Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1929-11)

November, 1929 The Phonograph Monthly Review groups of children singing and dancing games may yield the best results; with large groups of adults nothing can surpass choral singing, but these exceptions apart there can be little doubt but that the orchestra speaks the Open Sesame to music’s higher realms. Its greater complexity is only seeming, for the variety in tone qualities permits the various voices to be followed with ease. Its attractiveness lies in its inexhaustible palette of color, its flexible command of dynamic resources, above all in its indefinable magnetism and sorcery. Solo voices and instruments may be more personal, at tim ( es more subtle, but such qualities are of little value in the early stages of musical education; broad strokes, bright col- ors, sonority, clarity, piquancy are the desideria, and these are the prime orchestral qualities. It is not by chance alone that the extraordinary advance in general musical culture made during the last decade or two has been concurrent with an equally remarkable increase in orchestral con- certs and their audiences, both actual and vicari- ous (via broadcasts and recordings). And no one who has observed even casually the astounding growth in the influence of the phonograph can have failed to mark that this growth has been due in very large part to the heightened fidelity with which large ensembles can be recorded and to the mushroom growth of a recorded orchestral repertory. With these disks the most efficacious educative work has been—and still can be—done. Second, the route of ascent from musical sea level to the foot hills of the delectable mountains sketched in this series has avoided the well worn path of what one educator called “song to sym- phony.” Musical form has not been mentioned here, although it is the great Alpha and Omega of most serious appreciation work, and rightly so. But there are many reliable guide books for serious students: here informality of approach is to be reckoned with, and in consequence less traveled roads have been indicated, achieving much the same objective but passing through somewhat different terrain. Most novices shy fearsomely at the first mention of musical archi- tecture and who can blame them? Teaching the a-b-a form before a great deal of music in that form has been thoroughly absorbed is like teach- ing algebra before the pupil has mastered elemen- tary addition and subtraction and the multiplica- tion table. The names of musical structures are merely convenient labels; the thing itself should be known before the name. Instead of studying terminology, illustrated by a scant few pieces of music, the beginner must become familiar and at ease with a plentitude of music; then, if he likes, he may turn to strict terminology and analysis. I think that this point cannot be too strongly emphasized, particularly with the novice who is not engaged in any serious study of music, but who merely wishes to enjoy it better by knowing it better. In the introduction to this series (June 1929 issue) it was stated that everyone, no mat- ter how musically illiterate, has some share of musical heritage. From this foundation of popu- 43 lar and folk melody one goes on to attractive, un- pretentious pieces that strongly emphasize the elemental musical qualities—rhythm and tuneful- ness. (“First” list, July issue.) The most im- portant of the secondary musical elements— dramatic appeal—is the next quality to be stress- ed, first in crude form in “hill-billy” ballad, then in “descriptive” and “novelty” pieces, then in more developed form in programmatic tone- poems. The next stage is its finest flower and most authentic manifestation in the purely musi- cal drama of “absolute” music,—the conflict be- tween two or more themes, or the logical evolu- tion of a single germinal theme. But we have stopped short of this, for absolute music lies in the higher altitudes. That rarefied air repells the novice and he must not be thrust into it too quickly. Let him learn to climb first from musical sea level upwards via the most natural route, hearing pieces preferably as played by the finest musicians so that almost from the beginning he begins instinctively to discriminate between finished and sloppy performances, and also to listen for increasingly subtle details of color and complexity of treatment. The pieces named here have struck fairly closely to the; ideal simple types: marches, dances, rhapsodies, tone poems,—characterized by bright rhythms, attrac- tive tunefulness, and above all, musical form that can be sensed readily and without conscious ef- fort. Side tours might be made to such pleasant lands as those of the light and concert overtures (space has not permitted a study of that vast record repertory here, a separate series would be demanded to do it justice). But always the direction of progress is from simple to complex, advancing from what is Well-known and liked to new material treated in a familiar way, or fami- liar material given novel treatment. When the novice has come to play and to enjoy the higher types of dances, poems and concert pieces his further progress will require no arti- ficial stimulation. Whether he is conscious of the fact or not he has attained a firm grasp on musi- cal principles, an ear for tonal delicacies, and a natural feeling for balance and proportion. He may not know the names of the higher forms, but he has acquired the sensibility by which they —and all musical qualities—are apperceived and judged. For in the end music is a law unto itself and it can be judged only by itself. The value of any sort of appreciation work depends entirely on its success in encouraging the sympathetic hearing of: much music. The preceding pages of this series sketched a very considerable musical reper- tory available on records, but as the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so the test of music is the playing. If this article—or any article— leads to progress up the musical ladder, if only by stimulating the actual playing of the pieces it lists. That is its purpose and I hope that with many readers it has had some measure of success. The End