OF MUSIC PAST AND PRESENT.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20274, 27 June 1931, Page 15

OF MUSIC PAST AND PRESENT.

(specially written roa thb tress.) [By Sxrad.] Mrs Philip Suowden, the wife of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has lately gained publicity-by her prominent championship of English music. At a public dinner recently she made a speech as follows: "I am now very busy in trying to free English musical people from that sort of inferiority complex which seems to possess them, the feeling that seems to be born in many of them, that because they are English they are cursed since the foundation of the world and will nover be able to accomplish anything in music." Recalling her girlhood as an amateur of music she continued: "I cherish as one of my boastful memories that I was, at 18 years of age, competent to accompany my church choir in its performance of 'The ■ Messiah' without the music. At 19 politics got me and, although it has held me ever since, I do occasionally escape into more delightful realms." And if she does, she could adduce much stronger reasons for advocating English musie than her tenacious memory.

It is asserted that in tho many changes of styles of his compositions Stravinski models often his own on tho lines of past ages. It is a subject too big and far-reaching to handle in thi& column of modest dimensions. But in Handel's name often crops up and with it illustrative comments that justify reprinting. "In the lirst .place, the music of Handel ia dramatic not religious in the commonly accepted sense of the term. Handel was made an oratorio composer by the Bishop of London, in the course of a controversy, when ho heard of the contemplated setting of 'Esther' to musie as a drama." "Not choice but necessity drovo Handel from the theatre." As to Handel's failure as dramatic composer of the 18tli Century there / were many contributory causes. But to these Itoinain Holland adds with enlightened emphasis: "He who is satisfied with listening to this music, without perceiving what it expresses, who judges this art as a perfectly formal art; without feeling the expressive and suggestive power, sometimes equalling hallucination, will never understand it. It 'is music which paints emotions, souls, and situations."

"There lias been established that tradition which makes Handel a church musician after tho style of Louis XIV., all decoration—pompous columns, noble and cold statues." "All ways," writes the French author, "ate good to him, without besieging any particular. type. lie is the kind who drink in the life universal Assimilating it to themselves, His genius adapits itself tf> a thousand images of passing events, to the nation, to the time it lives, even to the fashions of tho day." These eulogistic comments may persuade us that we altogether misapprehend and underrate one of the greatest masters in music Avho ever graced our earth. _Jt may, however, be pleaded that the restrictions imposed by the primitive conditions under which tho orchestra functioned in those days, a comparison of effect, places Handel's scores at a great disadvantage. At this period of productive poverty it may well happen that to some of Handel's works up-to-date instrumentation will be supplied, and at least a partial recovery in our concert rooms may be promoted. That tho day of revivals is approaching may be anticipated from a scene lately occurring in Berlin. After a dull symphony by a local roan, Baches arrangement for four pianos of a Vivaldi Concertp for the Violin, pandemonium reigned in the concert hall for more than ten minutes, with cries, " Bach for eVer." The conductor at last gave way for the concerto to be repeated. How well we/ on English soil, compare with tho boisterous tactics of the Berlin concert patrons 1 At the same time, it is a strong corrective thatmakes for good music. The following exchange of civilities between two noted London musical critics will no doubt be relished:— Mr \V. J. Turner is a poet, who, for some reason or other insists on writing about' music.—Erneßt Newman. Mr Ernest Newman is a humorist who for some reason or other insists on writing , about music.—Mr W; Turner. (May it bo remembered that Mr Newman is London's most prominent musical critic.)

. A rather amusing account of Tschaikowsky'B visit to America, exactly 40 years ago, is given in an extract from his diary in tho "New York Herald Tribune.'' However he could be persuaded to travel across.the Atlantic in order to 1 be feted, is a riddle, for he was neither of a sociable nor of an enquiring disposition. Rather he was an artist in misery, as well as in music. Of his matrimonial career we know that he engaged himself to a young woman. For seme reason the engagement was broken off altogether for a while, then he returned, marrying her and leaving her after a few days of domestic bliss, for ever and for aye, Terribly nervous and homesick on the voyage, he dosed himself ,with brandy and coffee, hourly expecting annihilation. When at last he arrived at his New York hotel he "shed many tears." No wonder he wrote a very "pathetic" symphony. To escape tho many receptions, the, concerts of his own composition, and worst of all, the lionesses of New York must havo become a tremendous problem, an agony to suffer where he, could not escape. What alone pleased him was that "his Concerto went magnificently." Be acknowledged feeling a short speH of happiness, when on his return after a.six weeks' spell, he arrived at Hamburg. I believe he never again travelled abroad. One' of the latest sensations in the operatic world is the production of a cantata entitled "Lindbergh's night." The authors of Wit are young and little Germans, the music is prevailingly simple, incidentally meant to describe the flight of an aeroplane, but is primarily a celebration of the indomitable courage, perseverance, and will-power of the great aviator. "To tell the tale of' the heroic deed in terms intelligible to school children or students of preparatory schools. In the opening scene, sung by the tenor, who is Lindbergh, announces himself, 'There is your aeroplane! Get in! Get in! They are waiting for you. Fame is waiting for you! Get in!' There is jazz and a gramophone and every convenience, including a luxuriously prosy style in the words. But, in any case, the creation of cantatas on lines of adventure has yet to gain experience, and- in course of time quite as much ingenuity on the part of the writer and descriptive effect by the coinposer. Gradually newspapers may convey the day's news by musical tunes as now they do by pictures.

Chaliapin, who sued the director of the Soviet Trade Delegation in Paris, and a Parisian publishing -firm for having brought out a translation of a part of his autobiography without his consent, won his case, and < obtained damages to the extent of 10,000 francs

with confiscation of the books. Members of the Soviet had information that Chaliapin left a manuscript copy with a friend, but the Soviet managed to get hold of it and had it published in Paris without consulting the author or paying for the riahts. Smart people, the Soviets!