Another very famous piece, which comes in this volume, is, "Like a Blossoming Lilac My Love Is Fair," here written in the fearfully uninviting key of D-sharp minor. It is poetic and lyric in the extreme, and a more charming selection can not be found.
The next song is "The Old Love," on a poem by Candidus. This is a moderate movement:
"The dusky swallow flieth toward her northern home,
The songsters build and flutter beneath the leafy dome;
The morn is warm and cloudy, the sky bedimmed with rains,
My heart awakes from slumber to old forgotten pains."
Then comes "To a Nightingale," and, last of all, "In Summer Fields."
In closing this somewhat extended discussion of the works of Brahms the writer desires to emphasize the importance of this music and its inherent beauty. In consequence of the entire absence of show passages in the Brahms works, and his uniform adherence to lofty and poetic ideals, together with his fondness for deep and somewhat mystical and meditative effects, his nature has been misunderstood by the greater part of the musical world. It has been charged against him that his music is purely mechanical in its construction, and that he took delight in putting together forbidding and repelling figures without regard for the convenience of players or the pleasure of the hearers. The tone of the previous discussion is perhaps sufficiently clear to define the position of the present writer in regard to this notion. Nevertheless, it is perhaps well to say something a little more definite, and this I will do presently.
It is to be observed, further, that the Brahms symphonies have at length made their way, and are heard now with pleasure in all parts of the world where enlightened audiences listen to orchestral music. Even the Fourth, which in some respects is less attractive at first sight than the others, awakened very great popular applause when it was last played by the Chicago Orchestra, and the Second Symphony is universally recognized throughout the world as a very beautiful masterpiece. However, Brahms has written about 100 songs which have more or less entered into the current of concert appearance, and there are not two opinions concerning their general melodiousness, rare musical quality, and exquisitely poetical effect. But they require beautiful and true voices, finished art of the singer, and, from the accompanist, a real mastery of the instrument. That these qualities are, unfortunately, not always provided by our musical education is one of the reasons why the public at large has made the acquaintance as yet of only a limited number of these songs, among which those in the list above are the best known.
In the judgment of the present writer it is as certain as anything in the future can be that the works of Brahms are destined to enter into the pantheon of the classical in musical art; and are entitled to that distinction by the purity and beauty of their style no less than by the intense originality of the ideas themselves and of their treatment. Musical students, therefore, are earnestly recommended not to permit themselves to be discouraged by the difficulties which their first acquaintance with Brahms will reveal. It is, first, to play the pieces; and, second, to play them in a musical way; then, if the instrument itself is of a musical tone, with a good singing quality, the beauties of the works will more and more appear, and the study will become a delight and an inspiration no less than a great technical education.
PROGRAM.
Symphony in E minor. Four hands. (Schirmer.)
Waltzes, opus 39.
Variations upon a Theme by Händel. Opus 21.
Four Ballads. Opus 10.
Intermezzo, No. 1, opus 119.
Intermezzo, No. 4, opus 116.
Rhapsody, No. 2, opus 79.
Serenade in D major. Four hands.
Songs ad libitum.
If it is possible to command the services of capable instrumentalists, very attractive modifications of the foregoing program can easily be made.