MUSIC.
BRAHMS AND MS ADMIRERS.
Ma. PIILLBB MAITLAND, in his new and suggestive study of Brahma,* tells an anecdote which is curiously illustrative of the altered attitude of the British public towards Brahma Any time from forty to twenty years ago it was a common occur- • &eons. By J. A. Fidler Maitland. With 12 illustrations. London: Methuen and Co. [7e. 6d. net.] resew for a musical critic to have to correct the printer's substitution of "Brehm" for "Brahms." Now the whirligig of time. has brought in its revenge, and if one bits to speak of Brehm, the printer is apt to rename the illustrious tenor Brahma. This anecdote, which the present writer can confirm from his own experience, hes no bearing on• the intrinsic merit. of Brahnues oempesitions : it only . serves to show that a name which formerly enjoyed only a limited repute has now achieved a much wider familiarity, and it incidentally thrown an interesting sidelight on the transitory fame of singers, The growth of • the appre- ciation of Brahms's music can be illustrated in a variety of ; other• ways, significant or entertaining, and nothing is more remarkable about it than its gradual progress. Schumann's. historic acclamation in great measure defeated its own,:. generous aim. It excited resentment amongst the romanti- cists and failed to convince adherents to the classical'. tradition. In this country, again, the fact that Schumann . stood as his chief sponsor was a distinct handicap, for- Schumann suffered from the persistent loyalty of the Mende's– sohnians, plus royalistes gue le roi, who regarded any new composer in the, ight of a rival, and made it a point of honour- to adopt an ultra-cautious attitude in considering his claims. Fortunately, however; Joachiw, then in the plenitude of hie powers and prestige, threw all the weight of his influence into the scale and did more than anyone else to seeure a hearing for the new-comer. Mr. Fuller Maitland does well to recall the names of those who in the late " sixties" and " seventies" enthusiastically followed Joachim's lead, amongst whom special prominence attaches to Lady Thompson, Sir Charles Stanford and other leading members of the Cambridge University Musical Society, Matins and George Grove at the Crystal Palace. But the cult was esoteric and depended largely on the support of a mall group of accomplished amateurs, Brahma nevev was, and never will be, a fashionable composer. No prima., donna, except Pauline Viardot, was ever interested in his. music. No composer has ever made fewer concessions to- incompetence or been at less pains to conciliate the public. Again, the Press was for a long time unsympathetic or even hostile. It was impossible to. deny Brahms science and intellectuality, but inspiration, melody, colour, and charm .:• were all, found conspicuously absent, and hardly a single Qom• position of his was produced without .reference being made to
" the midnight ell." To the antagonism of the prejudiced, the in- , dolent, and the uncultivated there came in time to be Rade& the antipathy of the extreme Wagnerolaters, which was partly, temperamental and partly the inevitable outcome of a conflict: of ideals which had already led to en, acrimonioes controversy,
in. Germany. Wagner made no secret of his antagonism, but. Brahms neither inspired nor shared the polemical views of- those who sought to pit him against his great contemporary. Another, serious obstacle in the way of Brahma's popularity was the difficulty of his compositions. The adequate perform.. ante even of his songs entailed an amount of musicianship, which was naturally ,resented by the pioneers of the royalty,. ballad industry. Madame Antoinette Sterling has left it on. record that after running through some of his songs with the. compeaer,..he saw that they " did not suit" her at all; and adds• that she told him in so many words that he didnot understand how to write for the voice, All the forces of incompetence
were mobilised a. againgt cerepoeer who made such intolerable demands on efficiency, intelligenceAnd self-surrender, for there is no peacock musics in Brahma. And yet in spite of all these drawbacks his reputation advanced, slowly but
without either set-back or furore. The Um ted circle of musicians genuinely interested in chamber music soon recognised in him a master who had permanently enriched the repertory of the quartet-player, and they have never wavered or faltered in their allegiance. The austere splendour of the Requiem" and the Schielcsalelied has never failed to move hearts once responsive to their magic, just as they have never failed to evoke the homage of obloquy from those who only feel music in their: nerve-centres or their bead. Manna and Richter and Hallif., were assiduous in familiarising the frequenters pf their concerts with the symphonies and overtures. the Haydn variations and the concertos for pianoforte and violin. The glories of the motets, and partriionge for , mixed choir were revealed_ to amateurs of a cappella singing by madrigal societies, and a• few native artiste, emboldened by •the example of Stockhausen and later of Henschel, carried on the work of • popularising 13rahms's songs. And every- one in this movement, whether conductor, instrnmentalist, or singer, never altered or varied in his devotion to Brahma, except on the crescendo side. Once a Brahmsian always' a Brahmsian is a maxim of modern musical culture. And it expresses a truth =which need excite no surpiise. There is no composer' who can stand the test of repetition more triumphantly, who reveals more beauties ,at 'each successive hearing than Brahma. And there is none who inspires in his admirers a more sovereign contempt for the
futility of his detractors. •
This attitude, perfectly intelligible, but at times extremely irritating to the unsympathetic, probably accounts for' the imputation of priggishness and intellectual arrogance under which the adherents of Brahma have laboured in the past. But this much must be allowed them : that very few people have insincerely professed to be admirers of Brahma, for the excellent reason that no obvious advantage—no reputation for audacity or .emancipation or wickedness—was to be gained therefrom. Now that the battle has been won, and Brahma has passed into the list of established reputations, the violence with which he is assailed by half- baked, eccentric or neurotic critics is positively diverting. There was one 'writer whose favourite• epithet for the Deutsches Requiem was " cowardly." Heaven alone knows why. Mr. Bernard Shaw, while occasionally admitting that he had immense science, has always been one of the most consistent depreciators of Brahma. The Requiem used to be a red rag to him; he once went out of his way to deny any merit to the Feat- and Gedenkspriiche ; and at the present day there is still quite a large number of people, alleged to be educated, who would die sooner than own' to even a sneaking liking for what Mr. Shaw has 'condemned. The Straussians and post- Strartssians. are, fdr the most part, extremely hostile to Brahms, all the more so perhaps in view of the fact that in his earlier stage of development theinflnence of Brahms is traceable in Strauss's work. Again, extremes meet, and the Daily Mail has recently said in so many words that Brahma will not do. Last of all, Mr. George Sampson, writing in the Daily Chronicle, has pronounced Brahms to be " a bastard Beethoven." -The fidelity with which Mr. Sampson clings to the hereditary weapon of his clan is indeed touching.
The literature dealing with Brahma; though not atithe of that
devoted to Wagner, has grown steadily sines his death, and now receives a valuable addition in Mr. Fuller Maitland's volume. It is written with a full and intimate knowledge of Brahma's music, the structure and content of which are analysed with acuteness as well as sympathy. It is also written by an avowed enthusiast who glories in his enthusiasm ; but this fact, while it detracts from the critical value of the book, lends it a fervour not to be found in more judicial writers. After all, who was ever converted by musical criticism whose -opinion was worth having ? Besides, no- genuine Brahmsian wants to convert people like Mr. Shaw, who are the most .dangerous and compromising of allies. The hostility of those -who dislike Brahms is one of the surest earnests of his immortality. • C. L. G.
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