Part 2 (1/2)

Orchestre”) of which the second nuiojoso,” a playful, sportive, chic and graceful movement, with a tender melody in theaccoinally been scored for orchestra, it is quite possible to detect orchestral instruments like flutes and clarionets in some of the brilliant runs The pianola roll is a reproduction of an arrangement for four hands, that is, for two players at one piano, yet only one player is required to produce the full effect of a pianoforte duet arranged from an orchestral composition

Moskowszki is a prolific cohly explore the catalogue of his works

Much one before and may be summed up as watered Chopin Therefore, even if Moskowszki's coinality andmodern salon pieces

One of the prettiest and deservedly popular little works in the modern repertory is the Paderewski ”Minuet,” Op 14, No 1 Modern minuets are echoes of the classical period Compositions of this kind are to be found in the sonatas and symphonies of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven and even further back in the suites of Bach Accordingly the Paderewski ”Minuet,” in keeping with the forracefully melodious At the same time, however, it is modern in the brilliant ornamentation introduced in the middle part of the composition which in a minuet is called the trio

The minuet was a stately dance The word is derived fro to the short steps taken in the dance Originally the music to it was brief, but as a complement, a second minuet was added which, in time, became the trio, so-called, because it ritten in three part harmony This was followed by a repetition of the first nation trio has been retained to this day, the three part haratory The minuet is one of the very few of the older dance forms which have not beco of a coupee (a salute to one's partner, while resting on one foot and swinging the other backward and forward) a high step and a balance In the Paderewski minuet the stately, cereether with its old fashi+oned, nave grace and char it to see the dancers at a French court ball or in the ballrooh pompadour with puffs and curls powdered white, with petites mouches, little moon and star-shaped beauty spots, on their faces; square cut bodices, lace stomachers, paniers over brocaded skirts with lace panels; feet encased in high heel satin slippers with jewelled buckles; and gracefullytheir ostrich feather fans as they curtsy to their partners; the latter wearing wigs also powdered white, long coats of brocade, elaborately embroidered waistcoats with lace jabots, satin knee breeches, silk stockings and a garter with jewelled buckle on the right leg, and helping the brief pauses in the dance Such is the picture that can be conjured up in i the Paderewski minuet

Quite different yet equally effective in its way is his ”Cracovienne Fantastic,” Op 14, No 6 The cracovienne is a Polish dance for a large and brilliant company and just as Paderewski recalled in hispast, so in his cracovienne he gives us a brilliant picture of a ballroom scene in his native Poland when that country was still in its glory and not partitioned a three nations of Europe The reiteration of its characteristic rhythives it peculiar fascination It is clearly and distinctlyit brilliancy

Again different in style fro are the works of Cecile Chaminade Not only is this composer a woman, she is a French woman and, like a French woman, essentially clever and chic She may be a trifle more superficial than the composers I have mentioned, but herabout a refined woman, the quintessence of neatness It is quite as if Mhts as well as her dresses, being sure to have every frill and furbelow in its place, whether it be the robe d' interieur which she is to wear at breakfast, her robe de ville for calling, or her robe de soiree True it is that serious musicians are apt to wear a somewhat supercilious expression at mention of her music and to pronounce it clever rather than deep, yet it is equally true that it takes its place aains value if only froht French wohts for which her graceful wings are not strong enough Most of herarchness and coquetry and requires quick and sudden changes in ti the larger musical forms, she has been an industrious student of the best music, so that all her co to the rules of musical science, yet in inality andon the one hand the pitfall of pretentiousness, and, on the other, the monotony of platitude found in the works of those who coinality to fill the to know your liinal ithin them

Brief as is Cha, it is ably harmonized and it appeals to the heart There is not a commonplace bar in it It is one of those delicate bits of inspiration which survive other and seerandeur of which, however, is in course of time, discovered to be mere hollow pretentiousness It is a capital example of the enre--delicate, refined and sensitive

She has been highly successful in coestion of the trivial Thus her ”Air de Ballet,”

Op 30, No 1, is full of brilliancy and nervous energy without ever degenerating into vulgar noisiness Another ”Air de Ballet” by her from the ballet ”Callirhoe,” to which her widely known ”Scarf Dance”

also belongs, is crisp, bright and dainty ”Callirhoe” is a ballet-sye perforrounded in her art that it does not suffer even under the pressure of rapid coed to work ”on time” The commission for this ballet was offered to Godard, a well-known French composer He was, however, occupied with an opera and declined the work, at the sa that the commission be offered to Chaminade It was accepted by her and within six weeks froan work upon it, it was co for orchestra

While the pianolist hardly can go a the list of Chaminade's compositions I may mention as especially characteristic her ”Arabesque,” ”Humoresque,” La Lisonjera (Flatterer) ”Pierrette,” ”Scara Wheel”

Chaminade's compositions are so popular in this country yet so little is known about her personally, that I have secured a few personal data concerning her from my friend, Mr Percy Mitchell, who is attached to the staff of an American paper in Paris Mme Carbonel-Chaives her a boyish aspect, a touch of masculinity further emphasized by a tailor-made costume with stiff, white, turned-down collar and loosely tied scarf

Beyond this aspect, however, there is nothing mannish about her She cares neither for sport nor exercise in general; her principal occupation isthe pianoforte two hours a day; and she reads an immense amount of poetry fros Society she abhors, but she attends scrupulously to her large correspondence Very many of these letters come from America, and in a practical spirit truly A the interpretation of her works ”How should your 'Serenade' be phrased?--I a you a copy of it Would you kindlyin it and return it to me?” In connection with questions of this kind it is interesting to note that practically all of Chaminade's compositions have been metrostyled for the pianola by the composer herself The pianolist at least will not find it necessary to trouble her with questions like the above

Probably no composer has had one set s So with Cha her thoughts on the keyboard and even working the them on paper Or sheup nearly half of her studio Sometimes an idea that has haunted her for weekson a train to fulfill a concert engagement and she will jot it down in spite of the roar and vibration of railway travel As the train rushes on the composition may be completely worked out in the composer's mind before the journey's end, and so retentive is Chaminade's memory that, when she returns to her villa in Vesinet, near the forest of St Germain not far from Paris, she can seat herself at her table and copy the work from that mental vision of it which she had on the train

So a seh Roumania, Servia and Greece, she was invited to play for the students of the Athens conservatory When she stepped on the stage she sa after row of young people armed with the printed music of what she was about to play and prepared in a cold-blooded, business-like way to open the ram and to follow the concert note for note froine the effect upon her nerves produced by the rustling of one hundred pages all being turned at the sa the concert; and even now she laughingly confesses that she was nearly overcoain such an ordeal as the ly prepared for her

With the exception of Nevin, the co and actively engaged in composition The piece to which I now desire to call the pianolist's attention belongs to the dawn of the romantic period in music It was composed by Weber who died in 1826, is entitled ”Invitation to the Dance,” ritten a few er Caroline Brandt, and is dedicated to ”My Caroline” Because Weber was one of the first coive distinctly descriptive titles to compositions, and because of certain other characteristics in his works, he is regarded as the founder of the romantic school of music--music which is not si that adds iest a definite mood and even to throw a realistic picture of soround of har; and which cares less for the artifices of form than for the expression of the true and the beautiful from the standpoint of modern art

The ”Invitation to the Dance” derives further interest from the fact that it was the first composition to lift the waltz, which up to that ti, to the level of other legitinized artistic musical forms The composition opens with an introduction in slow ti the voice of theto the lady an invitation to dance You hear her playful objection--undoubtedly she wants to be asked a second time--the repetition of his invitation, her assent, the short dialogue as the two step out on the floor; brief, but resonant preluding chords; then the free, elastic rhyth melody There is an exuberance of runs and orna of elation lapses into a second drea on the scented atmosphere of the ballroom In portions of this there is a sentimental colloquy between the couple eclearly differentiated The little duet between them adds to the beauty and interest of this portion of the work, thewhirls and sparkles again and, when the dance has ceased, there is a briefer recapitulation of the introduction, the lady is led back to her seat, and the episode comes to an end

The pianolist may now place Liszt's ”Cainally this was coanini, Liszt transcribed it for the pianoforte and so successfully that now it is better known in his version than in its original form

It is a piece which can be described only by one word--delicious Its title is immediately understood by the unh treble, constantly recurring, but alith added instead of di, beauty On the pianoforte it dehest rank, yet for the pianolist it is as easy to play as is the siinner

And so, having begun this chapter with Nevin, one of the lighter composers of pronounceda work by Weber and another by Liszt, two of the ures in musical history Even if, as I trust will be the case, he becomes so interested in the works I have cited in this chapter, as to try much other music by the same composers, he will, in an almost incredibly short space of tireat masters--which shows that, after all, the sequence I a in this book is not as haphazard as some may think

IV THE THRILL OF THE GREAT MASTERS

In his choice of music the pianolist need not pause to consider the slow evolution of the art fro is coard all traditions, even such an absurd one, for example, as that which insists that a sonata or symphony should be played as a whole, that, if a work in this form consists of three or four movements, none of these should be ”lifted” out of the whole and played as a separate composition