Songs and Their Words Author(s): C. Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 63, No. 953 (Jul. 1, 1922), pp. 495-496 Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/908859 . Accessed: 24/01/2015 07:38 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Musical Times Publications Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Musical Times. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Sat, 24 Jan 2015 07:38:37 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE MUSICAL TIMES-JULY x 1922 495 (Continuedfrom fage 490.) MONTEVERDE'S TWO STYLES Carl writersof dramaticmusic such as Peter Nielsen, In the same issue, A. Tessier devotes a long and Heise, Hakon In Finland, AugustEnna, Borresen. interestingessay to Monteverde's views on his the list of contemporarycomposers includes, besides in the order of the Jiirnefeltand Palmgren,Erki Melartinand Leevi art,to his innovations madrigal Madetoja(whose Symphony in E flatmajor is worthy and in that of monody. He examines the most ofnotice). typicalpassages of Monteverde'svarious works,and especially of The Crowning of Popffra, praising VIENNESE COMPOSERS themwith judicious enthusiasm. Musica d' Oggi (February-March)contains a useful ANTON REICHA article Richard on Viennese encyclopaodic by Specht Daniel Lazarus in thesame numberemphasises the composers of to-day. Among the lesser-known names mentionedin it are those of Franz originalityof outlookwhich characterisesReicha's Schmidt, Haute Musicale Karl Karl Cours de Conmposition (published Weigl, Prohaska, Josef Rosenstock, and shows how an influence it WilhelmGrosz, Felix Hans I824-26), great P6tyrek,Georg Szell, Gal, have exercisedon Berlioz, who was Reicha's Hugo Kander, Egon Lustgarten,Walter Klein, and may Robert Konta. pupil forcounterpoint and fugue. CALVOCORESSI In the Musikbldtterdes Anbruck(April) R. St. M.-D. Hoffmannspeaks highly of Wilhelm Grosz, and gives a list of his works. SONGS AND THEIR WORDS OTTORINO RESPIGHI To listento Miss Lucia Young's concert(Wigmore In Il Pianoforte(May) Ettore Desden definesin Hall, June 12), at which her English versions for convincing terms Respighi's individualityas a songs of Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms were composer, and gives a complete catalogue of his used, was to ponder again on the mysterious output. relations between the verbal and the musical bearingsof a song. Oughtwords to weighat all with SMALL INTERVALS the trulymusical listener? No, we have been told; thewords and the of the versehave had their In Le Mdnestreld(May 12-19) E. C. Grassi rhythm the that the futureof musical art use in fertilisingthe composer's musical thought; expresses opinion varioussounds of words be an enrichment lies in the study of modes, which can best be the may of tones the mereuse of accomplishedby investigatingthe present music of singing beyond open vowels, the Far East. but therethe r61eof the word stops short-the truly musical listeneris all-absorbed the He analyses certain Siamese scales, and calls by new, super- attentionto the subtle intervalswhich contain. verbal product. This resultingmusical value is all he they and it is all one to him whetherthe words Advocating the use of distinctionslesser than the cares for, are about Roses in or Bluebellsof Scotland. semitone,he acknowledgesthat temperedquarter- Picardy tones are in and out Mr. W. J. Turnerhas somewhereput forwardthis principle undesirable, points or like that there is a possibility of producing small, view, something it. intervals windinstruments. Certainlywe listeners do get into the way of non-tempered upon with but is this a state of Readers acquainted with Grassi's music will find dispensing words, a interestin these the sublimation or is it a makeshift? Take the special suggestions,and'in hardened He descends to the sidelightson asthetics which the article (unfortu- opera-goer. grave far too short the of the without knowing what Trovatore and Ballo in nately considering novelty Maschera are about. Has to groundit breaks) contains. he resignedhipnself dwell in this ignorance or has he soared into a THE PUBLIC AND SCH6NBERG realm really superiorto crude verbal information? Ask (in your crude way) of your hardened opera- The followingremarks from the pen of Emile goer why,although the youngpersons of La Bokhme Vuillermoz(Excelsior, May I) carry a truthwhose are severelyfeeling the cold indoorsat the beginning scope is morethan local : of the opera, theycan adjournpleasurably to partake Abruptlyintroduced to an unpreparedpublic, of theirChristmas dinner in the middleof the street. Schonberg'sFive OrchestralPieces, which are pure Ask whyin Act 3 of that opera all the characters music,music of the kind that has to be feltand have apparently taken up their residence in a yieldedto, withoutany attemptat 'understanding,'Customs House. He cannottell you, naturally,and and scandalisedthat and frightened public. Fright points out that that is not his concern,it is the scandal,if notlegitimate, are to With easy explain. composer'sobscure private concern-he, forhis part, greatdifficulty, those people were taughtto com- to the to see Melba or whoever. This is prehendthe syntaxof Wagnerand of Debussy. But goes opera hardlyhave theylearnt the lesson than they are con- possibly sublime; or else possibly an indicationof frontedwith a new wayof assemblingsounds, which the shrinkingof unused faculties-like the blindness strikesthem as excruciating,pending the timewhen ofsubterranean fishes. So, possibly,is theindifference theywill enjoy it. Theirindignant protests are there- to wordsof us listenersinured in long years to the forequite natural. singingof nonsensein English or else a macedonia of words. whenit was a PORTRAITS OF ANCIENT MASTERS foreign (Once only question of Italian,French, and German,some pretencecould In La Revue Musicale (June) Henri Prunibresbe made at following. But of late the tale is shows reasons why a paintingascribed to Lorenzo Russian, Spanish,Finnish, Erse, all roundus, and a Lotto and preservedat the Palazzo Pitti,Florence, famous prima donna gives recitals in fourteen might in fact be the painting by Sebastiano del languages! It is true she cannotpronounce 'bird,' Piombo which Vasari mentions as representingbut, then, was it quite fairof Handel to set English Hobrechtand PhilippeVerdelot. wordsto music?) This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Sat, 24 Jan 2015 07:38:37 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 496 THE MUSICAL TIMES-JULY I 1922 Somehowthe ordinaryplain personseems to want i to get the hang of the wordsof the song he hears. S0oio0n0ncertc But not even he invariably. For instance, when Tristan and Isolda rush into each other's arms in LEEDS CHORAL UNION AND THE APOSTLES Act 2 no one, not the mostliteral-minded among us, Before a half-emptyQueen's Hall the Leeds ever wanted to know what exactlythey are saying. Choral Union, the London SymphonyOrchestra, We all perfectlywell knowthat they cannot possibly and a fine set of soloists-Miss Agnes Nicholls, be sayinganything with any ' sense ' (that is, verbal Miss Phyllis Lett, Messrs. John Coates, Charles meaning) in it. Their song is merelyquasi-animal Knowles, Norman Allin, and Herbert Heyner gurglesand chucklesheightened into music, practic- -conducted by Sir Edward Elgar, gave a per- ally withoutverbal intermediaries. But such song is formance of The Apostles on June 8 in aid of somethingdifferent from the ordinaryquiet song of the WestminsterRestoration Fund. Such splendid our smallerconcert-platforms, where the composer's choral singinghas not been heard in London since chosen text,so oftenin thesedays itselfthe workof the last visit of a Yorkshirechoir some years ago, an artist,and the fact thatit is printedin fullon the chieflybecause no choir that has sung to us in the suppliedprogramme, are invitationsto an exertionof meantimehas beenblessed with such ample resources in theverbal alongside the musical understanding. This male voices. The prime excellence of the Leeds admission will, I hope, not be deemed treacheryto singers'work lay in theirability to pile up magnificent music. I do see how soon a song,when its musical climaxes withouta traceof effortor loss of quality. characteris at all vivid,passes beyondthe interest In such passages as 'Proclaim untothem' and 'The of the verbal understanding. The Erl King, I righthand of the power' theygave us unforgettable conceive, would do just as well if the text were in moments. Their soft singingwas less moving,and never-translatedChoctaw-we knowthat the piano- therewere some odd lapses in thematter of sostenuto, forteversion ' does ' as well, to tell the truth,as theopening phrase 'The Spiritof theLord is upon me,' Schubert'soriginal. But is therenot a territoryof and a fewsimilar passages lateron, being brokenfor song-an Alsace, both French and German-which no apparentreason. Betterenunciation could notbe is alike verbaland musical? wished for, the words coming through with a clearness startlingat times. It is regrettable Miss Lucia thinksso forshe has quite Young