DRAMA AND MUSIC.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14393, 7 January 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

DRAMA AND MUSIC.

MUSIC AND THE PUBLIC. Music is, according t<> 'the ''Times" (writing before Mr Thomas Beechanrs angry comparison between the attractions exercised bv operu, and a contorting elephant), not only the most popular, but the one popular art of our time: "The'ro is a publio for the great masterpieces of music which does not exist for the grent masterpieces of literature, . or painting, or sculpture. Crouds listen w:th delight .to the music of 'Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven who would, at best, only pay a formal respect to the works of Milton and even Shakespeare, or to the pictures cf Titian and Rembrandt, or to the sculp, tu're' of Michelangelo. Further, these crowds are interested in the most modern music as they are not interested in the most modern literature and ' art. Composers like Richard Strauss and Debussy are familiar to a public that has probably scarcely heard the names .of their ' ch*of con*?mporarics rfmoiig' writers and painters. The eminent composer nowadays goes everywhere and in every country is welcomed by applauding multitudes. The eminent writer and the eminent pointer usually live sequestered- lives, and it is considered a mark of culture even to mention tltem in conversation. Sometimes- Tin artist, like Whistler or M. Rodin, becomes.the fashion in his old age or afcer h : s death-; hut there is no comparison between their limited and rather artificial vogue and tho j popularity of such a v composer as 1 Wagner. The difference is not merely one of effort; it is a difference of understanding. The public understand music as they do not understand tthe ! other arts; and.that is the reason why 1 they enjoy music without tb-9 effort which nowadays is needed for the enjoyment of literature and painting. . . "Wo wonder at the intelligence of Athenian audiences with whom the plays of JEschylns, and Sophocles, and Euripides were popular. We hare just as large audiences .nowadays for the music of the great composers; and it takes just as much intelligence to enjoy them. The same intelligence is not exercised upon the other arts only because it is impeded by the prevalence, of wrong ideas about them, and also by tl\e wrong practice of them as a result of those ideas. It is natural to human* beings to enjoy the arts; and they thrive most when they are popular, Our present misunderstanding of them is unnatural, and the growing love of music gives us some grounds for hoping that this misunderstanding will pass away." NOTES. " This New York is a terrible place," writes Mephisto in "Musical America." " One is so accustomed to the whanging and banging of subways, elevateds, and i other vicious modern improvements j that one comes to feel there is something wrong with everything, even \ music, if it has not'some of tho same spirit in it. Why, hero in New York •» one even gets, wi'ly-nilly, to admiring the works of Mahler nn<l Strauss. To realize the folly of this ft i? only necessary to "go a little way hack in ' the country and sit for an hour or t*«vo - contemplating a This gives ] the" best possible critical upon t-Tie Work of such One • man wno oiiijht to be engaged in ; musical criticism and isn't, is Mr Dooley*. You will remember what he i sajd after hearing a ton© poem of Richard Strauss: 'I came oti-t av th* hall into the oomparative quiet of the illevated railway/" RESPECT THE ORGANIST. "After- a study of music covering twenty years % (states a New York writer), and including both piano and organ, 1 have- reached the conclusion that any man who has "mastered 'all the intricacies of the modern organ 6uffij ciently to give an artistic performance, ; : deserves a monument in the Hall of ; I Fame. Piano technique, surely, is not j a thing to be acquired over niglit, but it pales into insignificance against the problem of the technical mastery of the organ. The pianist must train only two hands and incidentally his feet in tho management of the pedals. Now the pedals-.on the piano always work- in consonance and conformity with the hands, the motion itself being comparatively simple, whereas on the organ the pedal work, aside from being complicated in itself, is always independent of the manual work: in some of our mqdern works for the organ, the feet are assigned' two independent melodies, one for each foot. The organist therefore is confronted with the problem of correlating two hands and two feet each act : ng inde- • pendently of the other, similar to tho players of an orchestra, besides which | he must control Iris dynamic shading as well as colouring by movements j which have no connection, as at the ! piano, with the production of the tone ! —a truly gigantic, problem. Leaving [ out of consideration the purely artistic side of organ playing, which requires a training and an insight second only to that of a- first class orchestral conductor, the man who masters the technical part of this problem is entitled to a certain amount of credit. A GREAT PLAY. Henry Arthur James's "The Liars'* has been revived with great success-at the Criterion Theatre in London by the ever green Sir Charles Wvndham and his company. Mr. Walkley warmly praises play and performance in the London ''Times." Speaking of tho third act he says: "You are presented with an unmistakable fragment of human nature, and that in a fashion that is highly diverting without any loss of veracity. It is a case of cooperative lying. The women take to •their fibs like ducks to the water. A woman, says Anatole France, may be reckoned truthful who only tells necessary lies. All these women are telling lies necessary to save a wife from the wrath of a jealous brute of a husband. Evidently they enjoy it, enjoy the sheer virtuosity of the thing, quite apart from its practical purpose. In droll contrast is the clumsiness of tho men, their qualms of conscience, their hopeless inferiority to the women. Further, the interest of the scene is cumulative; the company of the liars is constantly receiving fresh recruits. It« begins with wife, sister, and brother-in-law. Then is added tho family friend. After him comes a girl cousin, Finally the cousin's husband is dragged in, protesting but helpless. Throughout the scene the characteristics of the several individuals -are preserved, but nil contribute to the general effect. This really gives the scene a Vla."sicar air. You think of some of the collective effects ill old-century comedy— Sheridan's "scandalous college or the party in 4 Les Femmes Savantc.*.. 1 And on top of it nil comes the of the lover —blundering she network of intrigue like Don Ce&ar in tho fourth act of -Rw.v Bins'—and the sudden, dramatic upsettinir of the whole plot by the rcvelpiion of the simple truth. Yes. this is Mr Jones at his very bwaj ; and, what is more, English its type and £0024 at tkg TSff. tocsjjJ.