A SURVEY OF MODERN MUSIC

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22419, 4 June 1938, Page 18

A SURVEY OF MODERN MUSIC

* NO BARREN CENTURY V m Music Since 1900, By Nicolas Slonimsky. J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd. 592 pp. (21/- net.) (Reviewed by F. J. PAGE, fctus.Bac.l At first sight this is an odd compendium. The title promises an historical survey on the usual lines, yet on opening it one finds an almost day by day record, set out in the style of a news reel, of some of the major and minor events in the music of this century. Three successive entries read as follows: 2 April 1909 Mayor Hibbard, of Boston, puts a ban on the production of Strauss Salome, giving as a reason a telephone call from a woman acquaintance who had seen the opera in New York and thought it was not proper for Boston consumption. 8 April 1909 Ivan Dzerj insky, Soviet composer of simple melodious music, accessible to the masses, author of the opera, “Quiet Flows the Don,” to Sholohov’s epic of the Cossack land, is born at Tambov. 1 May 1909 A month after his thirty-sixth birthday, Serge Rachmaninov conducts in Moscow the first performance of his “Island of the Dead,” symphonic poem for full orchestra, inspired by Boecklin’s famous painting, and couched in 5/8 meter, expressive of the tranquil motion of mortuary waves. Minor events, these; but the major ones include details of the first performances of “Pelleas et Melisande,” ”La Mer,” “Salome,” “Elektra,” “Der Rosenkavalier,” “La Vida Breve,” “Petrouchka,” “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle,” “Sacre du Printemps,” “Les Noces,” “Pierrot Lunaire,” “Five Orchestral Pieces,” “Wozzeck,” “Lyric Suite,” “Opus Clavicem Balisticum,” “Brigg Fair,” “Sir John in Love,” “Concerto Accademico,” “The 4th Symphony.” It is interesting in 1938 to read the first press reviews of these landmarks, a good deal of them indignant, abusive, bewildered, with almost a touch of regret for those past, wild days when the police had to be called in after the performance of a modern work. Even the much-tried listener will admit that these 37 years have not been dull. The survey occupies a good twothirds of the book. Then follows a biographical dictionary of twentieth century musicians, up to date with American and Continental names but not so complete as it might be with English ones; and this shows how unreliable the usual authorities can be on such matters of fact as birth and death dates, the exact dates of first performances, and so on. Mr Slonimsky has collected surprisingly long lists of corrections to Hull’s “Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians,” to Grove’s “Dictionary,” to Riemann’s “Musik-Lexikon,” and to -Moser’s “Musik-Lexikon.” Then follows a number of documents, manifestoes of musical organisations, and letters that throw some light on the queerer developments of the period. To students, at least, this book, in spite of its fairly heavy price, will be indispensable.