PROPHETS without HONOUR

Radio Record, 17 June 1938, Page 12

PROPHETS without HONOUR

Modern Composers Who Will Stand Side by Side With the Old Masters

Special to the Record

by

SCHERZO

OT long ago in the "Music of the Week" page, I mentioned in a critical paragraph that there were composers living to-day who would, in all probability, be remembered by posterity with such masters as Beethoven and Bach. It was only to be expected that my statement touched a delicate spot in the minds of lovers of the old masters. In writing this article I must trespass’ for a short time on the ground of musical technicalities, and I pray that not-so-technical readers will have patience with me. I do not intend bringing into the discussion many names of individual composers, as it is more on the grounds of comparative periods in the lives of prominent musicians that I make my claim for the equality of the moderns. Evolution of Music N its early stages music was nothing less than the ’ formation of a language, and even a few centuries age the beauty of the language far surpassed the beauty of music. As one critic states: "Isaiah to-day is of the highest and noblest, but music of 3000 years ago would mean nothing to our ears." As the years rolled by music grew from its simple unison form to four- (and more) part harmony. Then the coming of Bach revolutionised the art by proving that equal temperament was an essential as far as the progress of music was concerned. The Bachs and Handel raised the standard of music to a stage never before attained, and, with the coming of Beethoven, the apparent ideal had been reached. Hasty opinions of Bach were as hastily abandoned. Opinions varied even regarding Beethoven. TINHE age of these earlier composers was not as complex as the present age, although people were just as quick te condemn the earlier composers in their time as some of us are quick to decry the works of the present generation of musicians, The more knowledge acquired by man coucerning auy ert, the more ability is required to apply the additional knowledge to his work-and a greater ability still is necessary for the spectator to conceive and appreciate the new form. So it is with music, and to more fully explain my ease I claim privilege by bringing in Debussy as a "modern," Harmonie Complexity N the time of Bach, Beethoven, and Schubert there was in vogue a simpler form of harmonic coustruction. The use of overtones as constituted of chords was almost negligible. Science has tanght us that most musical sounds are complex sounds, that they are made up of certain other sounds which add to the quality of the fundamental.

AS an example let us take a note C:, This note is actually constructed by a series of other notes (overtones), which all add to making the characteristic quality of the note C:. These notes are as follows: Ci (fundamental), C (first overtone), G (second overtone), C! (third overtone), E' (fourth overtone), G' (fifth overtone), and so on-each overtone carrying with it different degrees of loudness. This theory can easily be tested on the piano by holding down a note and sharply striking another note an octave below the note held. The held note will then be heard to sound. New School Established | HIS characteristic was not employed in the music of the past, but with the coming of Debussy a new harmony school became established. Composers began to realise that they could break away from the old school: of the simple harmonic form and exploit a new field-a field of greater harmonic colouring. New chords were introduced and what had been understood in the past as disonance became consonance to the modern ear. As a well-known case in point the Seriabin chord of fourths is made up entirely of overtones, and with an almost inexhaustible supply of overtones available, new sounds became apparent to the composers and new sounds requiring greater ingenuity on the part of the writer to express. And these complex chords have now become a _ regular feature of present-day composition. These new sounds give more colour to music. With the advent of new colouring, new forms have nrisen. With such a complexity, is it not reasonable to. expect that the present-day composer must need greater, ability than those of the past in expressing the new form? Amazingly High Standard HE set forms of the earlier composers became, after a while. 2 mathematical equation-to-day the contrapuntal ayt has attained an amazingly high standard, and this fact, combined with the new harmonies, has raised the standard of musieal composition to a far higher place thau it has ever been before. To-day we find the art containing more inherent vitality than ever before, and as the history of music has heen a history of technical conquest there must be af least some progression in the art. There will be, no doubt, a truer perspective later on than now, and when I think of how the critics and general public condemned Schubert, Verdi, Wagner, Rossini, Liszt (to name a few) in their time, why should we not, be more considerate to our present-day writers? , To name a few prominent composers of the day-and even some of these have not always (Continued on p. 24.) ~

Prophets Without Honour

(Continued from page 12.) employed the new harmonic systemwe haye, Sibelius, Schonberg, Kilpinen Richard Strauss, Vaughan Williams. Delius, Elgar, Prokofieff, and the amazing youthful composer William Waiton. Most of these are still living. In the works of these men alone We could find greater contrapuntal writing and greater harmonic technique than in that of most composers of the past. And there are many more who hare not only made their names as composers but also ag executants. Was it not nearly always the personality surrounding the technicians of the past that helped to make them what they were? Admittedly they musi have been splendid performers, but this fact combined with their striking personalities helped considerably to place: them on a higher plane than they would have been normally. We have with us Toscanini, Paderew ski (a striking personality), Egon Petri and Menuhin (in addition to hundreds of others too well known to enumerate) who must compare more than fayourably with many artists of the past. ; Still there are some people who still claim that things now could never be as good as they were before-although { admit that present-dlay art travels from the province of historian into the region of speculative eriticism. I only hope, in conclusion, that those who are hasty to condemn the modern school will hesitate and consider the fact that the great composers of the past were also subject to the same con-(demnation-at least some time during their lives---as those who are now living.