The art of music, Vol. 04 (of 14) - Unknown

NEW YORK
THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF MUSIC

MUSIC IN AMERICA

INTRODUCTION

Prophecy, not history, is the most truly important concern of music in America. What a new world, with new processes and new ideals, will do with the tractable and still unformed art of music; what will arise from the contact of this art with our unprecedented democracy—these are the questions of deepest import in our musical life in the United States. The past has consisted chiefly of a tasting of the musical art and traditions of the old world. The present is divided between imitation of the old and searching for the new, both in quality and application. The fruitage of our national musical life is still for the future. Intense as are the activities of the present, they are still merely the preparation of the soil for a future growth the nature and extent of which we can only guess at to-day. The stream of musical evolution in America, in the present transitional period, is rapidly overflowing its wonted banks, and passing the boundaries of the traditional musical world. The many are striving to obtain that which has been the exclusive possession of the few, and in this endeavor are not only extending, but also actually transforming the art. The paramount issues change with the passing of the seasons. One imported European sensation gives way to another. The problem of the true basis of American music dissolves overnight, and gives way to the problem of the specific evaluation of individual composers, whatsoever their tendency. The questions of the narrow concert world dwindle before the greater question of a broad musical administration for the people. We stand, in fact, in a state of chaos with respect of musical activities and ideals, and only the clearest thinkers are able to catch the truer and larger drift of the national evolution, or effectively direct it. Too many persons are ready to suppose that the issues of music in America lie wholly within the scope of purely musical considerations, and that they do not depend, as is actually the case in certain important respects, upon the nature of the national ideals and tendencies. The national need will condition the supply, and the more truly and deeply a national need is fulfilled, the more vital will be the result. For this reason it is important that the general national condition with respect of music be carefully studied, and that misconceptions and theories be relinquished in favor of a knowledge of facts.

If now we set out to glance over the circumstances which have eventually brought about the present condition of music in America, we find that this history, taken in its largest outlines, has a threefold aspect, the features of which may be roughly termed appreciation, creation, and administration. The degree in which the new world has grasped and understood the facts of musical development in the old must constitute a chief factor in any consideration of its musical evolution, and this subject will naturally include a reference to musical culture in America. The second general division of the subject relates to American composers and the creative musical output of the nation. The matter of the appreciation of this output will best be touched upon in connection with this aspect of the subject. With the question of administration we approach a phase of the subject which has of late assumed momentous proportions, touching directly, as it does, the great question of the relation of music to the people—the reaction of democracy to the art of music. The divisions of Appreciation and Administration are, of course, very closely related, and some chapters, such as that on Education, embody both aspects in almost equal degree. Hence the line cannot be very sharply drawn. Our sequence of chapters, while emphasizing the three aspects here set forth, has therefore been arranged with a view to presenting as continuous a story as possible. The chapters reviewing the creative activities of American composers have accordingly been placed together at the end of the volume.

We can not deeply consider the matter of the appreciation of the musical art of the old world by the new, without coming to the realization that it is complete. This, it must be recognized, is a matter which does not ultimately depend upon the numerical extent of the appreciators, but upon the quality of appreciation existing within the nation. Were this not so, we could not affirm the existence of a complete appreciation of its musical art by any nation of the world. In the broad sense in which we must necessarily speak in dealing only with the major facts of civilization and evolution, we may say that German musical art is appreciated by the German nation, even if only here or there someone is found who understands precisely the principles of Beethoven's form, or Wagner's harmony. In the practical progress of the world it is general acceptance and use, together with a sufficient artistic appreciation, technical and otherwise, on the part of certain individuals, which constitutes national appreciation of art. The knowledge and action of such preëminent individuals qualify the appreciative life of the nation. The evolution of the world to-day resides in the evolution of the progressive thought of individuals. Such thought outdistances the slower mental operations of the mass, which is nevertheless drawn along into ever new sets of changing conditions, through the modern development of the means of communication and the corresponding rapidity of both material and spiritual advance.

Such conditions of appreciation exist in a signal manner in the America of to-day. It is the simplest and most obvious of facts that there is a general acceptance and use of European musical art, old and new, throughout the 'musical world' of America. The relation of that 'musical world' to the whole population will be considered later. It is equally obvious to the qualified observer that no point of European musical art is without its thorough-going students and appreciators, and ardent conservators, in America. From Bach and Haydn, nay, from the Gregorian chant, the Greek enharmonic, the Oriental scale, down through every intermediate period and personality to the present day of Stravinsky and Schönberg, every phase of musical history and life has its students and its champions in the new world. America has, in truth, summed up the musical life of the ages and reflects it daily in the multitudinous activities of her musical world. The quality of American appreciation has one advantage of the greatest significance over that of any other land, in that it is without national or racial prejudice. Being without history or unity, with respect of race, the American people are without a racial folk-song, and hence are bound by no ancient racial sympathy or habit to a particular fundamental conception of the character of music. German music, French, Russian, Bohemian, Scandinavian, Italian—all are accepted with equal eagerness and sympathy. In America the world's music falls on fresh ears, with the result that a catholicity of taste prevails such as is to be found in no other land, and with the further result that a unique and broadly inclusive national impression of musical character in general has been gained. This in turn is leading to a national creative musical output which, if it has not converged upon any one distinctive national character, is, on the other hand, wholly free from dependence upon the traditional character of the music of any other nation, and could have been produced by no other nation.

The upshot of the status of American appreciation of musical art is that, although the work of more extensively familiarizing the population with the world's music must continue, the evolution, broadly, of America as an appreciative nation has been fulfilled, and it can from now on find no true musical progress except as a creative nation. Not only has it studied, at home and abroad, all that the outside world has produced, but it has now thoroughly studied the various phases of aboriginal music which exist upon its own soil. The national life has passed beyond its school days and entered the period where it has no alternative but to face judgment as a musically productive nation with legitimate pretensions to maturity.