THOUGHTS ABOUT MUSIC

Evening Star, Issue 25470, 28 April 1945, Page 10

THOUGHTS ABOUT MUSIC

[By LJ).A.] ;The well-known Russian pianist, Alfred Mirovitch, has written in an . overseas magazine a most interesting article dealing with the relationsnip of musical art to a human litfe and experience. He asks: ''ls the core and substance of creative and recreative art to be found in life itself; or is art a thing apart from life, tlie moulding of beautiful forms in sounds, colour, words?" and he answers Lis questibns as follows: — If art, and music in particular, is only a sublime ' expression of our aesthetic consciousness, a craft, the " science of the beautiful," then it seems that the necessary years of training in technical skill and in craftsmanship under masterly guidance, followed by a few years of mellowing experience, should make a great artist of every talented composer or nianist. If on tlie other hand, great music, and the performance of a great artist, must be an expression olf profound human experience—a vibrant, intense reflection of life itself—if it is true that the artist " must have .vomething to say," then supreme craftsmanship and stunning technical mastery are not enough. We must behold the man above the musician—living in liis music, speaking through nis music. We must sense his power, his abundance of spirit, the warmth and glow of his inner jife. His performance must be an " experience " to his audience, not music alone. * * * * There is a desire for an interest in good music that is truly unprecedented, and there is an abundance of genuine talent among our children and young people. Talent that cannot 1)6 traced to a long line olf musical ancestors or generations of refined and ajsthetie living, talent that springs from the very soil, from the strength and unspoken longing of a young humanity. Thousands devote their lives to serious music study, and every year young artists cross the exciting and often fatal borderline from studio to platform. These young people, students, teachers, young artists, need and deserve more than excellent professional training and " vocational portfinities." They need spiritual guidance. They must learn how to know themselves, develop self-confidence, to be shown the way towards bold and full self-expression through their music. : « * * * The mechanisation of our daily living, the enthroning of the intellect as sole arbiter and motive power of our endeavours, the fear and cynical distrust of our emotions, and finally the fascination and glitter of an unprecedented virtuosity are real dangers, that, confront those who stand ready to mould the nation's music life of to-morrow. We must guard our creative youth, lest the disbelief in spiritual values, cynicism, and superficiality that is sweeping the world in the wake of this terrible cataclysm, turn them away from that which eternally has been the source of man's capacity to create a symphony, a drama, a sonata, a painting out of the chaos of experience. We must guide them towards a concept of the true nature of art. its relation to life—and its place in their lives. For thought is the root of action. It is the way wo feel and think about our work that (shapes our performance.

All true art deals in eternal essences and speaks intuitively of. ultimate realities. It is, therefore, a dangerous and fatal fallacy to separate art from life. For art has this in common with religion, that the meaning of it lies in that inner 'purification and exaltation which ennobles life and raises men to higher thoughts and actions. The ultimate test of great music has always been its power to move and elevate, to stir us deeply. Bach, the supreme craftsman and master builder, is at his greatest height in works inspired by his deeply emotional faith, or by his intense humanity. Such works as the ' Chromatic Fantasy.' the Prelude in E Flat Minor from Vol. 1 of the Welltempered Clavichord, the Organ Fantasy in G Minor, the ' Chaconne ' for Violin are deeply " romantic," profoundly emotional. The upsurge of spirit, the irrepressible will to live, the jubilant assertion of strength that is in a great Bach Fugue or the Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, the simplicity and purity of Mozart's music—these are the true life-giving constructive forces of our art. Likewise, it is the artist who sweeps us off our feet, who stirs in us more than appreciation, admiration, or ajsthetic delight—it is that artist who always has been beloved and acclaimed most.

The philosophy and poetry of ancient China and Persia, the matchless art of old Greece, the folk song of the. Russians, the immortal works of a Shakespeare, a Rembrandt, a Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Moussorgsky, are more than the supreme achievement of mankind in their search for beauty and perfection. They bear witness to the untold suffering of the human race and to man's capacityfor happiness and pure joy of living. They are a testimony of the power of the human spirit of a man's unfaltering struggle for freedom and self-expres-sion/and his unceasing quest for truth and the ultimate meaning of life. The task of the artist, the interpreter, is to be the link between the genius of the master and the people. He must recreate, relive, as it were, the emotional and spiritual experience of the master. Only a rich inner life, dynamic and intense in its response and emotional directness —and the driving power of constant search and inquirywill enable the man and the artist to do so. Thus the true measure of talent is the capacity for growth and unfoldin"- within the man, while the character of talent is evolved by the nature and direction of his impulses, desires, and aspirations.