Tchaikovsky. A Short Biography by Gerald Abraham. (Duckworth. 5s.) THIS
is a useful book, for it contains material that does not appear in the few and incomplete studies of this Russian composer avail- able in English. It is perhaps all the better for its being confined to relating the known facts of Tchaikovsky's life, and excluding musical criticism, since some of the author's comments by the way do not inspire confidence. One might dissent from the statement "Many composers have written music more interesting than Tchaikovsky's ; none, it is fairly safe to say, has been more interest- ing as a man," since few, except the greatest composers, have written music so personal, so intimately revealing, as Tchaikovsky ; so that if he is interesting as a man, he is also so as a composer. It is possible to argue that it is precisely the lack of integration which made Tchaikovsky deficient both as a man and as a composer, and that the conflict in his nature made him an interesting case. But not a " case " such as the psycho-analysts love to expatiate on. There have been thousands of men with homosexual tendencies who were not gifted composers, just as Chopin did not share his genius with all his other fellow-consumptives. It is not the tendency towards homosexuality or consumption which makes Tchaikovsky and Chopin interesting, either as musicians or as men. It is even possible that his best works are so good just because in them he did achieve a resolution, not only an expression of his conflicting feelings. And this conception gives back to genius the honour we so often try to steal from the man.
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