Page 162 MABCII 1920 THE ETUDE The Right Kind of Musical History By Sidney Grew [Mr. Sidney Grew is a representative English writer up on musical topics, whose articles appear frequently in the best English musical periodicals.—EDITOR'S NOTE.] ciable interference with the student's ordinary musical work. Secondly, it would enable the academy and conservatoire students to be of some real assistance to the institution under whose musical care they were placed, whilst at the same time they would be gaining valuable experience for themselves. Thirdly, it would lead to a wider and more intimate knowledge of musical works other than pianoforte solos, and lastly, it would tend to the cultivation of musical friendships, and mainly through that to the continuance of an active practical interest in music till much later in life than is now generally found feasible. The Student's Mental Attitude By Norman H. Harney THE "Tired Business Man," like many another cele-brated character, may be largely mythical; but the at-titude of mind which is supposed to be his is unfor-tunately rather common, even among persons who cannot claim the distinction of being either "business" men or "tired." The individual thus afflicted enters a theater, an opera house or a concert hall without any preparation whatever and without any intention of ex-erting his mental faculties. He sinks languidly into his seat and, in effect, says: "Well, here I am; now enter-tain me if you can" And frequently his words are not so much an invitation as a challenge. This frame of mind may not be a great drawback at some performances, but, needless to say, it is hardly conducive to a proper appreciation of serious music. Any great work of art—a drama, a poem, a painting, a symphony—makes certain demands upon him who would enjoy it. Its purpose is not to relieve the bore-dom of an idle moment. It must be approached with an open mind and with a willingness to make whatever effort may be necessary to arrive at a complete under-standing of it. It must be approached without prejudice and with a determination to avoid the injustice of a hasty condemnation. "I Don't Like Bach" Many persons, unfortunately, lack altogether the in-clination to give careful, patient, earnest and unbiased consideration to a work of art. They are too prone to form a snap judgment and let it go at that. This atti-tude of mind is not uncommon among music students, as many teachers can testify. "I don't like Bach," says one young pupil. "I think his music is very tiresome." Another declares: "Schumann does not appeal to me in the least. Why should I waste my time on some-thing that has no interest for me :" A third says: "I can find no meaning in the music of Debussy. I must pass him by." Would it not be vastly wiser if these young people were to reason somewhat in this fashion. "This music, as yet, means little to me, and there is of course no reason why I should accept it on the strength of some other person's opinion. I will not pretend (as, I am afraid, some do) that I enjoy that which gives me no pleasure. But nevertheless, in view of the fact that this music is so greatly admired by educated musicians and so warmly praised by competent critics, there is at least a very strong presumption that it possesses great merit. I will therefore strive, earnestly and patiently, to discover for myself the beauties which others find in it, so that some day the door to this chamber in the great temple of music may swing open for me, too, and permit me to enter." John Ruskin, speaking of books and reading in Sesame and Lilies, says: "And be sure, also, if the author is worth anything, that you will not get at his meaning all at once—nay, that at his whole meaning you will not for a long time arrive in any wise." This applies with equal force to music. The beauties of a great composition are frequently, to the uninitiated, not of an obvious character. The full meaning and merit of a piece of music are by no means always apparent upon a first acquaintance. The writer would therefore give this advice to the young student: If the music of any great master does not make an immediate appeal to you, do not be discouraged. Do not put it aside with the thought that it is not for you. Resolve, rather, that it shall be yours, and be sure that you will be well repaid for any efforts you make to that end. Remem-ber that the music you once make your own will re-main yours forever. For Art is not a capricious god-dess, but is everlastingly faithful to her sincere devo-tees. The singer may lose his voice, the skill of the instrumentalist may pass away; but the music of which you have mastered the meaning in the days of your youth will be a joy, an inspiration and a blessing to you to the end of your life. "READ the history of music? But it's so dull! W e did ordinary history at school, and I'm sure musical history must be just too dry for words. Besides, music itself is all I want. I don't want its historyI" This is what the greater part of music students say at one time or another, generally when the teacher be-gins to hint at the need for deeper study. And they are not altogether to be blamed, for history may, indeed, be terribly dry and dull—or rather it may be made dry and dull. But if history is set out as it should be, it is found to be the reverse. It is really warm, bright, full of life, and endlessly romantic. Apart from actual music, it is the best thing in the art. There are, however, two sorts of history-books. It all depends on which we happen to take hold of. If we take hold of the wrong sort, history is undeniably dry; it is so dry that we may apply Hamlet's words to it and call it "weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable." It chokes us with dry names and dates and "facts" gen-erally, none of which are of value in living music. If, however, we take hold of the right sort of history-book, history becomes a very refreshing matter. It makes the art green and fresh. It opens our eyes to new beauty and makes us see further beauty in what we had already found to be lovely. There is a good deal of the wrong sort of history about. I imagine the fault lies largely with examiners, for this wrong sort happens to be the easier. It gives examiners no trouble to settle on a dozen or so "facts" and fire these off in the way of test questions. As Charming as the Telephone Directory A student could do it quite as easily. Given ten minutes with a dictionary, a smart student might dis-cover more than one question a University Professor could not answer. But the easiest is not the most useful or the most interesting, and the books that represent the wrong sort of history (there are scores of them on the market) are of a character to frighten even a student who may be ever so willing to study his-tory. They bristle with names of composers, dates, titles of works, technical terms, and similar matters of fact, the greater part of which have no actual bear-ing on music at all. They contain long lists of operas and oratorios that are as dead as Queen Anne, also lists of composers, each with his double dates, who were at no time more than respectable contemporary mechanics or steady practitioners of music. They give dull pages of petty details about the music of nations that had—or that have—no music according to our idea of music. They contain a certain amount of good and nutritious grain, but this grain is so mixed up with chaff as to make it a hopeless task for the young student to pick it out. Such books are the cause of the refusal of many students to take up history with willingness. They have about as much charm for the student as the Telephone Directory. They should be turned down, along with the many thousands of dead compositions they name but do not describe. History-books of the right sort give us the romance of music. They show us composers as real men, and bring back to life the actual times in which they lived and worked. These books stir the imagination; and to have the imagination stirred is what we need in music, as in everything else, true imaginativeness being the most precious faculty of the human mind. Genuine history deals with the facts of musical his-tory in the way Shakespeare deals with flowers. False history deals with facts in the way the scientific bot-anist deals with flowers. When Shakespeare mentions THE way to get things is to get them. The way to do things is to do them. It is said that one of the most famous pedestrians of America was unable to walk because of a bad case of inflamatory rheumatism. He came to the conclusion that the way to walk was to walk, and that it might cure his rheumatism. This it did and he achieved fame through what was a mis-fortune. The way to get a flexible wrist is to play suitable a flower he touches our imaginative powers. He helps us to see the flower as we never saw it before. He tells us of its beauty, and beyond that he tells us of the meaning and significance of its beauty. But when the botanist describes a flower, he leaves it as it was before, if, indeed, he does not leave it less than it was! He tells us about its shape and character, about its habits and relations; perhaps he gives us its Latin name; but at the best he only instructs us scientifically, which is not what we want to help us to enjoy the Slower. The right kind of musical history does help us to enjoy music. It goes beyond mere instruction as to facts, and thus helps us to understand it. It lifts up the curtain that separates us from the past. With this curtain out of the way, we see great men at work. W e see what things were like fifty, or a hundred, or five hundred years ago. W e see what men thought about and how they thought. W e see what pleased them and why they were pleased, what fun they had, what happiness and sorrow, how earnest and sincere they were, and what victories they won; all of which is good for us. There is nothing dull about this. Musical history is as fresh as any other sort of history, and its stories are quite as pleasant. Bach as Wonderful as Columbus Bach was as wonderful a man as Columbus. His life was as varied and significant. W e like to read about Columbus—about his ideas of things, his determination to prove the truth of his ideas, his plans and prepara-tions for his voyages, his dauntless courage, his stead-fastness and ultimate success, his final reward, which was personal disgrace and death in poverty. W e like also to read about Bach, about his vast studies of all contemporary music—French, Italian, English and German—his copying out of other men's works and his composing in their different styles, his gradual accumulating, within his one mind, of the en-tire mass of music as it existed in his day, until he was fit to begin the creation of the first full and com-plete music that the world had known. W e can not understand the value of the work of Columbus and the position of America through the centuries unless we understand the history of Columbus; similarly we can not understand and enjoy Bach's music, still less understand the music o i Beethoven and Wagner and living composers, unless we understand the history of our art. History makes things live their proper life. Until life is dull and dry, history must remain fresh and stimulating. It belongs to the past, of course, but so do we, in so far as the present is a continuation of the past. It is the story of things, and things are histor-ical monuments. W e can not enjoy or appreciate the significance of a monument when we are ignorant of its story, for then our imagination can not help our understanding. Musical compositions are the most dif-ficult of all monuments. Genuine musical history re-moves many of the difficulties in the way of students. The student is on the wrong path when he speaks as set out at the beginning of these remarks, but on the right path when he says: "History? I love it. Simply couldn't do without it! I never really thought the old composers were actual men before I began to do history. And I've never had a dull hour's study since I found that a piece is a sort of record or monument of something. To tell you the truth, I don't think I enjoyed music thoroughly until I got what my teacher calls the 'historical sense.' Any-way, I ivouldn't be without it for worlds!" exercises with a flexible wrist. Try these. They have proved very successful with the writer's pupils. 5 | Do You Want a Flexible Wrist? By M. C. W.
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