MUSIC.
BRITISH MUSIC AT THE PROMENADE CONCERTS. 14118. Yonx Bower's second Pianoforte Concerto in D minor, which was played at the Promenade Concert on August 17th, is neither a good example of modern British music—as it was composed in 1905—nor, since it combines most of the faults with few of the virtues of the neo-British school, has it any special merit. However, it may help to illustrate some of the weak points in contemporary British music. We have in England, in addition to those of repute, a large number of minor
composers who seldom rise above mediocrity but who are ab least superior in technique and inspiration to their counterparts in Germany a century ago—the Hummels and Himmels of Beethoven's day. Mr. Frank Bridge, for instance, does not attempt big things, and succeeds in writing musks which, although not great, is extremely good. Mr. Holbrooke, on the other hand, expends much energy and skill on writing in the " grand manner,", and as those who went to the recent All-British Orchestral Concert know, his work tends to be pretentious and is often dull. Only when he writes simply, as. in the introduction to the Bronwen overture, is he successful. Mr. Bowen has similar faults. His Concerto opens with a theme on the brass, studiedly grandiose and quite uninspired, which " dates " from the year of Beethoven's 14th Sonata. Since the Romantic revival, music has always followed the lead of literature, and particularly of poetry, so it is to be hoped that the modern tendency to purge poetry of stock phrases will sooner or later make itself felt in English music. The principal theme of the Concerto prepares one for the many cliches that follow. The showier passages of the piano part, in texture and harmony, were the " small talk " of thirty years ago, and the treatment of the brass shouts of Wagner. Stock phrases are a source of danger to British music. Mr. John Ireland's The Forgotten Rite has this one flaw, a falling phrase on the strings that might have been written by Mozart. It will serve no purpose to catalogue the many modern English works in which this blemish can be found. Landor's opinion that a quotation " mars the beauty and unity of style, especially when it invades it from a foreign tongue," applies with special force to music. We have escaped the pitfalls of Nationalism, we have recovered from the domination of the folk-song, but our composers will never attain to individuality, which is the saving force in Art, unless they write only what they find in their hearts.
Ravel's La Valsc was played on Saturday, August 20th, and comparison with it throws into high light other weaknesses in Mr. York Bowen's Concerto, weaknesses unfortunately common to much native work. The modern French school has certain defects. It has been described as " thin-chested " ; it has not that largeness which we associate with great Art, the largeness of Michael Angelo, of Dante, of Beethoven, or even of Balzac.
But no one can call it uninteresting. Ravel, Satie, Dukas—to choose names at random—have wit, delicacy, elegance and individuality, and beside them Mr. Bowen is portentously dull.
It was reassuring to hear three movements from Mr. Hoist's The Planets on the same evening as the Concerto. Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter are not so effective when separated from the other numbers of the Suite—which might be described more accu- rately as a Symphonic Poem since the seven movements are inter-related—but their strength and beauty are not diminished by familiarity. In his directness of expression Mr. Hoist brings a quality that has been lacking from our music for many years. Austere and concentrated is this music. There is not a redundant bar in the whole cycle. Mars, The Bringer of War, has neither " pride, pomp and circumstance " nor that bitter attitude which might be called the Sassoon attitude : it is simply War. The brutal and insistent rhythm in 5-4 time which dominates the whole movement, and the theme in the lower brass, to the accompaniment of arrogant trumpet calls, which seems to convey the utter meaninglessness of conflict, are painfully direct. Each of the seven movements is original in conception. Thus Saturn, The Bringer of Old Age, is based on the slow alternation of two chords which suggest, perhaps, the physical weakness of age ; the movement brightens with a serene counter-subject on the horns and bells, and ends in quiet exultation as though wisdom had eventually triumphed ; it might have as a motto the last lines of the Ode to Immortality, "A newborn day is lovely yet." Jupiter, again, is a riot of jollity, amazingly clever, in which among other devices a most effective use is made of the whole-tone scale. The Planets should have an early per- formance in its entirety when the concert season proper
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