MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 431, 13 February 1909, Page 9

MUSIC.

(By Treble Clef.). Paderewsk! on Debussy. . ■ No musician can ever hope far- escape criticism at the hands of another. Debussy, tho French composer, has received attention of the'kind from Paderewski, whose remarks formthe subject of' a "conversation" in the "Century Magazine.'V . One gathers that tho Polish pianist is ; not in sympathy with tho' modern.French movement,. Its'Tepresentatiyesj :in his opinion, are -"witty and ibril,liant," but are not writing music. .They are "erratic, bizarre, and wayward/ striving only after, originality, without, true mastery. They are, many of them, not accomplished musicians, but .amateurs." ,'All this sounds" very severe and,a little sweeping. .Then,, as to Debussy. According to, Paderewski, he shows great skill in harmony and orchestration, ..but he makes music a handmaid .. to description, philosophy; realism. "In 'L'Apresmidi d'un Faune': he "orchestrates ..pedal, effects'; 'Pelleas'. is without rhythmic vigour, or manly accent. Debussy makes his orchestra reproduce the fused sonorities which the use of .the damper pedal and of-sympathetic vibration gives to the piano." In connection with other matters, one lenrnsthat the distinguished .Pole regards. "Die.Miestersinger" as "the supreme .effort of the. human mind," considers that'Brahrris at his best has .deep and. true emotion/that Strauss has remarkable talent, but "few really musical ideas," and "develops these by an intellectual rather ithan by an emotional process," and • that; Max Beger may do great things, his fugues being "the best since Bach." ;' • • . '.

A Promising Australian .Vocalist. > ■ '■. Mr. Southwell presided at a meeting at the Town Hall,,Sydney,.on February 5, to: consider, the best, way of- assisting Miss Ella Caspers, a: contralto of talent, -to,: profit scholarships recently won by ..her, which/involve residence for a time in London.; Mr.. Southwell explained that' Miss Caspers had been originally: trained at a Goulburh .convent, and\ had /made her first appearance- at the Sydney- Town -Hall ,in August, 1907.. After her studies under Mme. ■Christian;at the Garcia School: of Music, she attractedthe'attention the examiners of the Associated; Board in-such , a remarkable degree thai they awarded her a scholarship at the' Royal Academy of Music; ; , London, tenable for two years; In: order to availher-' self of this generous offer, . Miss ■'-' Caspers' would have to sail'not later than the middle of next April/With the object "of securing the necessary funds, it.was.at first.proposed' to organise a concert, .but .wiser- counsels prevailed,-..: arid .it was decidedVthat publicsubscriptions from the smallestto large suins would achieve the end in view more; surely, ■ and/would give the future of the young singer a wider interest with her friends on thiVside Hβ might add that he had received the following t encouraging telegram fromVMr.. Lee : Hunt, lion, secretary of the Goulburn Lie'dertafel:—"Goulburn public strongly in favour of Ella Casper's meeting; . Something .certain ■ to be arranged locally. "Wish you success."

The Romantio lii Music. ;",; ;■.■;■ '•>[' ...The recent centenary of Mendelssohn was the occasion of a review, in. "The Daily Tolegraph.". recently, of the composer's' share ;.m-.;the, ; . rise .of- the: romantic, school 'of music. Pew. things in musical history are' more interesting than, the change of ideas which took place between ■'1820.: and 1840. This change, known as .the romantic 'more-' ;ment, began in literature; with; Goethe. 'aiid Schiller, .at Germany, and. involved the realisation of the saying, of the ancient philosopher that he would consider nothing.to be foreign, to hirivtbat concerned human-life.. 'Hezel,-who was lecturing in Berlin N from. 1818 to .1831,. advocated this' as the scope of all art—to. represent fully the innermost mpvings; of bur common human nature. \ ' ■;■:;■ ;-'.. '-.. ",■'■■•/■' ■..•-■-.■■;: .'- "■" (

. Classical precept had said much'about what" it called 'form," that is, the -border and general method of treatment which : -musical subjects should undergo in developing a : general conception or a motive into a finished •; But there had always been a deeper feeling behind, namely; that the musical ideas themselves should have: in. them elements of symmetry, the.pleasing, the satisfactory, and, above all, a certain -challenge of creative'possibilities, which it was the composer s art to discover arid /satisfy. It was the same spirit as that .which permeated the sculpture of Greece. All the(gods"and'goddesses. were represented in attitudes of repose, and.in the,bloom;of an eternal youth. Conflicts, strifes, collisions, were forbidden at the very timewhen the accepted histories of these dwellers upon Olympus were full of strife' and contest.-.So: all music, composed in classic form, whenever it seemed to have in it anything of-these excessive'or .'transitory states of .-the .soul, was voted by; the critics to be' outsido-the proper range of art. - : ... .;';-. ..-..Ail' important element "in the 'wide spread or the Romantic school were certain' improveS* 3 l n - * ne 'P iano made between 1815 and »■ ?',r IO A gare tne -instrument,new'powers: And Mendelssohn, who had already boldly set himself upon-th<y new standpoint in his overture to "The.Midsummer Night's Dream," led .the : way openly, in'coimection with- the piano, with his "Songs' without Words." J-liese were so complete in themselves that' I* 6 ? (ll .d not require "words";to make them intelligible. This was no more than what other composers claimed; but it did not strike the world m the same way until Mendelssohn brought it out; by his fortunate and significant title. .' .; . :'-.■.--.;.-.-■■.:'■■.-• . ■ : -.-■,... ;