Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 2, No. 11 (1928-08)

396 The Phonograph Monthly Review August, 1928 posturing musical side show barker? I am sure there is. I believe that the word “showmanship” is beyond doubt the proper one for the charac- teristics exhibited on this type of record, but not as meaning the antics of the slick salesman, the loud-mouthed impresario putting on a “good show,”—rather as denoting “showing” in a very different sense: an eccentric, careless, almost con- temptuous exposition of powers which take on these surprising manifestations for the lack of normal channels of expression. Given a subject that does not demand his best efforts, is it odd that he cannot restrain from flinging his super- fluous energies into vain interpretative gestures? It is like the empty bravado of the strongest boy of the neighborhood strutting up and down his domain shouting, “Knock this chip off my shoulder! Just try!” Such a boy—and such a musician—with undirected energies is a real menace. Put the boy on the football team or to work, and he not only utilizes his strength and makes it an asset, but his bravado, his “showman- ship” suddenly disappear; when he uses his energy he no longer finds it necessary to boast of it. And similarly when Stokowski has a musical work worthy of his powers, his virtuosity is no longer empty, but technical and interpretative excellence perfected and utilized to the utmost. Stokowski cannot check-his powers. If he hasn’t got great music to play it is inevitable that he should posture, display, endeavor to “be differ- ent.” And so I offer up by personal prayer that his future recordings will be exclusively of major works or of shorter works of high artistic calibre. More Bach, more Brahms, more moderns (in whose works the newness, elaborateness, or com- parative difficulty of the idiom will engage his full strength even if the actual musical merits do not,) but no more “war horses!” Other men of talent rather than genius can turn out steady, sober, brilliant (but not superlatively so) ver- sions of the “war horses” and light classics, and the novice will no longer be beguiled into attribut- ing greatness to what is merely great sound and fury. The light classics in fitting versions will give healthier musical enjoyment, and then when the novice hears Stokowski play a masterpiece he will realize the gulf which must always exist be- tween the “light” and the true classic, but which Stokowski’s astonishing feats with the former resulted in obscuring for the unexperienced. And in the big works Stokowski will have an adequate and worthy outlet for his genius, one so great that it should be reserved only for mas- terpieces. There Stokowski will find that there is no such thing as perfection, that the master composers will always demand more and more from him. And music the world over will profit by a series of recorded masterpieces the like of which has been but barely indicated by the Tocca- ta and Fugue, the Entr’acte, Brahms First, and the Fire Bird, which great as they are will be dwarfed by the works Stokowski can and surely will achieve. (To be continued) Hints on Score Reading By W. A. CHISLETT (Continued from the last issue) A STILL larger member of the double- reed family is the Bassoon in which the tube is about nine feet long. For convenience in playing this tube is bent back on itself and a long thin mouthpiece is at- tached to the narrower end to carry the double reed. The deeper notes of the bassoon (as heard in the opening bars of Tschaikowsky's “Pathetic” Symphony) are very ponderous and heavy. The middle and higher notes, which have a nasal but often pleasant quality, are illustrated very well towards the end of the Overture to “The Barber of Seville” (Phil, score, Columbia and Victor records) when a scrap of melody, which has been played earlier in the Overture by the oboe and horn in turn, is given to the clarinet and bassoon in succession. Comical effects are demanded also from the bassoon at times such as that produced by the three downward notes reiterated as an accompaniment to the oboe tune in the Scherzo of Beethoven's “Pastoral” Sym- phony already mentioned. These notes have been said to suggest the gait of a drunken peasant. The last of this family is the Double Bassoon and the relationship between this monster and the bassoon is similar to that between the double- bass and the 'cello. Even more gruff and heavy in tone than the bassoon, the double-bassoon is used mainly to grunt ejaculatory notes and to support and add weight to the double basses, as it does, for example, throughout the last movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (Phil, score, Brunswick, Columbia and Victor records.) The chief member of the family of single reed instruments is the B flat Clarinet , which is simi- lar in external appearance to the oboe. The reed in the clarinet is, however, much larger than those in the oboe and closes one end of the tube sufficiently to make the instrument act in a simi- lar manner to a stopped organ pipe. The effect