MUSIC THAT PEOPLE LIKE.

Evening Star, Issue 6759, 26 November 1884, Page 3

MUSIC THAT PEOPLE LIKE.

: Recollecting the marked want of success which attended the efforts of Wilbelmjto captivate the Australian public with his farfamed violin, it is, says an Australian contemporary, singular at first sight -that Eemenyi should have achieved’ a signal triumph at his'first appearance. The Melbourne public are rushing in crowds to bear him, and his praises are on everyone’s lips. It is,not said that he isja. greater artist tJwh jus prraecesspr; but the reason of his success appears to lie id the fdct that he applies his wocderful powers of execution to popular music, carefully avoiding the severely classic compositions to which Wilhelmj confined himself. Remenyi, has judioippsly taken the trouble to explain his views->on the subject in the Melbourne daily papers, In which-he—has emphatically—declaredhis opinion that the best of all music is to be found in thh much- despised popular airs with which everyone is familiar —the strains that you can hear whistled in. the street, reminding you ot yorlt owaßWOdt, home, the lass you,left behind you, or the last rose of summer you saw blooming alone. Fheresnlt is that Remenyi has-touched a chord that vibrates in every bosom, and are sponsively echoes back : to ‘his ears 'in' the jingle of unlimited coin. And well he deserves bis success.The pnblio will sooner or later escape from the thraldom of classical music, just as it did in France from the tyranny of the classical drama when Victor Hugo introduced the romantic—in other words popnlar—drama in its place. Classical music is for the most part an unknown language to every one but a musical expert; it may bean intellectual gratification to some, but it can never be a source of infinite and enduring pleasure to the many.