"MENCKEN NEVER CODDLES"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 384, 1 November 1946, Page 28

"MENCKEN NEVER CODDLES"

The Musical Prejudices of a Lexicographer

From an interview in |

"Musical America" by

FELIX

DEYO

Sibelius disorderly, Shostakovich a tub-thumper, Puccini under -estimated, Schubert the greatest genius, in any art, who ever lived — these are a few opinions of Henry Louis Mencken, of Baltimore, who to-day, at the age of 66, believes that contemporary American composers are on a level with Marschner, Rubinstein, and Raff, and that America is a country where first-rate ‘music is impossible. The Till Eulenspiegel of American letters, essayist, journalist, author of Prejudices, In Defense of Women, the autobiography of his boyhood, Happy Days, and the lexicographer of the American language, a man whose writings exceed 10,000,000 or more of published words, he paradoxically, despite his caustic theological opinions, reflects the ecclesiastical appearance. Turn his collar around and he seems the prototype "FF aoc a_ lunatic,

of the "rev. clergy’ he so frequently ‘|lampoons. Yet he remains a thunderbolt personality, Strangely, in spite of his literary eminence, he never wanted to be an author. In that saga of his boyhood, Happy Days, he revealed himself as a frustrated soul aspiring to express himself through the medium of music. He wanted to compose. That this was not to be has been his lifelong sorrow. * Teachers Ruined Him Asked how this came about he answered: "Because the piano teachers ruined me. They never mentioned harmony, let alone taught its A piece was nevér in a | key, but only in one or more sharps or | flats." | In his newspaper apprenticeship days he became acquainted with the orchestral score of Brahms’ Second Symphony. He picked out the theme of fhe allegrétto on the keyboard and it delighted him. The music critic of the local paper noticed young Mencken’s susceptibility and made it possible for him to attend musical events. In 1903 a group of semiprofessional instrumental musicians was

formed in Baltimore, with Mencken an ardent participant in four-hand piano playing. They assembled in the backroom of a cigar store whose proprietor was in sympathy with the undertaking. Every Saturday at sundown they met | to perform chamber, orchestral and /operatic music, concluding always with a Johann Strauss waltz and a large keg of beer. That was in 1903. To-day, in 1946, the group still meets. Players die or arescalled to the wars; replacements are acquired as occasion necessitates and flute or clarinet parts are transferred to violin or other instruments. Mencken scarcely ever misses attendance. Were he in Bangor, Maine, on a Friday night, he would charter a plane, if necessary, to reach Baltimore for the "meeting. _ The writer inquired about their cur‘Tent programmes. x "Of late we have gone modern. We play Bach and Bach, and then more Bach." Critical Reactions "Would. you care to comment on those composers whose music arouses in you the keenest reactions?" °

"My taste in composers is catholic," was Mr. Mencken’s reply. "I enjoy tne work of all who know their business from Bach to Offenbach." "Your favourite?" "Probably Schubert. I believe that he was the greatest genius, in any art, who ever lived; but a steady diet of Schubert’s music would be cloying. I realise

that, in this way or that, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, were all his superiors. I am also an earnest admirer of’ Haydn." "Might I have your estimate of other composers such as, specifically, Puccini?" "Under -estimated; I believe chiefly by people who blame him for writing something he did not try to write. He was an opera composer pur sang, and a very good one; unquestionably the best that Italy has produced since Verdi." "T chaikovski?" "A lunatic, but also a man of genius. He had more good ideas in one week than most composers have in a year. A great deal of his music, to be sure, was maudlin, but there is a touch of the maudlin in every Russian." "Shostakovich?" "He is not a composer, but simply a tub-thumper for Communism." "Sibelius?"

"His symphonies leave me in doubt. He has a disorderly mind, and first-rate music demands clear thinking." "And Schonberg?" "Of his works that I have heard, I like only Verklarte Nacht; but his books on harmony are intelligent and yaluable." — "Richard Strauss?" "Any single act of Der Rosenkavalier is worth all of the music of the Stravinskys, Ravels, Schonbergs and. Elgars." "Elgar?" "A genuine Englishman, and we must be gentle with him. If the Enigma Variations*had been written in Little Rock, Ark., or Jackson, Miss., it would have been even more remarkable." "Arthur Sullivan?" "Probably the best British composer of modern times. Which is to say, he was an Irishman of Jewish blood ‘and German training. It seems to me that The Mikado was one of the few perfect works of art that the 19th Century produced. It would be impossible to improve it, considering what it pretends’ to achieve."

"Victor Herbert?" "Within his limits a man of the highest talent, but his popularity’ threatens to make him seem trite and banal. If it does, then he will be vastly underrated." : j "Romberg?" "Ver¢ charming tunes. His melodic gift is extraordinary." "Gershwin?" "Nothing save a competent Broadway composer. Jerome Kern was worth a dozen of him." American Composers "And what of contem;orary Amertcan composers,’ the interviewer con-

tinued, "as exemplified by Roy Harris, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Morton Gould, Geofge Antheil, Walter Piston, Leo Ornstein and Henry Cowell. Are they fulfilling the heritage of the European past?" "No! They are, at ‘best, on a level with Marschner, Rubinstein and Raff.’ When one of them shows signs of coming up to Dvorak it will be time to drape the Statue of Liberty in Christmas tree tinsel. They are almost as bad as the Russians now being unloaded upon American suckers. These American composers are honest and laborious men, but they live in a country where firstrate music is quite impossible, as common decency is impossible. .The most one can say of them is that they do their level damnedest, and angels could do no more." "What do you think of juke box arrangements of accepted classics? Are such transcriptions a valuable contribution to our national musical education?" The answer was contemptuous. (continued on page 30)

| MENCKEN AND MUSIC

(continued from page 28) | "That instrument provides noise for yahoos. I would rather listen to the Salvation Army." "Well, Mr. Mencken, the public is continuously bombarded with the socalled ‘classical’ music via radio and recordings. Is it your opinion that, through over-saturation, the country will tend to become unmusical rather than musical?" "The country is already unmusical, and could scarcely become more so. The vast majority of its morons never listen to good music. I am reminded of Philip Hale’s ‘Exit in Case of Brahms.’ Whenever anything beyond La Paloma begins, 95 per cent. of all dials are switched." The question was then put whether Mr. Mencken advocated that music, like reading, writing and arithmetic, should be a compulsory educational subject. "No," was his rejoinder. "I think it is not only useless but also brutal to inflict music upon children who have no natural taste for it. There is no reason why they should be ashamed of their indifference or try to disguise it by false pretences. It is folly to waste money trying to educate the uneducable. Either a given individual is born with a taste for music, or he is not. If he is not, then ramming it into him can only annoy him. I do not subscribe to the notion that music is ennobling. If that were true, then all of the great composers would have been men of high dignity, whereas everyone knows that. some of them were not. I have known musicians in my time, and good ones, who were hardly to be distinguished from Methodist evangelists, movie actors, or racetrack touts. Music is not a device for improving the mind or saving the soul; it is a device for ravishing the ear. Some of the best music ever written is anti-moral, antiintellectual and even anti-social-for example, the second act of Tristan and Johann Strauss’ Mein Schatz waltz. James Huneker once argued that no virgin could ever sing Isolde. By the same token, no virgin can dance to Mein: Schatz without wondering if she hasn’t been badly advised. I am myself almost anesthetic to painting, though I enjoy good drawing. It is probably because I have a defective colour sense. I care not a damn who knows it. My taste for poetry is also limited. I get pleasure out of the very best-for example, Shakespeare’s, but that of the fifth-rate poets now flourishing leaves me cold, because I believe that most of these poets are frauds. The fact is proved by their effort to eke out their puerile inspirations with metaphysical, economic and political flubdub. Poetry can never be criticism of life. It is essentially and inevit-

ably an escape from life. This is especially true of the magnificent’ poetry of the Bible." On the subjects of polytonality, atonality, tonality, quarter, eighth and sixteenth tone scales and tone clusters, Mr. Mencken had the following to say: . Acoustic Experiments "All interesting experiments for the acoustical laboratory, but I am not aware that they have yet yielded any music fit for the concert hall. Polytonality, of course, is not new. You will find it in Bach. I once arranged four German folksongs in perfect polyphony-each in a different key. Such exercises are for the days when musicians tire of their trade, and turn to spoofing it." "How, then, should a composer compose sensibly?" "A good composer, when he is in a serious mood, chooses his key, invents his subjects, develops them as best he can, recapitulates them, writes a coda, and then shuts up." Venturing a somewhat delicate line of inquiry, the writer sought his opinion on women as composers. On Women Composers "I have no theory to offer as to the failure of women as musical composers," he replied thoughtfully. "So far as I know they have never done anything in creative music worthy of the second class. Even in the field of jazz, women have done very little worth hearing." At this point it was asked if Mr. Mencken, even now, felt it was still too late for him to make his debut as composer. "Yes," he responded. "If I had any real talent for music I’d have undertaken it seriously in my youth. I have a taste for it, but not capacity, either as composer or executant. I am in the position of the sad idiots who itch for literary fame, but have nothing to say. The country swarms with these literary folk. I can’t recall a day for 30 years that I have not received at least one letter from them begging for light and leading." "But do such aspirants not need leading?" "No. A genuine artist needs no light and leading-he lights his own way and leads himself." A quarter of a century ago James Huneker opined, "Mencken never coddles." The words still hold good! Mencken never coddles.