{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_31799/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_31799","id":"gutenberg_31799","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31799","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Music","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Music","Music -- Philosophy and aesthetics"],"text":"Produced by Brian Foley, Jana Srna and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  [ Transcriber's Note:\n    Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as\n    possible, including inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation;\n    changes (corrections of spelling and punctuation) made to the\n    original text are listed at the end of this file.\n  ]\n\n\n\n\n                                 Sketch\n                                   of\n                        A New Esthetic of Music\n\n\n                                   by\n                            FERRUCCIO BUSONI\n\n\n                     Translated from the German by\n                             Dr. TH. BAKER\n\n\n\n                         NEW YORK: G.\u00a0SCHIRMER\n                                  1911\n\n\n\n\n                            Copyright, 1907\n                          By FERRUCCIO BUSONI\n\n                            Copyright, 1911\n                             By G.\u00a0SCHIRMER\n\n                                 22375\n\n\n\n\nSKETCH OF A NEW ESTHETIC OF MUSIC\n\n    \"What seek you? Say! And what do you expect?\"--\n    \"I know not what; the Unknown I would have!\n     What's known to me, is endless; I would go\n     Beyond the end: The last word still is wanting.\"\n\n                         [\"_Der m\u00e4chtige Zauberer._\"]\n\n\nLOOSELY joined together as regards literary form, the following notes\nare, in reality, the outcome of convictions long held and slowly\nmatured.\n\nIn them a problem of the first magnitude is formulated with apparent\nsimplicity, without giving the key to its final solution; for the\nproblem cannot be solved for generations--if at all.\n\nBut it involves an innumerable series of lesser problems, which I\npresent to the consideration of those whom they may concern. For it is a\nlong time since any one has devoted himself to earnest musical research.\n\nIt is true, that admirable works of genius arise in every period, and I\nhave always taken my stand in the front rank of those who joyfully\nacclaimed the passing standard-bearers; and still it seems to me that of\nall these beautiful paths leading so far afield--none lead _upward_.\n\n_The spirit of an art-work, the measure of emotion, of humanity, that is\nin it--these remain unchanged in value through changing years; the form\nwhich these three assumed, the manner of their expression, and the\nflavor of the epoch which gave them birth, are transient, and age\nrapidly._\n\nSpirit and emotion retain their essence, in the art-work as in man\nhimself; we admire technical achievements, yet they are outstripped, or\ncloy the taste and are discarded.\n\nIts ephemeral qualities give a work the stamp of \"modernity;\" its\nunchangeable essence hinders it from becoming \"obsolete.\" Among both\n\"modern\" and \"old\" works we find good and bad, genuine and spurious.\nThere is nothing properly modern--only things which have come into being\nearlier or later; longer in bloom, or sooner withered. The Modern and\nthe Old have always been.\n\nArt-forms are the more lasting, the more closely they adhere to the\nnature of their individual species of art, the purer they keep their\nessential means and ends.\n\nSculpture relinquishes the expression of the human pupil, and effects of\ncolor; painting degenerates, when it forsakes the flat surface in\ndepiction and takes on complexity in theatrical decoration or panoramic\nportrayal.\n\nArchitecture has its fundamental form, growth from below upward,\nprescribed by static necessity; window and roof necessarily provide the\nintermediate and finishing configuration; these are eternal and\ninviolable requirements of the art.\n\nPoetry commands the abstract thought, which it clothes in words. More\nindependent than the others, it reaches the furthest bounds.\n\n_But all arts, resources and forms ever aim at the one end, namely, the\nimitation of nature and the interpretation of human feelings._\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nArchitecture, sculpture, poetry and painting are old and mature arts;\ntheir conceptions are established and their objects assured; they have\nfound the way through uncounted centuries, and, like the planets,\ndescribe their regular orbits.[A]\n\n  [A] None the less, in these arts, taste and individuality can and will\n  unceasingly find refreshment and rejuvenation.\n\nMusic, compared with them, is a child that has learned to walk, but must\nstill be led. It is a virgin art, without experience in life and\nsuffering.\n\nIt is all unconscious as yet of what garb is becoming, of its own\nadvantages, its unawakened capacities. And again, it is a child-marvel\nthat is already able to dispense much of beauty, that has already\nbrought joy to many, and whose gifts are commonly held to have attained\nfull maturity.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nMusic as an art, our so-called occidental music, is hardly four hundred\nyears old; its state is one of development, perhaps the very first\nstage of a development beyond present conception, and we--we talk of\n\"classics\" and \"hallowed traditions\"! And we have talked of them for a\nlong time![B]\n\n  [B] Tradition is a plaster mask taken from life, which, in the course\n  of many years, and after passing through the hands of innumerable\n  artisans, leaves its resemblance to the original largely a matter of\n  imagination.\n\nWe have formulated rules, stated principles, laid down laws;--we apply\nlaws made for maturity to a child that knows nothing of responsibility!\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nYoung as it is, this child, we already recognize that it possesses one\nradiant attribute which signalizes it beyond all its elder sisters. And\nthe lawgivers will not see this marvelous attribute, lest their laws\nshould be thrown to the winds. This child--it _floats on air_! It\ntouches not the earth with its feet. It knows no law of gravitation. It\nis wellnigh incorporeal. Its material is transparent. It is sonorous\nair. It is almost Nature herself. It is--free.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nBut freedom is something that mankind have never wholly comprehended,\nnever realized to the full. They can neither recognize nor acknowledge\nit.\n\nThey disavow the mission of this child; they hang weights upon it. This\nbuoyant creature must walk decently, like anybody else. It may scarcely\nbe allowed to leap--when it were its joy to follow the line of the\nrainbow, and to break sunbeams with the clouds.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nMusic was born free; and to win freedom is its destiny. It will become\nthe most complete of all reflexes of Nature by reason of its untrammeled\nimmateriality. Even the poetic word ranks lower in point of\nincorporealness. It can gather together and disperse, can be motionless\nrepose or wildest tempestuosity; it has the extremest heights\nperceptible to man--what other art has these?--and its emotion seizes\nthe human heart with that intensity which is independent of the \"idea.\"\n\nIt realizes a temperament, _without_ describing it, with the mobility of\nthe soul, with the swiftness of consecutive moments; and this, where\npainter or sculptor can represent only one side or one moment, and the\npoet tardily _communicates_ a temperament and its manifestations by\nwords.\n\nTherefore, representation and description are not the nature of music;\nherewith we declare the invalidity of program-music, and arrive at the\nquestion: What are the aims of music?\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nABSOLUTE Music! What the lawgivers mean by this, is perhaps remotest of\nall from the Absolute in music. \"Absolute music\" is a form-play without\npoetic program, in which the form is intended to have the leading part.\nBut Form, in itself, is the opposite pole of absolute music, on which\nwas bestowed the divine prerogative of buoyancy, of freedom from the\nlimitations of matter. In a picture, the illustration of a sunset ends\nwith the frame; the limitless natural phenomenon is enclosed in\nquadrilateral bounds; the cloud-form chosen for depiction remains\nunchanging for ever. Music can grow brighter or darker, shift hither or\nyon, and finally fade away like the sunset glow itself; and instinct\nleads the creative musician to employ the tones that press the same key\nwithin the human breast, and awaken the same response, as the processes\nin Nature.\n\nPer contra, \"absolute music\" is something very sober, which reminds one\nof music-desks in orderly rows, of the relation of Tonic to Dominant, of\nDevelopments and Codas.\n\nMethinks I hear the second violin struggling, a fourth below, to emulate\nthe more dexterous first, and contending in needless contest merely to\narrive at the starting-point. This sort of music ought rather to be\ncalled the \"architectonic,\" or \"symmetric,\" or \"sectional,\" and derives\nfrom the circumstance that certain composers poured _their_ spirit and\n_their_ emotion into just this mould as lying nearest them or their\ntime. Our lawgivers have identified the spirit and emotion, the\nindividuality of these composers and their time, with \"symmetric\"\nmusic, and finally, being powerless to recreate either the spirit, or\nthe emotion, or the time, have retained the Form as a symbol, and made\nit into a fetish, a religion. The composers sought and found this form\nas the aptest vehicle for communicating _their_ ideas; their souls took\nflight--and the lawgivers discover and cherish the garments Euphorion\nleft behind on earth.\n\n    A lucky find! 'Twas now or never;\n    The flame is gone, it's true--however,\n      No need to pity mankind now.\n    Enough is left for many a poet's tiring,\n      Or to breed envy high and low;\n    And though I have no talents here for hiring,\n      I'll hire the robe out, anyhow.\n\nIs it not singular, to demand of a composer originality in all things,\nand to forbid it as regards form? No wonder that, once he becomes\noriginal, he is accused of \"formlessness.\" Mozart! the seeker and the\nfinder, the great man with the childlike heart--it is he we marvel at,\nto whom we are devoted; but not his Tonic and Dominant, his Developments\nand Codas.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nSuch lust of liberation filled Beethoven, the romantic revolutionary,\nthat he ascended one short step on the way leading music back to its\nloftier self:--a short step in the great task, a wide step in his own\npath. He did not quite reach absolute music, but in certain moments he\ndivined it, as in the introduction to the fugue of the Sonata for\nHammerclavier. Indeed, all composers have drawn nearest the true nature\nof music in preparatory and intermediary passages (preludes and\ntransitions), where they felt at liberty to disregard symmetrical\nproportions, and unconsciously drew free breath. Even a Schumann (of so\nmuch lower stature) is seized, in such passages, by some feeling of the\nboundlessness of this pan-art (recall the transition to the last\nmovement of the D-minor Symphony); and the same may be asserted of\nBrahms in the introduction to the Finale of his First Symphony.\n\nBut, the moment they cross the threshold of the _Principal Subject_,\ntheir attitude becomes stiff and conventional, like that of a man\nentering some bureau of high officialdom.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nNext to Beethoven, Bach bears closest affinity to \"infinite music.\"[C]\nHis Organ Fantasias (but not the Fugues) have indubitably a strong dash\nof what might be overwritten \"Man and Nature.\"[D] In him it appears most\ningenuous because he had no reverence for his predecessors (although he\nesteemed and made use of them), and because the still novel acquisition\nof equal temperament opened a vista of--for the time being--endless new\npossibilities.\n\n  [C] \"Die Ur-Musik,\" is the author's happy phrase. But as this music\n  _never has been_, our English terms like \"primitive,\" \"original,\"\n  etc., would involve a _non sequitur_ which is avoided, at least, by\n  \"infinite.\" [Translator's Note.]\n\n  [D] In the recitatives of his Passions we hear \"human speech\"; _not_\n  \"correct declamation.\"\n\nTherefore, Bach and Beethoven[E] are to be conceived as a _beginning_,\nand not as unsurpassable finalities. In spirit and emotion they will\nprobably remain unexcelled; and this, again, confirms the remark at the\nbeginning of these lines: That spirit and emotion remain unchanged in\nvalue through changing years, and that he who mounts to their uttermost\nheights will always tower above the crowd.\n\n  [E] As characteristic traits of Beethoven's individuality I would\n  mention the poetic fire, the strong human feeling (whence springs his\n  revolutionary temper), and a portent of modern nervousness. These\n  traits are certainly opposed to those of a \"classic.\" Moreover,\n  Beethoven is no \"master,\" as the term applies to Mozart or the later\n  Wagner, just because his art foreshadows a greater, as yet incomplete.\n  (Compare the section next-following.)\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nWhat still remains to be surpassed, is their form of expression and\ntheir freedom. Wagner, a Germanic Titan, who touched our earthly horizon\nin orchestral tone-effect, who intensified the form of expression, but\nfashioned it into a _system_ (music-drama, declamation, leading-motive),\nis on this account incapable of further intensification. His category\nbegins and ends with himself; first, because he carried it to the\nhighest perfection and finish; secondly, because his self-imposed task\nwas of such a nature, that it could be achieved by one man alone.[F] The\npaths opened by Beethoven can be followed to their end only through\ngenerations. They--like all things in creation--may form only a circle;\nbut a circle of such dimensions, that the portion visible to us seems\nlike a straight line. Wagner's circle we can view in its entirety--a\ncircle within the great circle.\n\n  [F] \"Together with the problem, it gives us the solution,\" as I once\n  said of Mozart.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nTHE name of Wagner leads to program-music. This has been set up as a\ncontrast to so-called \"absolute\" music, and these concepts have become\nso petrified that even persons of intelligence hold one or the other\ndogma, without recognition for a third possibility beyond and above the\nother two. In reality, program-music is precisely as one-sided and\nlimited as that which is called absolute. In place of architectonic and\nsymmetric formulas, instead of the relation of Tonic to Dominant, it has\nbound itself in the stays of a connecting poetic--sometimes even\nphilosophic--program.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nEvery motive--so it seems to me--contains, like a seed, its life-germ\nwithin itself. From the different plant-seeds grow different families\nof plants, dissimilar in form, foliage, blossom, fruit, growth and\ncolor.[G]\n\n  [G] \"...\u00a0Beethoven, dont les esquisses _th\u00e9matiques ou \u00e9l\u00e9mentaires_\n  sont innombrables, mais qui, sit\u00f4t les th\u00e8mes trouv\u00e9s, semble par cela\n  m\u00eame en avoir \u00e9tabli tout le d\u00e9veloppement\u00a0...\" [Vincent d'Indy, in\n  \"C\u00e9sar Franck.\"]\n\nEven each individual plant belonging to one and the same species\nassumes, in size, form and strength, a growth peculiar to itself. And\nso, in each motive, there lies the embryo of its fully developed form;\neach one must unfold itself differently, yet each obediently follows the\nlaw of eternal harmony. _This form is imperishable, though each be\nunlike every other._\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nThe motive in a composition with program bears within itself the same\nnatural necessity; but it must, even in its earliest phase of\ndevelopment, renounce _its own proper mode of growth_ to mould--or,\nrather, twist--itself to fit the needs of the program. Thus turned\naside, at the outset, from the path traced by nature, it finally arrives\nat a wholly unexpected climax, whither it has been led, not by its own\norganization, but by the way laid down in the program, or the action, or\nthe philosophical idea.\n\nAnd how primitive must this art remain! True, there are unequivocal\ndescriptive effects of tone-painting (from these the entire principle\ntook its rise), but these means of expression are few and trivial,\ncovering but a very small section of musical art. Begin with the most\nself-evident of all, the debasement of Tone to Noise in imitating the\nsounds of Nature--the rolling of thunder, the roar of forests, the cries\nof animals; then those somewhat less evident, symbolic--imitations of\nvisual impressions, like the lightning-flash, springing movement, the\nflight of birds; again, those intelligible only through the mediation of\nthe reflective brain, such as the trumpet-call as a warlike symbol, the\nshawm to betoken ruralism, march-rhythm to signify measured strides, the\nchorale as vehicle for religious feeling. Add to the above the\ncharacterization of nationalities--national instruments and airs--and we\nhave a complete inventory of the arsenal of program-music. Movement and\nrepose, minor and major, high and low, in their customary significance,\nround out the list.--These are auxiliaries, of which good use can be\nmade upon a broad canvas, but which, taken by themselves, are no more to\nbe called music than wax figures may pass for monuments.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nAnd, after all, what can the presentation of a little happening upon\nthis earth, the report concerning an annoying neighbor--no matter\nwhether in the next room or in an adjoining quarter of the globe--have\nin common with that music which pervades the universe?\n\nTo music, indeed, it is given to set in vibration our human moods: Dread\n(_Leporello_), oppression of soul, invigoration, lassitude (Beethoven's\nlast Quartets), decision (_Wotan_), hesitation, despondency,\nencouragement, harshness, tenderness, excitement, tranquillization, the\nfeeling of surprise or expectancy, and still others; likewise the inner\necho of external occurrences which is bound up in these moods of the\nsoul. But not the moving cause itself of these spiritual\naffections;--not the joy over an avoided danger, not the danger itself,\nor the kind of danger which caused the dread; an emotional state, yes,\nbut not the psychic species of this emotion, such as envy, or jealousy;\nand it is equally futile to attempt the expression, through music, of\nmoral characteristics (vanity, cleverness), or abstract ideas like truth\nand justice. Is it possible to imagine how a poor, but contented man\ncould be represented by music? The contentment, the soul-state, can be\ninterpreted by music; but where does the poverty appear, or the\nimportant ethic problem stated in the words \"poor, but contented\"? This\nis due to the fact that \"poor\" connotes a phase of terrestrial and\nsocial conditions not to be found in the eternal harmony. And Music is a\npart of the vibrating universe.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nI may be allowed to subjoin a few subsidiary reflections:--The greater\npart of modern theatre music suffers from the mistake of seeking to\nrepeat the scenes passing on the stage, instead of fulfilling its own\nproper mission of interpreting the soul-states of the persons\nrepresented. When the scene presents the illusion of a thunderstorm,\nthis is exhaustively apprehended by the eye. Nevertheless, nearly all\ncomposers strive to depict the storm in tones--which is not only a\nneedless and feebler repetition, but likewise a failure to perform their\ntrue function. The person on the stage is either psychically influenced\nby the thunderstorm, or his mood, being absorbed in a train of thought\nof stronger influence, remains unaffected. The storm is visible and\naudible without aid from music; it is the invisible and inaudible, the\nspiritual processes of the personages portrayed, which music should\nrender intelligible.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nAgain, there are \"obvious\" psychic conditions on the stage, whereof\nmusic need take no account. Suppose a theatrical situation in which a\nconvivial company is passing at night and disappears from view, while in\nthe foreground a silent, envenomed duel is in progress. Here the music,\nby means of continuing song, should keep in mind the jovial company now\nlost to sight; the acts and feelings of the pair in the foreground may\nbe understood without further commentary, and the music--dramatically\nspeaking--ought not to participate in their action and break the tragic\nsilence.\n\nMeasurably justified, in my opinion, is the plan of the old opera, which\nconcentrated and musically rounded out the passions aroused by a moving\ndramatic scene in a piece of set form (the aria). _Word_ and stage-play\nconveyed the dramatic progress of the action, followed more or less\nmeagrely by musical recitative; arrived at the point of rest, music\nresumed the reins. This is less extrinsic than some would now have us\nbelieve. On the other hand, it was the ossified form of the \"aria\"\nitself which led to inveracity of expression and decadence.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nTHE audible presentation, the \"performance,\" of music, its _emotional\ninterpretation_, derives from those free heights whence descended the\nArt itself. Where the art is threatened by earthliness, it is the part\nof interpretation to raise it and re\u00ebndow it with its primordial\nessence.\n\nNotation, the writing out of compositions, is primarily an ingenious\nexpedient for catching an inspiration, with the purpose of exploiting it\nlater. But notation is to improvisation as the portrait to the living\nmodel. It is for the interpreter to _resolve the rigidity of the signs_\ninto the primitive emotion.\n\nBut the lawgivers require the interpreter to reproduce the rigidity of\nthe signs; they consider his reproduction the nearer to perfection, the\nmore closely it clings to the signs.--\n\nWhat the composer's inspiration _necessarily_ loses[H] through notation,\nhis interpreter should restore by his own.\n\n  [H] How strongly notation influences style in music, and fetters\n  imagination, how \"form\" grew up out of it and from form arose\n  \"conventionalism\" in expression, is shown very convincingly and\n  avenges itself in tragic wise in E.\u00a0T.\u00a0A. Hoffmann, who occurs to me\n  here as a typical example.\n\n  This remarkable man's mental conceptions, lost in visionary moods\n  and revelling in transcendentalism, as his writings set forth in oft\n  inimitable fashion, must naturally--so one would infer--have found in\n  the dreamlike and transcendental art of tones a language and mode of\n  expression peculiarly congenial.\n\n  The veil of mysticism, the secret harmonies of Nature, the thrill of\n  the supernatural, the twilight vagueness of the borderland of dreams,\n  everything, in fact, which he so effectively limned with the precision\n  of _words_--all this, one would suppose, he could have interpreted to\n  fullest effect by the aid of music. And yet, comparing Hoffmann's best\n  musical work with the weakest of his literary productions, you will\n  discover to your sorrow how a conventional system of measures, periods\n  and keys--whereto the hackneyed opera-style of the time adds its\n  share--could turn a poet into a Philistine. But that his fancy\n  cherished another ideal of music, we learn from many, and frequently\n  admirable, observations of Hoffmann the _litt\u00e9rateur_.\n\nTo the lawgivers, the signs themselves are the most important matter,\nand are continually growing in their estimation; the new art of music is\nderived from the old signs--_and these now stand for musical art\nitself_.\n\nIf the lawgivers had their way, any given composition would always be\nreproduced in precisely the same tempo, whensoever, by whomsoever, and\nunder whatsoever conditions it might be performed.\n\nBut, it _is_ not possible; the buoyant, expansive nature of the divine\nchild rebels--it demands the opposite. Each day begins differently from\nthe preceding, yet always with the flush of dawn.--Great artists play\ntheir own works differently at each repetition, remodel them on the spur\nof the moment, accelerate and retard, in a way which they could not\nindicate by signs--and always according to the given conditions of that\n\"eternal harmony.\"\n\nAnd then the lawgiver chafes, and refers the creator to his own\nhandwriting. As matters stand to-day, the lawgiver has the best of the\nargument.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\n\"Notation\" (\"writing down\") brings up the subject of Transcription,\nnowadays a term much misunderstood, almost discreditable. The frequent\nantagonism which I have excited with \"transcriptions,\" and the\nopposition to which an ofttimes irrational criticism has provoked me,\ncaused me to seek a clear understanding of this point. My final\nconclusion concerning it is this: Every notation is, in itself, the\ntranscription of an abstract idea. The instant the pen seizes it, the\nidea loses its original form. The very intention to write down the idea,\ncompels a choice of measure and key. The form, and the musical agency,\nwhich the composer must decide upon, still more closely define the way\nand the limits.\n\nIt is much the same as with man himself. Born naked, and as yet without\ndefinite aspirations, he decides, or at a given moment is made to\ndecide, upon a career. From the moment of decision, although much that\nis original and imperishable in the idea or the man may live on, either\nis depressed to the type of a class. The musical idea becomes a sonata\nor a concerto; the man, a soldier or a priest. That is an Arrangement of\nthe original. From this first transcription to a second the step is\ncomparatively short and unimportant. And yet it is only the second, in\ngeneral, of which any notice is taken; overlooking the fact, that a\ntranscription does not destroy the archetype, which is, therefore, not\nlost through transcription.\n\nAgain, the performance of a work is also a transcription, and still,\nwhatever liberties it may take, it can never annihilate the original.\n\nFor the musical art-work exists, before its tones resound and after they\ndie away, _complete and intact_. It exists both within and outside of\ntime, and through its nature we can obtain a definite conception of the\notherwise intangible notion of the Ideality of Time.\n\nFor the rest, most of Beethoven's piano compositions sound like\ntranscriptions of orchestral works; most of Schumann's orchestral\ncompositions, like arrangements from pieces for the piano--and they are\nso, in a way.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nStrangely enough, the Variation-Form is highly esteemed by the Worshippers\nof the Letter. That is singular; for the variation-form--when built up\non a borrowed theme--produces a _whole series of \"arrangements\"_ which,\nbesides, are least respectful when most ingenious.\n\nSo the arrangement is _not_ good, because it _varies_ the original; and\nthe variation _is_ good, although it \"_arranges_\" the original.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nTHE term \"musikalisch\" (musical) is used by the Germans in a sense\nforeign to that in which any other language employs it.[I] It is a\nconception belonging to the Germans, and not to culture in general; the\nexpression is incorrect and untranslatable. \"Musical\" is derived from\n_music_, like \"poetical\" from _poetry_, or \"physical\" from _physic(s)_.\nWhen I say, \"Schubert was one of the most musical among men,\" it is the\nsame as if I should say, \"Helmholtz was one of the most physical among\nmen.\" That is musical, which _sounds_ in rhythms and intervals. A\ncupboard can be \"musical,\" if \"music-works\" be enclosed in it.[J] In a\ncomparative sense, \"musical\" may have the further signification of\n\"euphonious.\"--\"My verses are too musical to bear setting to music,\" a\nnoted poet once remarked to me.\n\n  [I] The author probably had in mind the languages of southern Europe;\n  the word is employed in English, and in the tongues of the\n  Scandinavian group, with precisely the same meaning as in German.\n  [Translator's Note.]\n\n  [J] The only kind of people one might properly call _musical_, are the\n  singers; for they themselves can sound. Similarly, a clown who by some\n  trick produces tones when he is touched, might be called a\n  _pseudo-musical_ person.\n\n    \"Spirits moving musically\n     To a lute's well-tuned law,\"\n\nwrites Edgar Allan Poe. Lastly, one may speak quite correctly of\n\"musical laughter,\" because it _sounds_ like music.\n\nTaking the signification in which the term is applied and almost\nexclusively employed in German, a musical person is one who manifests an\ninclination for music by a nice discrimination and sensitiveness with\nregard to the _technical aspects_ of the art. By \"technics\" I mean\nrhythm, harmony, intonation, part-leading, and the treatment of themes.\nThe more subtleties he is capable of hearing or reproducing in these,\nthe more \"musical\" he is held to be.\n\nIn view of the great importance attached to these elements of the art,\nthis \"musical\" temperament has naturally become of the highest\nconsequence. And so an artist who plays with perfect technical finish\nshould be deemed the most musical player. But as we mean by \"technics\"\nonly the mechanical mastery of the instrument, the terms \"technical\"\nand \"musical\" have been turned into opposites.\n\nThe matter has been carried so far as to call a composition itself\n\"musical,\"[K] or even to assert of a great composer like Berlioz that he\nwas not sufficiently musical.[L] \"Unmusical\" conveys the strongest\nreproach; branded thus, its object becomes an outlaw.[M]\n\n  [K] \"But these pieces are so musical,\" a violinist once remarked to me\n  of a four-hand worklet which I had characterized as trivial.\n\n  [L] \"My dog is _very_ musical,\" I have heard said in all seriousness.\n  Should the dog take precedence of Berlioz?\n\n  [M] Such has been my own fate.\n\nIn a country like Italy, where all participate in the delights of music,\nthis differentiation becomes superfluous, and the term corresponding is\nnot found in the language. In France, where a living sense of music does\nnot permeate the people, there are musicians and non-musicians; of the\nrest, some \"are very fond of music,\" and others \"do not care for it.\"\nOnly in Germany is it made a point of honor to be \"musical,\" that is to\nsay, not merely to love music, but more especially to understand it as\nregards its technical means of expression, and to obey their rules.\n\nA thousand hands support the buoyant child and solicitously attend its\nfootsteps, that it may not soar aloft where there might be risk of a\nserious fall. But it is still so young, and is eternal; the day of its\nfreedom will come.--When it shall cease to be \"musical.\"\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nTHE creator should take over no traditional law in blind belief, which\nwould make him view his own creative endeavor, from the outset, as an\nexception contrasting with that law. For his individual case he should\nseek out and formulate a fitting individual law, which, after the first\ncomplete realization, he should annul, that he himself may not be drawn\ninto repetitions when his next work shall be in the making.\n\nThe function of the creative artist consists in making laws, not in\nfollowing laws ready made. He who follows such laws, ceases to be a\ncreator.\n\nCreative power may be the more readily recognized, the more it shakes\nitself loose from tradition. But an intentional avoidance of the rules\ncannot masquerade as creative power, and still less engender it.\n\nThe true creator strives, in reality, after _perfection_ only. And\nthrough bringing this into harmony with _his own_ individuality, a new\nlaw arises without premeditation.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nSo narrow has our tonal range become, so stereotyped its form of\nexpression, that nowadays there is not one familiar motive that cannot\nbe fitted with some other familiar motive so that the two may be played\nsimultaneously. Not to lose my way in trifling,[N] I shall refrain from\ngiving examples.\n\n  [N] With a friend I once indulged in such trifling in order to\n  ascertain how many commonly known compositions were written according\n  to the scheme of the second theme in the Adagio of the Ninth Symphony.\n  In a few moments we had collected some fifteen analogues of the most\n  different kinds, among them specimens of the lowest type of art. And\n  Beethoven himself:--Is the theme of the Finale in the \"Fifth\" any\n  other than the one wherewith the \"Second\" introduces its Allegro?--or\n  than the principal theme of the Third Piano Concerto, only in minor?\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nThat which, within our present-day music, most nearly approaches the\nessential nature of the art, is the Rest and the Hold (Pause).\nConsummate players, improvisers, know how to employ these instruments of\nexpression in loftier and ampler measure. The tense silence between two\nmovements--_in itself music_, in this environment--leaves wider scope\nfor divination than the more determinate, but therefore less elastic,\nsound.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nWhat we now call our Tonal System is nothing more than a set of \"signs\";\nan ingenious device to grasp somewhat of that eternal harmony; a meagre\npocket-edition of that encyclopedic work; artificial light instead of\nthe sun.--Have you ever noticed how people gaze open-mouthed at the\nbrilliant illumination of a hall? They never do so at the millionfold\nbrighter sunshine of noonday.--\n\nAnd so, in music, the signs have assumed greater consequence than that\nwhich they ought to stand for, and can only suggest.\n\nHow important, indeed, are \"Third,\" \"Fifth,\" and \"Octave\"! How strictly\nwe divide \"consonances\" from \"dissonances\"--_in a sphere where no\ndissonances can possibly exist_!\n\nWe have divided the octave into twelve equidistant degrees, because we\nhad to manage somehow, and have constructed our instruments in such a\nway that we can never get in above or below or between them. Keyboard\ninstruments, in particular, have so thoroughly schooled our ears that we\nare no longer capable of hearing anything else--incapable of hearing\nexcept through this impure medium. Yet Nature created an _infinite\ngradation_--_infinite!_ who still knows it nowadays?[O]\n\n  [O] \"The equal temperament of 12 degrees, which was discussed\n  theoretically as early as about 1500, but not established as a\n  principle until shortly before 1700 (by Andreas Werkmeister),\n  divides the octave into twelve equal portions (semitones, hence\n  'twelve-semitone system') through which mean values are obtained;\n  no interval is perfectly pure, but all are fairly serviceable.\"\n  (Riemann, \"Musik-Lexikon.\") Thus, through Andreas Werkmeister, this\n  master-workman in art, we have gained the \"twelve-semitone\" system\n  with intervals which are all impure, but fairly serviceable. But what\n  is \"pure,\" and what \"impure\"? We hear a piano \"gone out of tune,\" and\n  whose intervals may thus have become \"pure, but unserviceable,\" and it\n  sounds _impure_ to us. The diplomatic \"Twelve-semitone system\" is an\n  invention mothered by necessity; yet none the less do we sedulously\n  guard its imperfections.\n\nAnd within this duodecimal octave we have marked out a series of fixed\nintervals, seven in number, and founded thereon our entire art of music.\nWhat do I say--_one_ series? Two such series, one for each leg: The\nMajor and Minor Scales. When we start this series of intervals on some\nother degree of our semitonic ladder, we obtain a _new key_, and a\n\"foreign\" one, at that! How violently contracted a system arose from\nthis initial confusion,[P] may be read in the law-books; we will not\nrepeat it here.\n\n  [P] It is termed \"The Science of Harmony.\"\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nWe teach four-and-twenty keys, twelve times the two Series of Seven;\nbut, in point of fact, we have at our command only two, the major key\nand the minor key. _The rest are merely transpositions._ By means of the\nseveral transpositions we are supposed to get different shades of\nharmony; but this is an illusion. In England, under the reign of the\nhigh \"concert pitch,\" the most familiar works may be played a semitone\nhigher than they are written, without changing their effect. Singers\ntranspose an aria to suit their convenience, leaving untransposed what\nprecedes and follows. Song-writers not infrequently publish their own\ncompositions in three different pitches; in all three editions the\npieces are precisely alike.\n\nWhen a well-known face looks out of a window, it matters not whether it\ngazes down from the first story or the third.\n\nWere it feasible to elevate or depress a landscape, far as eye can\nreach, by several hundred yards, the pictorial impression would neither\ngain nor lose by it.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nUpon the two Series of Seven, the major key and the minor key, the whole\nart of music has been established; one limitation brings on the other.\n\nTo each of these a definite character has been attributed; we have\nlearned and have taught that they should be heard as contrasts, and they\nhave gradually acquired the significance of symbols:--Major and\nMinor--Maggiore e Minore--Contentment and Discontent--Joy and\nSorrow--Light and Shade. The harmonic symbols have fenced in the\nexpression of music, from Bach to Wagner, and yet further on until\nto-day and the day after to-morrow. _Minor_ is employed with the same\nintention, and has the same effect upon us now, as two hundred years\nago. Nowadays it is no longer possible to \"compose\" a funeral march, for\nit already exists, once for all. Even the least informed\nnon-professional knows what to expect when a funeral march--whichever\nyou please--is to be played. Even such an one can anticipate the\ndifference between a symphony in major and one in minor. We are\ntyrannized by Major and Minor--by the bifurcated garment.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nStrange, that one should feel major and minor as opposites. They both\npresent the same face, now more joyous, now more serious; and a mere\ntouch of the brush suffices to turn the one into the other. The passage\nfrom either to the other is easy and imperceptible; when it occurs\nfrequently and swiftly, the two begin to shimmer and coalesce\nindistinguishably.--But when we recognize that major and minor form one\nWhole with a double meaning, and that the \"four-and-twenty keys\" are\nsimply an elevenfold transposition of the original twain, we arrive\nunconstrainedly at a perception of the UNITY _of our system of keys_\n[tonality]. The conceptions of \"related\" and \"foreign\" keys vanish, and\nwith them the entire intricate theory of degrees and relations. _We\npossess one single key._ But it is of most meagre sort.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\n\"Unity of the key-system.\"\n\n--\"I suppose you mean that 'key' and 'key-system' are the sunbeam and\nits diffraction into colors?\"\n\nNo; that I can not mean. For our whole system of tone, key, and\ntonality, taken in its entirety, is only a part of a fraction of one\ndiffracted ray from that Sun, \"Music,\" in the empyrean of the \"eternal\nharmony.\"\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nHowever deeply rooted the attachment to the habitual, and inertia, may\nbe in the ways and nature of humankind, in equal measure are energy, and\nopposition to the existing order, characteristic of all that has life.\nNature has her wiles, and persuades man, obstinately opposed though he\nbe to progress and change; Nature progresses continually and changes\nunremittingly, but with so even and unnoticeable movement that men\nperceive only quiescence. Only on looking backward from a distance do\nthey note with astonishment that they have been deceived.\n\nThe Reformer of any given period excites irritation for the reason that\nhis changes find men unprepared, and, above all, because these changes\nare appreciable. The Reformer, in comparison with Nature, is\nundiplomatic; and, as a wholly logical consequence, his changes do not\nwin general acceptance until Time, with subtle, imperceptible advance,\nhas bridged over the leap of the self-assured leader. Yet we find cases\nin which the reformer marched abreast of the times, while the rest fell\nbehind. And then they have to be forced and lashed to take the leap\nacross the passage they have missed. I believe that the major-and-minor\nkey with its transpositional relations, our \"twelve-semitone system,\"\nexhibits such a case of falling behind.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nThat some few have already felt how the intervals of the Series of Seven\nmight be differently arranged (graduated) is manifested in isolated\npassages by Liszt, and recently by Debussy and his following, and even\nby Richard Strauss. Strong impulse, longing, gifted instinct, all speak\nfrom these strains. Yet it does not appear to me that a conscious and\norderly conception of this intensified means of expression had been\nformed by these composers.\n\nI have made an attempt to exhaust the possibilities of the arrangement\nof degrees within the seven-tone scale; and succeeded, by raising and\nlowering the intervals, in establishing _one hundred and thirteen\ndifferent scales_. These 113 scales (within the octave _C-C_) comprise\nthe greater part of our familiar twenty-four keys, and, furthermore, a\nseries of new keys of peculiar character. But with these the mine is not\nexhausted, for we are at liberty to _transpose_ each one of these 113,\nbesides the blending of two such keys in harmony and melody.\n\nThere is a significant difference between the sound of the scale\n_c-db-eb-fb-gb-ab-bb-c_ when _c_ is taken as tonic, and the scale of\n_db_ minor. By giving it the customary _C_-major triad as a fundamental\nharmony, a novel harmonic sensation is obtained. But now listen to this\nsame scale supported alternately by the _A_-minor, _Eb_-major, and\n_C_-major triads, and you cannot avoid a feeling of delightful surprise\nat the strangely unfamiliar euphony.\n\nBut how would a lawgiver classify the tone-series\n_c-db-eb-fb-g-a-b-c_, _c-db-eb-f-gb-a-b-c_, _c-d-eb-fb-gb-a-b-c_,\n_c-db-e-f-gb-a-bb-c_?--or these, forsooth: _c-d-eb-fb-g-a#-b-c_,\n_c-d-eb-fb-g#-a-b-c_, _c-db-eb-f#-g#-a-bb-c_?\n\nOne cannot estimate at a glance what wealth of melodic and harmonic\nexpression would thus be opened up to the hearing; but a great many\nnovel possibilities may be accepted as certain, and are perceptible at a\nglance.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nWith this presentation, the unity of all keys may be considered as\nfinally pronounced and justified. A kaleidoscopic blending and\ninterchanging of twelve semitones within the three-mirror tube of Taste,\nEmotion, and Intention--the essential feature of the harmony of to-day.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nThe harmony of _to-day_, and not for long; for all signs presage a\nrevolution, and a next step toward that \"eternal harmony.\" Let us once\nagain call to mind, that in this latter the gradation of the octave is\n_infinite_, and let us strive to draw a little nearer to infinitude.\nThe tripartite tone (third of a tone) has for some time been demanding\nadmittance, and we have left the call unheeded. Whoever has\nexperimented, like myself (in a modest way), with this interval, and\nintroduced (either with voice or with violin) two equidistant\nintermediate tones between the extremes of a whole tone, schooling his\near and his precision of attack, will not have failed to discern that\ntripartite tones are wholly independent intervals with a pronounced\ncharacter, and not to be confounded with ill-tuned semitones. They form\na refinement in chromatics based, as at present appears, on the\nwhole-tone scale. Were we to adopt them without further preparation, we\nshould have to give up the semitones and lose our \"minor third\" and\n\"perfect fifth;\" and this loss would be felt more keenly than the\nrelative gain of a system of eighteen one-third tones.\n\nBut there is no apparent reason for giving up the semitones for the sake\nof this new system. By retaining, for each whole tone, a semitone, we\nobtain a second series of whole tones lying a semitone higher than the\noriginal series. Then, by dividing this second series of whole tones\ninto third-tones, each third-tone in the lower series will be matched by\na semitone in the higher series.\n\nThus we have really arrived at a system of whole tones divided into\nsixths of a tone; and we may be sure that even sixth-tones will\nsometime be adopted into musical speech. But the tonal system above\nsketched must first of all train the hearing to thirds of a tone,\nwithout giving up the semitones.\n\nTo summarize: We may set up either two series of third-tones, with an\ninterval of a semitone between the series; or, the usual semitonic\nseries _thrice repeated_ at the interval of one-third of a tone.\n\nMerely for the sake of distinction, let us call the first tone _C_, and\nthe next third-tones _C#_, and _Db_; the first semitone (small) _c_, and\nits following thirds _c#_ and _db_; the result is fully explained by the\ntable below:\n\n[Music]\n\nA preliminary expedient for notation might be, to draw six lines for the\nstaff, using the lines for the whole tones and the spaces for the\nsemitones:\n\n[Music]\n\nthen indicating the third-tones by sharps and flats:\n\n[Music]\n\nThe question of notation seems to me subordinate. On the other hand, the\nquestion is important and imperious, how and on what these tones are to\nbe produced. Fortunately, while busied with this essay, I received from\nAmerica direct and authentic intelligence which solves the problem in a\nsimple manner. I refer to an invention by Dr. Thaddeus Cahill.[Q] He has\nconstructed a comprehensive apparatus which makes it possible to\ntransform an electric current into a fixed and mathematically exact\nnumber of vibrations. As pitch depends on the number of vibrations, and\nthe apparatus may be \"set\" on any number desired, the infinite gradation\nof the octave may be accomplished by merely moving a lever corresponding\nto the pointer of a quadrant.\n\n  [Q] \"New Music for an Old World.\" Dr. Thaddeus Cahill's Dynamophone,\n  an extraordinary electrical invention for producing scientifically\n  perfect music. Article in McClure's Magazine for July, 1906, by Ray\n  Stannard Baker. Readers interested in the details of this invention\n  are referred to the above-mentioned magazine article.\n\nOnly a long and careful series of experiments, and a continued training\nof the ear, can render this unfamiliar material approachable and plastic\nfor the coming generation, and for Art.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nAnd what a vista of fair hopes and dreamlike fancies is thus opened for\nthem both! Who has not dreamt that he could float on air? and firmly\nbelieved his dream to be reality?--Let us take thought, how music may be\nrestored to its primitive, natural essence; let us free it from\narchitectonic, acoustic and esthetic dogmas; let it be pure invention\nand sentiment, in harmonies, in forms, in tone-colors (for invention and\nsentiment are not the prerogative of melody alone); let it follow the\nline of the rainbow and vie with the clouds in breaking sunbeams; _let\nMusic be naught else than Nature mirrored by and reflected from the\nhuman breast_; for it is sounding air and floats above and beyond the\nair; within Man himself as universally and absolutely as in Creation\nentire; for it can gather together and disperse without losing in\nintensity.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nIN his book \"Beyond the Good and the Bad\" (_Jenseits von Gut und B\u00f6se_)\nNietzsche says: \"With regard to German music I consider precaution\nnecessary in various ways. Assuming that a person loves the South (as I\nlove it) as a great training-school for health of soul and sense in\ntheir highest potency, as an uncontrollable flood and glamour of\nsunshine spreading over a race of independent and self-reliant\nbeings;--well, such an one will learn to be more or less on his guard\nagainst German music, because, while spoiling his taste anew, it\nundermines his health.\n\n\"Such a Southlander (not by descent, but by belief) must, should he\ndream of the future of music, likewise dream of a redemption of music\nfrom the North, while in his ears there rings the prelude to a deeper,\nmightier, perchance a more evil and more mysterious music, a\nsuper-German music, which does not fade, wither and die away in view of\nthe blue, sensuous sea and the splendor of Mediterranean skies, as all\nGerman music does;--a super-European music, that asserts itself even\namid the tawny sunsets of the desert, whose soul is allied with the\npalm-tree, and can consort and prowl with great, beautiful, lonely\nbeasts of prey.\n\n\"I could imagine a music whose rarest charm should consist in its\ncomplete divorce from the Good and the Bad;--only that its surface might\nbe ruffled, as it were, by a longing as of a sailor for home, by\nvariable golden shadows and tender frailties:--an Art which should see\nfleeing toward it, from afar off, the hues of a perishing moral world\nbecome wellnigh incomprehensible, and which should be hospitable and\nprofound enough to harbor such belated fugitives.\"\n\nAnd Tolstoi transmutes a landscape-impression into a musical impression\nwhen he writes, in \"Lucerne\": \"Neither on the lake, nor on the\nmountains, nor in the skies, a single straight line, a single unmixed\ncolor, a single point of repose;--everywhere movement, irregularity,\ncaprice, variety, an incessant interplay of shades and lines, and in it\nall the reposefulness, softness, harmony and inevitableness of Beauty.\"\n\nWill this music ever be attained?\n\n\"Not all reach Nirvana; but he who, gifted from the beginning, learns\neverything that one ought to learn, experiences all that one should\nexperience, renounces what one should renounce, develops what one should\ndevelop, realizes what one should realize--he shall reach Nirvana.\"[R]\n(Kern, _Geschichte des Buddhismus in Indien_.)\n\n  [R] As if anticipating my thoughts, M. Vincent d'Indy has just written\n  me: \"...\u00a0laissant de c\u00f4t\u00e9 les contingences et les petitesses de la\n  vie pour regarder constamment vers un id\u00e9al qu'on ne pourra jamais\n  atteindre, mais dont il est permis de se rapprocher.\"\n\nIf Nirvana be the realm \"beyond the Good and the Bad,\" _one_ way leading\nthither is here pointed out. A way to the very portal. To the bars that\ndivide Man from Eternity--or that open to admit that which was temporal.\nBeyond that portal sounds _music_. Not the strains of \"musical\nart.\"[S]--It may be, that we must leave Earth to find that music. But\nonly to the pilgrim who has succeeded on the way in freeing himself from\nearthly shackles, shall the bars open.\n\n  [S] I think I have read, somewhere, that Liszt confined his Dante\n  Symphony to the two movements, _Inferno_ and _Purgatorio_, \"because\n  our tone-speech is inadequate to express the felicities of Paradise.\"\n\n\n\n\nADDENDA\n\n\nFEELING--like honesty--is a moral point of honor, an attribute of whose\npossession no one will permit denial, which claims a place in life and\nart alike. But while, in life, a want of feeling may be forgiven to the\npossessor of a more brilliant attribute, such as bravery or impartial\njustice, in art feeling is held to be the highest moral qualification.\n\nIn music, however, feeling requires two consorts, taste and style. Now,\nin life, one encounters real taste as seldom as deep and true feeling;\nas for style, it is a province of art. What remains, is a species of\npseudo-emotion which must be characterized as lachrymose hysteria or\nturgidity. And, above all, people insist upon having it plainly paraded\nbefore their eyes! It must be underscored, so that everybody shall stop,\nlook, and listen. The audience sees it, greatly magnified, thrown on the\nscreen, so that it dances before the vision in vague, importunate\nvastness; it is cried on the streets, to summon them that dwell remote\nfrom art; it is gilded, to make the destitute stare in amaze.\n\nFor in life, too, the _expressions_ of feeling, by mien and words, are\noftenest employed; rarer, and more genuine, is that feeling which acts\nwithout talk; and most precious is the feeling which hides itself.\n\n\"Feeling\" is generally understood to mean tenderness, pathos, and\nextravagance, of expression. But how much more does the marvelous flower\n\"Emotion\" enfold! Restraint and forbearance, renunciation, power,\nactivity, patience, magnanimity, joyousness, and that all-controlling\nintelligence wherein feeling actually takes its rise.\n\nIt is not otherwise in Art, which holds the mirror up to Life; and still\nmore outspokenly in Music, which repeats the emotions of Life--though\nfor this, as I have said, taste and style must be added; Style, which\ndistinguishes Art from Life.\n\nWhat the amateur and the mediocre artist attempt to express, is feeling\nin little, in detail, for a short stretch.\n\nFeeling on a grand scale is mistaken by the amateur, the semi-artist,\nthe public (and the critics too, unhappily!), for a want of emotion,\nbecause they all are unable to hear the longer reaches as parts of a yet\nmore extended whole. Feeling, therefore, is likewise economy.\n\nHence, I distinguish feeling as Taste, as Style, as Economy. Each a\nwhole in itself, and each one-third of the Whole. Within and over them\nrules a subjective trinity: Temperament, Intelligence, and the instinct\nof Equipoise.\n\nThese six carry on a dance of such subtility in the choice of partners\nand intertwining of figures, in the bearing and the being borne, in\nadvancing and curtesying, in motion and repose, that no loftier height\nof artistry is conceivable.\n\nWhen the chords of the two triads are in perfect tune, Fantasy may--nay,\nmust--associate with Feeling; supported by the Six, she will not\ndegenerate, and out of this combination of all the elements arises\nIndividuality. The individuality catches, like a lens, the\nlight-impressions, reflects them, according to its nature, as a\nnegative, and the hearer perceives the true picture.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nIn so far as taste participates in feeling, the latter--like all\nelse--alters its forms of expression with the period. That is, one\naspect or another of feeling will be favored at one time or another,\nonesidedly cultivated, especially developed. Thus, with and after\nWagner, voluptuous sensuality came to the fore; the form of\n_intensification of passion_ is still unsurmounted by contemporary\ncomposers. On every tranquil beginning followed a swift upward surge.\nWagner, in this point insatiable, but not inexhaustible, turned from\nsheer necessity to the expedient, after reaching a climax, of starting\nafresh softly, to soar to a sudden new intensification.\n\nModern French writers exhibit a revulsion; their feeling is a reflexive\nchastity, or perhaps rather a restrained sensualism; the upstriving\nmountain-paths of Wagner are succeeded by monotonous plains of twilight\nuniformity.\n\nThus \"style\" forms itself out of feeling, when led by taste.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nThe \"Apostles of the Ninth Symphony\" have devised the notion of \"depth\"\nin music. It is still current at face-value, especially in Germanic\nlands.\n\nThere is a depth of feeling, and a depth of thought; the latter is\nliterary, and can have no application to tones. Depth of feeling, by\ncontrast, is psychical, and thoroughly germane to the nature of music.\nThe Apostles of the Ninth Symphony have a peculiar and not quite clearly\ndefined estimate of \"depth\" in music. _Depth_ becomes _breadth_, and the\nattempt is made to attain it through _weight_; it then discovers itself\n(through an association of ideas) by a preference for a _deep register_,\nand (as I have had opportunity to observe) by the insinuation of a\nsecond, mysterious notion, usually of a literary sort. If these are not\nthe sole specific signs, they are the most important ones.\n\nTo every disciple of philosophy, however, depth of feeling would seem to\nimply exhaustiveness in feeling, a complete absorption in the given\nmood.\n\nWhoever, surrounded by the full tide of a genuine carnival crowd, slinks\nabout morosely or even indifferently, neither affected nor carried away\nby the tremendous self-satire of mask and motley, by the might of\nmisrule over law, by the vengeful feeling of wit running riot, shows\nhimself incapable of sounding the depths of feeling. This gives further\nconfirmation of the fact, that depth of feeling roots in a complete\nabsorption in the given mood, however frivolous, and blossoms in the\ninterpretation of that mood; whereas the current conception of deep\nfeeling singles out only one aspect of feeling in man, and specializes\nthat.\n\nIn the so-called \"Champagne Aria\" in Don Giovanni there lies more\n\"depth\" than in many a funeral march or nocturne:--Depth of feeling also\nshows in not wasting it on subordinate or unimportant matters.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nROUTINE is highly esteemed and frequently required; in musical\n\"officialdom\" it is a _sine qua non_. That routine in music should exist\nat all, and, furthermore, that it can be nominated as a condition in the\nmusician's bond, is another proof of the narrow confines of our musical\nart. Routine signifies the acquisition of a modicum of experience and\nartcraft, and their application to all cases which may occur; hence,\nthere must be an astounding number of analogous cases. Now, I like to\nimagine a species of art-praxis wherein each case should be a new one,\nan exception! How helpless and impotent would the army of practical\nmusicians stand before it!--in the end they would surely beat a retreat,\nand disappear. Routine transforms the temple of art into a factory. It\ndestroys creativeness. For creation means, the bringing form out of the\nvoid; whereas routine flourishes on imitation. It is \"poetry made to\norder.\" It rules because it suits the generality: In the theatre, in the\norchestra, in virtuosi, in instruction. One longs to exclaim, \"Avoid\nroutine! Let each beginning be, as had none been before! Know nothing,\nbut rather think and feel! For, behold, the myriad strains that once\nshall sound have existed since the beginning, ready, afloat in the\n\u00e6ther, and together with them other myriads that shall never be heard.\nOnly stretch forth your hands, and ye shall grasp a blossom, a breath of\nthe sea-breeze, a sunbeam; avoid routine, for it strives to grasp only\nthat wherewith your four walls are filled, and the same over and over\nagain; the spirit of ease so infects you, that you will scarcely leave\nyour armchairs, and will lay hold only of what is nearest to hand. And\nmyriad strains are there since the beginning, still waiting for\nmanifestation!\"\n\n                           *       *       *\n\n\"It is my misfortune, to possess no routine,\" Wagner once wrote Liszt,\nwhen the composition of \"Tristan\" was making no progress. Thus Wagner\ndeceived himself, and wore a mask for others. He had too much routine,\nand his composing-machinery was thrown out of gear, just when a tangle\nformed in the mesh which only inspiration could unloose. True, Wagner\nfound the clew when he succeeded in throwing off routine; but had he\nreally never possessed it, he would have declared the fact without\nbitterness. And, after all, this sentence in Wagner's letter expresses\nthe true artist-contempt for routine, inasmuch as he waives all claim to\na qualification which he thinks meanly of, and takes care that others\nmay not invest him with it. This self-praise he utters with a mien of\nironic desperation. He is, in very truth, unhappy that composition is at\na standstill, but finds rich consolation in the consciousness that his\ngenius is above the cheap expedients of routine; at the same time, with\nan air of modesty, he sorrowfully confesses that he has not acquired a\ntraining belonging to the craft.\n\nThe sentence is a masterpiece of the native cunning of the instinct of\nself-preservation; but equally proves--and that is our point--the\npettiness of routine in creative work.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\nRESPECT the Pianoforte! Its disadvantages are evident, decided, and\nunquestionable: The lack of sustained tone, and the pitiless, unyielding\nadjustment of the inalterable semitonic scale.\n\nBut its advantages and prerogatives approach the marvelous.\n\nIt gives a single man command over something complete; in its\npotentialities from softest to loudest in one and the same register it\nexcels all other instruments. The trumpet can blare, but not sigh;\ncontrariwise the flute; the pianoforte can do both. Its range embraces\nthe highest and deepest practicable tones. Respect the Pianoforte!\n\nLet doubters consider how the pianoforte was esteemed by Bach, Mozart,\nBeethoven, Liszt, who dedicated their choicest thoughts to it.\n\nAnd the pianoforte has one possession wholly peculiar to itself, an\ninimitable device, a photograph of the sky, a ray of moonlight--the\nPedal.\n\nThe effects of the pedal are unexhausted, because they have remained\neven to this day the drudges of a narrow-souled and senseless harmonic\ntheory; the treatment accorded them is like trying to mould air or water\ninto geometric forms. Beethoven, who incontestably achieved the greatest\nprogress on and for the pianoforte, divined the mysteries of the pedal,\nand to him we owe the first liberties.\n\nThe pedal is in ill-repute. For this, absurd irregularities must bear\nthe blame. Let us experiment with _sensible_ irregularities.\n\n                           *       *       *\n\n\"I FELT ... that the book I shall write will be neither in English nor\nin Latin; and this for the one reason ... namely, that the language in\nwhich it may be given me not only to write, but also to think, will not\nbe Latin, or English, or Italian, or Spanish, but a language not even\none of whose words I know, a language in which dumb things speak to me,\nand in which, it may be, I shall at last have to respond in my grave to\nan Unknown Judge.\"\n\n                                   (Von Hofmannsthal: A letter.)\n\n\n\n\n  [ Transcriber's Note:\n\n    The following is a list of corrections made to the original. The first\n    line is the original line, the second the corrected one.\n\n     I know not what; the Unknown I would have!\n    \"I know not what; the Unknown I would have!\n\n  m\u00eame en avoir \u00e9tabli tout la d\u00e9veloppement\u00a0...\" [Vincent d'Indy, in\n  m\u00eame en avoir \u00e9tabli tout le d\u00e9veloppement\u00a0...\" [Vincent d'Indy, in\n\n                                    (Von Hoffmannsthal: A letter.)\n                                     (Von Hofmannsthal: A letter.)\n\n  ]","title":"Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":9856}