with suffi
71. Frescobaldi. Toccata di durezze 115. Draghi. Koloratur-Arie der Psiche cient enthusiasm. The pseudo-publications
(1037). aus "Psiche cercanda Amore" (1668). of music have done what they could. But
72. Luzzaschi. Canzon a 4 (1608). 116. Steffani Arie des Tiberino aus the public mind today is almost a blank
73. Byrd. Pavana "The Earle of Salis "Niobe" (1688). when it comes to a knowledge of the
bury" (aus Parthenia, 1611). 117. Steffani. (1654-1728) Duetto da great music of the past. These considera
74. Monteverdi. 5st Madrigal (1G05 Camara per Soprano e contralto (1. Tell). tions strengthen the hope of the writer
gedruckt). 118. A. Scarlatti. Arie der Elmira aus that a genuine renaissance of musical
75. Byrd. Galliardo Mrs. Mary Brownlo "Rosaura" (1690). taste will follow the spread of the past
(dgl). 119. Pallavicino. Arie der Doride aus treasures of the art in audible form.
76. Bull. Pavane mit veranderten Re- "Antiope" Dresden 1689 beendet von N. A.
prisen (dgl). Strungk. The Coming World of Art.
77. Gibbons "The Queen's Command" 120. Corelli. Trio-Sonate H. moll Op. We can now help to determine, in this
(aus Parthenia 1611). 21V (1689). department of life, what men shall think, by
121. J. Ph. Krieger. Largo a.d. Sonate selecting and offering them the best, know
78. Sweelinck (1562-1621) Toccata. Op. 211 (1693).
79. Schein. Choral. "Komm heiliger ing that in the end it is what men think
122. Flux. Ouverture der 3. Partita des that makes them act at all, and which
Geist" fur Sopran und Orchester. (1626). Concentus musico-instrumentalis (1701). gives to their actions control and intelli
80. Allegri. (1584-1625) Miserere f.d. 123. Caldara. Tri-Sonata G. moll (1700 gent direction. It is futile to under-estimate
Karwoche. Sonata da chiesa). the power of cu tural education. "The
81. Rossi. Sonata a 3 sopra l'Aria della 124. Couperin. "Les Papillons" Gigue armies of empires are crashing together on
Romanesca. (Chaconne 1613). der 2 Suite (1713). many frontiers. Every moment men are on
82. Bartholomaus Praetorius. Paduana 125. Keiser. Arie der Ismene a.d. 4. the watch for the stealthy approach of
Emoll a 5 (1616). Szene des 3. Aktes der Oper "L'inganno death on the high seas. Millions have pain
Felice" 1714. and men in millions have died because they
83. Bartholomaus Praetorius. Gallairde 126. Couperin. La lugubre. Sarabande
Emoll a 5 (1616). have thought differently."—J. A. Mackareth
der 3 suite (1713).
84. Bartolomaus Praetorius. Gallairde 127. Lotti. (1667-1740) Kyrie einer 4
G moll a 5 (1616). stimm. Messe in G. Moll (a cappella).
85. Widmann. Intrada (1618). 128. Telemann. Ouverture per il Clavlc
embalo (1719). THE RACE BETWEEN EDUCATION
86. Scheldt. Courante (1612). 129. J. S. Bach. (1724) Arie aus de>
87. Quagliata. Duetto da camera a 2 Matthaeus-Passion. AND CATASTROPHE—MUSICAL
Soprani con Violino obligato (1623 ge 130. J, S. Bach. (1685-1750) Ciacona aus
druckt). der D moll. Suite fur Violine allein. DISARMAMENT AND WORLD
88. Marini. Canzon da sonor a 4 (1626). 131. D. Scarlatti. (1685-1757) Klavier- PEACE
89. Marini. Baletto a 3 alia Alemanna stuck (Sonate).
(1629). 132. Rameau. Les Soupires (Piece de
90. Merula. Canzon "La pedrina" Clavecin 1729) Getting Together on Education.
(Chaconne 1637). 133. Muffat.Klavierstuck (1727). 'There is another matter, another domain
134. Astorga. (1681-1736) Terzett fur So —in which men ought to fit together and
91. Monteverdi. Aria aus L'lncorona- pran, Tenor, Bass und Strelchorchester aus
zione di Poppea (1642). dem Stabat mater. that is the pursuit of knowledge. The hu
92. Monteverdi. Arietta des Valetto aus 135. Durante. (1684-1755) Duetto da man mind constantly pursues knowledge
L'incoronazione di Poppea (1642). camara per Soprano e Contralto. and attains it, records it—goine; on irom
136. Pergolesi. 1. Satz des Stabat mater fact to fact, from- theory to theory, from
93. Carissimi. (1604-1674) (Recitativ conviction to conviction. In that way the
a.d. Oratorium Balthasar. (1736) fur, Sopran, Alto and Streich-
orchester. human race progresses. In powers of mind
94. Heinrich Albert. (1604-1651) Deut- 137. Fasch. (1688-1758) Ouverture einer and physical characteristics it changes very
sches Lied mit Generalbass "O Wie gross C dur Orrhestersuite. slowly, but in the acquisition of knowledge
ist doch." 138. Chr. Foerster (1693-1748) Ouverture and the power to use what it acquires it
95. Heinrich Albert. (1604-1651) Deut- der Adur-Orchestersuite. advances with increasing rapidity and at
sches Lied mit Generalbass "Ich lobe die this time very fast indeed."—Life, Nov. 10,
Allhier." 139. Handel. Ouverture des "Messias" 1921.
(1642).
96. Hammerschmidt. Geistlicher Dialog 140. Graupner (1687-1760) Sinfonie G Wanted—a World League for Education
fur Alt und Bass (1645). dur 1. Satz.
97. M. Neri. Sonata a 4 (1644). We were recently engaged upon what was
141. G. B. Martini. Duetto da camera not so much a war in the ordinary sense, but
98. Kempis, Sonata a Violino e Viola No. 12. (1763).
(1644). in the words of Gompers, "a crusade for
142. Fr. X. Richter. (1709-89) Sinfonie right, Justice and liberty." Why should this
99. Froberger. (c620-1667) Fantasia a 4. Es dur, Op. 4IV. 1. Satz. war—which is still going strong—be waged
100. Cavalli. Duett (Medea und Jason) 143. J. Stamitz (1741-1757) Andante der by material means only? It ought to be plain
aus Giasone (1649). Es dur Sinfonie Op. 4IV by this time that efficiency, i.e., effort that
101. Legrenzi. Trio-Sonota La torriana 144. Battishill, Englisches Catch, 3 does not go back as far as phychology, is
(1655). Tenore (c. 1760). wasted. How can we then leave o t of
102. Cesti. Arie des Arsete aus La Dorl reckoning the most colossal force in the
145. Webbe. Englisches Glee fur 2 world—education—as the key to the power
(1661). Tenore und Bass (cl760). of mind?
103. Reusner. Praeludium elner Lauten- 146. K. Ph. E. Bach. Klaviersonate D "If I were asked to state," says Prof.
Suite (1667). moll 2. satz (1781). Canby,i "the one thing that the men at the
104. Bontempi und Peranda. Arie des 147. Gluck, "Chaconne" Schlussnum- front and behind the front said they had
Apollon aus der deutschen Oper. "Dafne" mer der Oper "Orpheus" (1762). learned from the war, it would be the unsu
(Dresden 1671). 148. Hasse, Ouverture zu Irene (1762). spected and incomparable importance of
105. Legrenzi. Duett aus "Eteocle e 149. C. Stamitz. (1746-1801) Andante education."
Polinice" (1675). der Es dur Sinfonie Op. 13 Op. 16. Wells on Education
106. Rosenmuller. Trio-Sonata v. J. Both the music and critical works are
(1682). now called a library of music. It is only "Civilization," says the author of the Out
107. Legrenzi, Arie aus Eteocle e Polin potentially a library of music however. To line of History, "is a race between education
ice (1675 mit Basso, ostinato). speak exactly, all this rich life of the past and catastrophe."
108. Pachelbel. Allemande der D. moll is dead—dead until it is reproduced, and as The problem before us is: How to save
Suite (1683). few or none can or will reproduce it and the world by education.
few know what to look for—libraries of Whatever be its analysis we live in a pal
109. Lully. Ouverture der Oper Roland pably mad world. Not otherwise can we
(1685). music are veritable morgues or limbos explain the fact that the world of men has
110. Marais (1656-1728) Prelude fur 2 "where some souls suffer for a time the been at war, while practically the whole
Gamben. denial of the presence of God." world is agreed in its abhorrence of war!
111. Marais (1656-1728) Allemande fur 2 About this literature and this content the For an unbalanced civilized consciousness
Gamben. battles of the editions have gone on for there is one cure. We must train a reasoned
112. Purcell. Gesang dQs 1. Attendant decades — one publisher after another consciousness. Ed-cation is plainly the
bringing out "a collection of the world's hope of human society. Every stone In the
aus "Dido und Aeneas" (1688). best music" in a new form. Of course it is temple of education is important.
113. Purcell. Didos Todesgesang aus not really music at all. But so strong is
"Dido und Aeneas" (1688). the passion for music that people will buy 1 Prof. H. S. Canby, "Education by Violence."
THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC Page 35
Somehow we must "draw together men tion is a disease which is all the more deadly And until this lack is supplemented by ele
of alien races and now discrete traditions in that it produces a degeneration of social ments calculated to lay the foundation of
into one common and sustained way of liv tissue not immediately apparent. To satisfy the universal temple of the spirit of man no
ing for the world's service " "Through our need for the ideal it must be a work ot permanent political or social international
out the world men's thoughts and motives propaganda by those who themselves feel ism is possible.
will be turned by education and example the need most urgently.
and the circle of ideas about them, from the An lnternational Standard of Music Lan
obsession of self to the cheerful service of We must not think lightly of the world of guage and Literature—What it Might
human knowledge, human power and human imagination even in war time. It is not only Mean to the World
unity."i the most colossal of all forces, but the most
delightful source of our highest joy. People The four pledges of Anglo-Saxon Unity
"The great united republic of the United are affected by imagination who are not have been reckoned to be—
States would have been impossible before affected by reason and logic or even senti 1. Love of liberty.
the printing press, and the railway. The ment. 2. A joint language.
telegraph and telephone, the aeroplane, the A spiritual and intellectual organization 3. A joint literature.
continual progress of land and sea transit of the world through higher education takes 4. The Common Law.
are now insisting upon a still larger political much longer to effect than the mater,al
organization—a true "world league of men" To this we may now add a common stand
'.-ganization, for untruth is everywhere ard of music lang age and literature and
And how are we to achieve "a world strongly entrenched in institutions appar extend it to take in all western nations. If
league of men" except by a world league ently sacred, but now that the world is in we make our texts polyglot, the appeal of
of ideas through education? The only sure upheaval we can set the forces of life in a music becomes a truly international lan
way of peace is international understand new mould if we wilL guage.
ing—a minimum standard of education for As Lloyd George says, "after it has cooled Much more directly than by any economic
everybody. again, if the mould is not right, it will break or legislative action will international comity
In the field of higher art education we again," and the fat will once more be in the result from a world standard of music.
must stress every high Interest as of equal lire. A second upheaval like the recent
importance with the material. Meanwhile World War will actually destroy civilization, We exchange artists, conductors, orches
let the combative nationalistic spirit run to so we must utilize every energy of thinking tras, as well as critical works and printed
the limit, but let its battles be fought in the to prevent it. scores, but the latter do not reach beyond
field of art, thought and science—and not ln the professional classes, while the former
the trenches. Music as a Keystone of lnternational are not in the least representative of the
Education spirit of the countries that send them.
"The world state's organization of scien We even exchange students. All this of
tific research and record compared with that Among all fields of education none would course is helpful, but we forget that it ls the
of today will be like an ocean liner beside be easier to internationalize than music— music literature that counts. What do most
the dugout canoe of some early heliolithic perhaps the most attractive of all modes of music lovers know of Byrd, Bull, Tye or
wanderer There can be little question creating mutual understanding among Tallis, of Rameau and Couperin, La Chanson
that the attainment of a federation of all peoples. Francaise, of the great Art music of Italy,
humanity together with a sufficient measure Spain and Belgium, of the Folk music of the
of social justice to insure health, education In music the human imagination gathers Arabs and Greeks? Next to nothing. When
and a rough equality of opportunities to itself up into a stronghold of power. ,Ita every means of international understanding
most of the children born into the world, influence upon war-making and war-caring is so much to be prized it seems almost a
would mean such a release and increase of is recognized by all philosophers and his crime that there should be no formal agency
human energy as to open a new phase ot torians. It is the stimulator of morale which in existence for the promotion of interna
human history " compared with material means was esti tional music comity.
mated by Napoleon to be as four to one.
"A world with something like secure inter Intrinsically the western world of Euro-
national justice and something like social Everyone is familiar with the powerful peon and American music is now one. It is
justice will fish for capacity with the fine effect of national airs. "Let me write the l idiculous that our musical education should
net of universal education and may expect songs of a nation," said Napoleon, "and I be local and its guidance left in the hands of
a yield beyond comparison greater than any care not who writes its laws." Equally is individuals.
yield of able and brilliant men that the music the essence of the ritual of religion
world has known hitherto."1 This is felt for it is the language of devotion, par excel Is it not about time for musical educators
today as never before; the world's progres lence. to show themselves above national preju
sive spirits are working out the practical dices—especially since it is well known that
Intrinsic music based on the pure music the motive of fostering national art is, in
details of universal education. The soldiers elements is a natural language; elaborated great part at least, commercial. We do not
themselves felt the need for education as artistic music is not. It is a foreign tongue measure activity in literature by the newest
the greatest lesson of the war. which must be learned. fever or fashion in "agony" reciting but in
The world statesmen are perpetually eulo Language is wholly man made; probably terms of art and criticism produced—in the
gizing amity between nations. I look at the God cannot speak a single word. But music production of new and important books.
one per cent governmental appropriations is the language of vibration, the principle
devoted to education and wonder. Why does upon which the worlds are built.
it never occur to any government to propose
an international system of education so as The spark of culture can seldom leap the TOWARDS A MUSICAL
to provide the mutual understanding upon gap of language. Printed books in foreign
which such amity must depend? tongues make but little headway — as DEMOCRACY
vehicles of thought and feeling. With music
Our own government has ref used to carry the case is otherwise. Here we have a
out the desire of Washington for a Univer medium of comm' nication genuinely inter Some Practical Problems to Be Faced
sity of the United States, although the national and few things could better promote —Our Duty—A Public Appeal
Father of His Country left two hundred international amity than the setting up of
shares of stock of the Chesapeake & Poto access to music in forms equally understand
mac Canal to heip its foundation. Eleven able by the various peoples of America and For obvious reasons it seems clear that
Congresses have brought up the question— Europe.
but have failed to get any action. The the attempt to create a specifically Ameri
money which would now have amounted to The fundamental facts of musical science, can art without recourse to the well-springs
$5,000,000 is lost. —musical history and criticism — and the of European imagination is doomed to fail.
leading master works of art now all esoteric If the art of music cannot fead itself upon
Is it not ridiculous to assume that our mysteries—can be made as clear and simple the imagination of European man it will
millionfold provision for material comfort and understandable as household words by run out on the sands of provincial material
is really going to sustain our civilization— the simple process of concrete illustration. ism. We must take our cue from a proph
that we can let all the rest go over to a late The value and interest of these facts in ecy of art which has been recently uttered.
day to be taken care of when there is noth Portugal and Australia is identical with that Our ideal of art must become as wide as
ing else to do? Material arrangements must in America or Wales. A so lnding cyclope the universe and as capacious as the heart
come first but are they enough? Only if we dia of practical music with a synoptic view of man.
regard ourselves as animals, not if we think of the material of the art will be in itself a
of ourselves as men. kind of international conservatory of music. Romain Rolland's Prophecy: "The hour
We should at least move a step toward it. has struck for mankind to begin its march
The need of stressing ideal things was "The Europe of today no longer possesses toward the ideal simply of humanity, to be
never so strong as now, for the very reason a common book; it has no poem, no prayer, gin it with conscious fervor, to suffer no
that, unlike bodily hunger, thirst and cold, no act of faith, which is the common heri exclusion. Man must, at last, enter into
their absence does not immediately force tage of all. This lack is fatal to the alt of health, must at last enter into life. All of
itself upon our attention. Spiritual starva- our time. There is no one who has written art and science must be his leader, and all
t Wells. "Outline of History." for all.'" 3 Romain Rolland.
Page 36 THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC
of humanity must be his goal. The Asiatic limits of the strictly musical vocabulary. very best music will have a wider and more
cultures, China, India, are being born anew. But now the mountebanks have trans permanent sale than all the "popular
The old and new worlds must bring forth formed it into a booby art for the entertain music" that was ever composed.
the treasures of their souls and place them ment of the musically gullible.
in common with these equal treasures. For Judgments of musical composition may
all great expressions of mankind subserve The great point is to get this literature henceforth centre about the plane of musi
each other, complement each other. And before people in their own homes. cal ideas which can be communicated to all
the thought of the future must be a syn However much the professionals and pur through a steady conventionalized read
thesis of all the great thoughts of all the ists may doubt the propriety of accepting ing: —a reading from which every trace of
world." the audible reprints as artistic musical per theatrical effect has been banished on
formances, their utility for private educa- principle. This is precisely why both pro
"To achieve this fertile union should be tion is obvious. fessionals and amateurs who think of music
the work of Americans. For it is they who only in terms of personal color are loud
live between the seas that bathe the two In the face of the fait accompli of the in their protests, crying, rightly enough,
great continents. It is they who live at the best music actually brought to all in that they are undone.
centre of the life of the world. This Is scholarly form, their objections are no
my ocean: You are fortunate. Your life la longer valid. Once the thing is done it They are right, the age of the virtuoso
young and abundant. Your land is vast and ceases instantly to be a matter of opinion is over. But no essential trait of bona fide
free for the discovery of your works. You or debate. No other practicable path to music invention has anything to fear. Lizst
are at the beginning of your journey, at the musical literature is, in fact, open to the long ago predicted that the piano was
dawn of your day. There is in you no musical amateur, who must remain in bound to absorb the entire literature of the
weariness of the yesterdays; no clutterlngs darkness or accept the means that is of orchestra. "Within its five octaves it can
of the pasts" fered. Music will thus pass to a new his present," he said, the "essence of every
toric period and acquire standing as an musical composition." What he did not
"Behind you, alone, the elemental voice art, the literature of whose creative evolu foresee was that no one can really play
of a great pioneer, in 'whose message you tion is suddenly yet firmly established and the piano in a way to bring out the capac
may well find an almost legendary omen of made accessible. ities of complicated music, and that it
your task to come—your Homer: —Walt would be left to the present age to develop
Whitman." The success of this plan depends in the such a means of practical performance.
Our Duty. beginning upon the sympathetic under
standing by comprehending minds. And This miracle is what has happened in our
It seems the plain duty of Americans to the designer is content to rest his case in own day. It is estimated on good author
take the management of this gigantic force their hands. No ideas, as such, have any ity that 75 to 90 per cent of all pianos made
into their own hands, and not to permit the force to conquer the world, save that which In America (350,000 a year) are player
commercial debasers of art to determine they acquire from being held by many, pianos. With the addition of the Audi-
their taste for them by averaging the type when they become Irresistible forces. script roll and the reconstructed player—
of product down to the level of the cabaret: the transformation of the piano is now
to sell out their Inherited roof over their "Elles ne prennent pas les homines par leur
contcnu intcllectuel, mais pat le rayonnement complete. No longer need a piano be a
heads while the heirs of the ages are piece of furniture costing $1,000 to J2.500,
asleep! No reason can be shown why our vital qui a certains moments d'histoire, s'en
degagent." developing only 5 per cent of its capacity.
peoj)le should surrender this colossal in In adding a good player-mechanism and
fluence into the hands of the stupid, taste I want the student of song to know that rolls we raise the possibility of efficiency to
less and avaricious purveyor, except that he can rehearse the worlds' leading songs 75 per cent at one blow. Even at that, it
there has been hitherto no means by which in his own home, reading all the melodies is not yet complete. lt still remains to
they could prevent it. and words—saturate himself in their at apply this gigantic potential force to the
The profiteering mind is essentially sel mosphere with an ever-ready accompani concrete purposes of musical instruction
fish and without taste because all its reck ment to inspire support and sustain him. as is herein proposed.
onings are dead reckonings. The breath of I want the amateur pianist to know that For until we have made a practical sys
the spirit never touches it. Yet it is clear he can undertake, in his own home, wher tem of popular musical education which is
that disinterestedness is of the essence of ever he is, a progressive series of studies, authoritative and of broad scope, the in
the love of beauty, as it is of the love of entirely independent of a teacher if he is fluence of the perforated roll and player
truth and goodness. remote from such guidance, and proceed must remain purely theoretical, speculative
The wells of musical truth are sealed. step by step from the simplest elementary and trivial, as if the horses of the sun
Mankind is slaking its thirst at a muddied scales and phrases up to the most compli should be put to hauling toys. This is the
tradition. cated masterpieces, absorbing his tech actual plight of the player today.
nique by the natural method of lmitating
So the progressive deterioration of every models,—the way all masters have learned. The effect of applying to music the se.
thing of beauty we have inherited from the He can thus be set free to apply his pri vere test of a perforated reading is to set
past, goes merrily onward. We leave our vate skill to the liberation of his own indi up an entirely new standard of musical
theatrical entertainments, our music, our vidual expression. But most of all I want civilization. Never was there any censor
cinemas to any chance adventurers— (in all music-lovers to know that by this means like the perforated score. Music is thrown
stead of to a national ministry of art, they can help to form the taste of America, ^ack on its raked valor of thought. If, as
which ought to be a sacred trusteeship), young and old. thinking, it does not hold the attention of
who cater to the most universal vulgar the hearer, it is "good night" to the com
taste as it is determined to be by self- Eighteen states have enacted laws by poser.
seeking persons who are often uneducated which credit for piano work in the homes
boors. Yet everyone knows that this is will be allowed in the elementary schools. Bach, Beethoven and Schubert would
to surrender the most powerful of all in Probably 600,000 teachers are employed in have welcomed it and so would all intrinsic
terests into the hands of those who know instructing 3,000,000 students in the ele music composers in every age. Their com
not what they do. This at a time when ments of piano-playing and singing. positions come sailing through the per
more than any other, we need to fortify forated screen unconscious of loss—some
our lives with the best thought and art and That playing or singing a few scales and times even heightened in effsct by being
philosophy which history can offer. To do tunes hour after hour should be considered reduced to clear Greek jackets of musical
otherwise is infantile, and it is criminal. synonymous with musical culture is of thought.
course a woeful error. Moreover, it is both
Do you wish a share ln the coming cruel and futile to plant in the mind of the It is a pity our modern revellers in musi
renaissance? Since it is evident that the child the idea that music study is, properly cal effect do not fare so well. Modern
foregoing causes have brought music down speaking, a matter of attacking music on music is affected with a kind of mumps—
the Oa'ferine slope, the Intrln=ic Music the technical side. swollen by the disease of jumboism.
Foundation purposes to inaugurate a re.
vival and spread of such music by causing I want composers to see that there can Obviously, the setting up of a means of
to be prepared and circulated broadcast be opened for them a path out of the ring- communicating musical thought is equiva
Audiscript or living, i.e., universally in fence enclosure which now makes them the lent to the creation of musical thought, for
telligible reprints of the best musical lit pawns of commercial publishers and con thought, musical or otherwise, uncommunt-
erature, especially its well-springs, accord cert managers. cated, is in the practical sense, non-exist
ing to a practical plan in which music I want amateurs to feel that a way can' ent. As far, therefore, as the ages of
lovers themselves may become cooperators be opened for them to participate in a rich musical faith possess a meaning and repre
in the work. banauet of musical experiences now shut sent a culture, so far can we go in antic)
The day of the amateur has arrived. If out from them. pating educational results from the first
we can have public support, we can create practical communication of that culture.
a revolution by reviving and putting into I want singers to understand that they
can have their accompaniments arranged The new musical "book" comes Into a
circulation the exquisite world of the for so that they can rehearse their repertory to world of music-lovers whose taste is for the
gotten music of the past—the music of the their hearts' content at very little expense. most part at the savage stage, i.e., the
Long Tradition—from the time when music stage of sensation. It will lead them on-
was a tradition and a sincere effort of man Finally, I want the player manufacturers
to express his own inner feelings within the and music-roll manufacturers to know the 1 Jean Chrlstophe—Ilomain Rolland.
THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC Page 37
wards and inwards to a new world of de have currently agreed to call "education." lntransigent attitude of the trade leaders,
lights which the muses have prepared for But where do these 100,000 Americans live? seemed to be to put the whole project up to
those who hear beneath the surface. They are not gathered about a Paris the amateurs and let them act upon it as
Can the musical spirit of amateurs be eagerly thrilling to its discoveries, not in may seem to them fit.
mobilized? touch with a London or a Munich; they are
lt's Up to You. not to be reached with certainty through a WANTED—1,000 MUSIC LOVERS
Do vou wish to help on a renaissance of few authoritative journals. There are TO FORM A SOCIETY TO
great music in the schools and homes of 1,000 in Boston, let us say, and 2,500 in CARRY OUT THESE REFORMS
America and Europe? San Francisco, and 12 in Indianapolis, and
If you do the way is now open. Do you 250 in Birmingham, Ala., and 27 in Waco, I want one thousand music-lovers out of
wish to help to carry through a romantic Texas, and 1,109 in New York City, and so the 3,000,000 piano owners, 10,000,000
enterprise—an enterprise in its way as im forth. How is an American publisher to phonograph owners, and the 800,000 player-
portant as that undertaken by the scholars reach these Americans who know good piano owners, to form a society to carry
of Florence and the Printers of Venice, af stuff and want good stuff with a new, out this project, and bring the best music
ter the invention of the printing press, who, good thing? How can he reach them with, within the reach of all.
between them, gave us our intellectual civ out an expenditure of money that the finan l propose that the great republic of
ilization by reviving the Greco-Roman clas cial returns will not justify? If he spends amateurs who have already set the seal of
sics of literature? Music, like ancient thousands and takes time, he may reach their approval upon the player-piano shall
literature, lies buried, unknown and ob many of them, but, while he is spending now unite to develop lts true potential, by
scured. Do you wish to enable fevery bis money and putting in his time to hunt undertaking the publication of music,
student to obtain a very cheap, yet good, them down and round them up, he may go which will actually apply the wondrous
miniature pianoforte on 'which he can play broke. If they could be reached quickly time-saving and labor-saving function of
the best music literature? You can do it. and surely, the editors and publishers of the invention to the needs and desires of
books and periodicals who sincerely want musicians, both amateur and professional,
There are reckoned to be 3,000,000 pianos to develop the best stuff that is in Ameri in college, school, club, library and home.
in the United States at the present time. can writers to do, would have their oppor Can I rely upon the response of the genu
Probably a million of these are player- tunity. The publishers and authors very inely interested music lovers to this ap
pianos or have piano playing devices at generally play safe. They quit chasing peal?
tached. this scattered ideal public in America and The program of action is outlined in the
There are said to be 4,000 women's clubs try to get hold of the 500,000 of the public agenda. (Next page.)
in the United States, most of them with 95,000,000, which is very well satisfied with
musical departments or activities, 4,000 the sort of thing to which Mr. Cohan so
libraries, six or seven hundred colleges, legitimately objects. There is, we believe,
many thousands of public schools. Among about the same proportion of intellect to THE COMPOSER'S MUSICAL BILL
all the music-loving community my own in the cubic yard of flesh in this country as OF RIGHTS
vestigations induce me to believe there In any other; but the cubic yards of flesh
must certainly Be 100,000 persons who are are widely scattered here; the machinery
feeling "fed-up" with the virtuoso and the has not yet been developed for bringing The Composer's Complaint.
domination of the luxury music—music this intellect to a focus."—Don Marquis in
lovers who would feel like helping to Evening Sun. Amid all the modern clamor we seem to
establish music literature and making it hear the voice of the Musical Composer
Now suppose we apply all this to music and that of his compositions rising in pro
accessible if they knew how it could be in the United States at the present time. test against the advantages enjoyed by sis
done. May it not be safely assumed that among ter arts—painting, sculpture, architecture
How to reach this hundred thousand all this enormous auditory of music lovers and literature with respect to the possi
elite? As I was musing on this point 1 (whose existence is evidenced by the 3,000,- bilities of easy transmission. Their value
hit upon the following luminous analysis ot 000 pianos and the 800,000 player-pianos as products of artistic mind, is amply cer
the market for good literature. and the probable 10,000,000 talking ma. tified, and has been spread through the
It was recently estimated by the editor chines) there will be found 100,000 who world.
of the Sun Dial, in the New York Evening sincerely care for what is best. Is it pos
sible to locate them and secure their co Only music remains outside the pale of
Sun, that of the 5,000,000 people who ha
bitually read books in England, Ireland and operation? If there are even 50,000 music general knowledge. Could she too be
Scotland, "there are 100,000 capable of lovers in the Union who really care for brought into line?
appreciating a vital work of art." music as an expression of man's immeasur This is how the composers intone their
"From this public of 100,000 must come able mind, and not as a mere wallowing In complaint: "We cast our products into a
the first support of a new, good and vital sensation, and supposing it clear that the form likeliest (in our opinion, for we are
thing. Well, then, the English publisher foundation and spread of music literature often wrong) to reach through to the minds
finds at his hand a critical and periodical is a desirable reform to bring about, and or souls of others."
machinery by the use of which he may hope that we have the means of doing it, it is "We dress up our musical ideas in the
to reach a certain calculable portion of this vitally necessary to secure their support. ball-robes of instrumental or vocal color
public of 100,000. He has mediums through Divided among so many, the individual and write them down in a series of ob
which he may presant his announcements costs would be trifling. scure symbols. If we are very lucky we
and his advertisements without the cost It is unfair to expect the society to em can have these printed, but as the repub
being prohibitive. It is so in France. In bark in so large a publishing undertaking they lic of listeners cannot hear our ideas till
tellectual activity radiates from a definite are performed and performances call
except under a guarantee against loss, nor for favoritism
centre. There are a few Parisian journals, do I wish to ask the musical amateurs to possible for us, orwefinancial investment im
are still out of doors."
to gain which is to gain all. Through them risk their money and run the chance of "Yet our object is to reach this very oli
it is safe for a publisher to assume that getting nothing for it. garchy of cultivated listeners who award
most of the people in France likely to be The publishers seem blind to the oppor fame or defeat. We find our creations at
interested in a given book may learn ol tunity of breaking into a new field; the the mercy of a whole army of entre
it." piano manufacturers who have been ap preneurs (as impresario, virtuoso) em
"This situation makes it materially pos proached on this project are indifferent or ployed as a vehicle for the display ot
sible to produce real art and to live by it, frankly skeptical, nor will the present busi artists' powers and, broadly, as a sort ot
instead of producing pseudo-art and get ness conditions allow them to cooperate. entertainment which must attract a dis
ting rich by it. We do not think the gen They have persistently refused to give tracted public already drawn in forty dif
eral artistic appreciation or intellectual time and thought to these proposals, partly ferent directions and who will desert us if
curiosity of this country is below that of from lack of knowledge, and a lack of pub we do not minister to their Immediate
England, although it is below that of lic spirit, and partly from preoccupation pleasure in mere sound-qualities and quan
France . But the people in any country at with details of selling pianos, which ap tities and extravagant elaborations of
any time who are capable of appreciating parently blind them to either the commer power shadings and speed changes which
at once the highest art are always a min cial advantage of transforming the pianola drown out the thought. In other words they
ority. They start the appreciative ball roll from a toy and an entertainer to a serious have made it a theatrical entertainment.
ing and teach the majorities what to like— and indispensable, useful musical instru The result is that music has been trans
sometimes." ment, or the menace of having such a formed from a spiritual, intimate and men
"Let us say that there are 100,000 persons movement start only to leave them (the tal art appealing to the mind and soul, into
in America capable of appreciating the manufacturers) dragging their anchors in a mere apparatus for exciting sensation on
work of art that the 100,000 Englishmen or the rear. a commercial basis.
100,000 Frenchmen are capable of appreci "The intellectual side of music, which
Believing that it is possible to reach this alone
ating — miners, trolley conductors, mil great auditory I have laid down the follow saves it from being a degenerate art
lionaires, dish washers, college students, ing plan of operation. is thrust out of the concert-hall—while the
brakemen, merchants, and what not, for 150-man orchestras pile their resources to
every economic division has its stupid The nucleus of a publishing society for the sky in the hope of being able to create
persons and its Imaginative and apprecia Intrinsic Music has been started. The most "effect," for they know shrewdly enough
tive persons without regard to what we natural thing in the world, in view of the that if effectiveness is lost, all is lost.
Page 38 THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC
Thus, in the words of Carlyle, 'Fashion, Agenda heart or spirit and without regard to his
that brutish monster, has turned all the trionic effect in performance; but as a reflex
nine Muses who by right of birth are An Intrinsic Music Foundation of unconquerable mind.
sacred priestesses of heaven into scanda (4) It will check the awful waste of time
lous bayaderes who dance with supple mo and human energy involved in the uni
tion to enlighten the vile darkness of his A PRACTlCAL SUMMARY OF GENERAL
versal and indiscriminate playing of musi
ennui." MUSlC KNOWLEDGE cal instruments (or attempts thereat) which
"We are compelled to employ this army now fills the world with noise ani shuts out
and the whole apparatus of theatrical en the broad horizons of the art, while bring
tertainment, under pain of not being heard Be it enacted by the amateur and pro ing its products into contempt;
at all, whereas, we hold firmly to the con fessional musicians and music-lovers that
viction that music is a spiritually intellec there is hereby established with head (5) It will bring to life, all over the
tual art, dependent upon sensation only quarters in New York, Paris and London world, the wealth of merely printed and
so far as is necessary to make the inscru a body corporate to be known as the In dead music with which the shelves ot
table thought concrete and intelligible." trinsic Music Foundation whose objects libaries are groaning—'One silent score
The enclosed plan points a really prac shall be: — piling upon another for evermore.";
tical way out. If an association can be (1) To spread among all the people in (6) It will bring to life the fascinating
formed like th9 Arundel Society of Eng practical form the world's best music in body of musical criticism and aesthetic
land, which did so much to popularize cluding general scientific music knowledge, speculation now unintelligible and as good
Italian art, a new face can be put upon sound and scholarly music criticism; to as dead to the mass of musical amateurs
the whole art in a decade. sat up for all the people fixed and authori because of the omission of living musical
When we have set up our standards of tative standards of musical literature com illustrations, but which yet forms a world
music for all the world to share we shall parable to the scientific presentation of of creative interpretation second only in
then discover the true basis of interpreta standard articulate literature by means of value to the original creations;
tion. Works of art exist not for artists to the printed book, which was the founda
tion of modern civilization, (7) It will be one step toward the crea
perform but as revelations of personality. (2) To appoint commissions in each tion of a ministry of fine arts which must
Art does not exist to give us thrills of country to approve selections of the most inevitably be undertaken when the educa
emotions—it has not to do with emotion, characteristic music as representing the tional reconstruction of the world, forced
but with truth; it gives us symbols, hints national genius; upon us by the war, begins; a true ministry
—causeways between one human soul and (3) To appoint a board of editorial work of music art, not a mere technological
another. Neither is its aim "the beautiful." ers who shall (a) determine the fundamen school, but a bureau which will work out
At least it is not the statue or poem or tal nucleus of recorded scientific knowledge a "trial by judgment" of great musical
building or sound as such that are beau and opinion in regard to the art; (b) to compositions in which all people may
tiful—but the revelation of human spirit prepare such texts for printing in the share,—a ministry which will entirely avoid
behind them. form of small hand-books of musical knowl the disability of concentrating power in a
It is the greatness of Beethoven's human edge; this matter to be duplicated for all few hands or localizing the operation of
ity that makes us respond to his passionate piano-players in the form of Audiscript its benefits.
desire to talk to us in the language ot Scores for the improved piano-player called (8) The selection and publication of the
tone. His use of musical sound is purely the Universal Music Reader, and also, in best of the universally accepted art and
spiritual—his symphonies are not enter part, upon phonograph discs. folk music of all nations, calls, inevitably,
tainments but prophecies. It is, therefore, 4. To inaugurate a distribution plan for a revival of attention to the Latin
greatly worth while attempting to set free whereby the music so selected and intelli genius in music, the fountain source in the
this giant force that is in music in order to gent musical information relating thereto, West of the creative principle of musical
establish a more thorough understanding may be placed at the disposal of music- inspiration, overborne, in recent times, by
of universal human personality. lovers throughout the world, especially the weight of Northern propaganda for
Reconciliation the Great Word Over All through the leading countries of Europe brute force, sensation and color-entertain
and America, North and South, according ment.
We really long above all things to know to a scientific and scholarly pedagogical
others—to realize their ideas and to method recently invented with this object (9) It will destroy the popular and trade
awaken sympathetic understanding so as in view herein described. conception of the perforated score as an
to become conscious of the great unity. "artistic" reproduction of hand-playing,
5. To promote the advancement and and demonstrate its real and unchallenge
This great unity is not a dream but a fact spread of musical knowledge by making it able merit as an indispensable device for
in reality. We are nearer to each other possible for the world's present musical making musical ideas audible in a neutral
than we know—nearer than hands or feet. treasures to flow into every home—exactly form and hence universally intelligible.
What we need is to recognize this truth as the printed book has made possible the As such it should confer upon a world in
and make it our own. Music is par excel communication of articulate thought—to
lence, the organ of the great life which lies the agony of reconstruction perhaps the
every man who can read. greatest boon and solace which can be
behind all the sunderings of national and (6) To place before music-lovers in afforded to stricken peoples.
geographical and personal dividing lines. every country a selection from the great
"The spring of life which underlies all our standards of music literature representing (10) The renaissance of the Latin spirit
politics, all social combinations, all prob the highest ideals of the art, as these have in music will tend to revive the spirit of
lems of work and government, is this end Keen determined by the long sittings of pub- spontaneous Joy, gaiety, freedom, natural
less desire of men not to be apart, but to 'ic presentation and private performance ness and simplicity, really native to all
come to terms with one another. The rea peoples but now lying smothered under a
son why we are imprisoned among con and approval and as further evidenced by towering mass of expressive "effect-devices"
trary forces and clashing interests is that the general consent of the testimony of mu and apparatus, introduced into the world
we may learn our way out of them."i We sical criticism and works of aesthetic by the modern laboratory method of Wag
live in a day in which more and more theory the world over. ner cum Strauss and their congeners. The
people are coming to realize this most im The effect of the intelligent distribution laboratory method of effect d lout prix has
portant of all truths and are yearning to of the resources of musical knowledge by destroyed the peace-bringing harmony of
have the barriers between men utterly the means proposed will be not only to the art and has imported into music a
done away. confer upon the world a great boon, it will spirit of gravity, solemnity, pessimism and
"What we have to do is to disentangle also bring about certain other results very tragic gloom; of sorrowing self-pitying
ourselves somehow from our solid ways -iuch to be desired at this time: Werthers, walking through ]a misunder
and dignified prepossessions; to realize (1) It will act as a stiff counter attack to standing world.
that comforts and pleasures and events the natural emphasis on German music— Such moods are the moods of races
pass and are as nothing,—as the frosty due to the efficiency enterprise of the whose gods are old and feeble.
breath that fades upon the air; but that Leipzig music printers—which has held
what matters, what affects us, what remains this country in its grip for fifty years and The world will no longer endure them.
is the fact that we can become aware of thus help to redress the balance in favor To these we shall oppose a powerful em
other spirits, hampered, it may be, and of the Latin genius the perennial source of phasis on the selection of music exhibiting
burdened and confined, to whom we are musical inspiration. the natural ideals of lightness, ease, grace,
both near and dear, if indeed we are not (2) It will take this colossal educational charm, spiritual tenderness, dancing feet
closer and more united than any human force represented by music at least par and fiery joy in life, as exhibited by the
word or thought can define ... to feel that tially out of the control of the teacher and young gods still worshipped by the Medi
underneath our differences there flows a virtuoso, the music publishers and the com terranean peoples.
great tide of love and care, moving silently mercial entrepreneur. These ideals alone are suited to the
among the rocky islets of life, obeying (3) It will indicate and help to form the relief of a world paralyzed in agonistic
some vast and far-off impulses, yet all basis of sound education in musical culture horrors brought upon it by the war.
swaying in a secret unison of emotion.' through the ear and appreciation of the
1 A. C. Benson, "Thy Rod and Thy Staff." spiritual and mental elements in music— The plan of editorial organization of the
2 A. C. Benson, "Thy Rod and Thy Staff." considered as a revelation of the human Intrinsic Music Foundation will avoid the
THE DE-ASSIFICATION OF MUSIC Page 39
"Next I would buy or beg or borrow the score one cannot read! Even Tantalus
music that had filled me with such emotion was spared such an ordeal as that.
and delight, and take it home to my little " And thus, Euterpe absent, her
square piano, and try to finger it all out for enchantment would pass away; her hand
myself. But I had begun too late in life writing was before me, but I had not learned
To sit, longing and helpless, before an how to decipher it, and my weary self would
instrument one cannot play, with a lovely creep back into its old prison—my soul."
Du Maurier.
"What though I learn o'er thee to scan "But as from those, dumb now and strange,
The written music cramped and stiff, A glory wanders o'er the earth—
Tis dark to me as hieroglyph Even so thy tones can call a birth
On those weird bulks Egyptian. From these to shake the soul with change."
—Rossetti
OCT 7 - 1S53«