Music
Elgar and Sibelius
To the great relief of all sensible' musicians, the question of " Nationalism in Music " has been in abeyance for a con- siderable period. It has been almost universally agreed to let that sleeping dog lie, for nothing very much has ever resulted from disturbing it and putting it through its old and rather tiresome tricks and capers. An apology, therefore, is due for giving the poor creature a slight prod on this occasion. The only excuse is that the fever of our new-found patriotism is certain to cause some of the weaker brethren soon to set about it with whips and staves. Better a gentle than a rude awakening.
The new patriotism has brought with it many strange reversions in musical taste. The music-halls (if we admit that their strong preferences can be called taste) are pre- occupied with the revival of songs made famous by Marie Lloyd, Mark Sheridan, Gus Elen and Eugene Stratton. Jazz, having invaded the sphere of entertainment, is now being politely but firmly asked to go back to its own sphere—the dance hall. The change is also to be remarked in musical plays, in the revivals at Daly's Theatre, and in the type of music which is now required to drape the elderly and un- shapely bodies of revue and musical comedy. A year or even six months before the political crisis, no West-End producer would have dared to ask his audience to listen to " Land of Hope and Glory " and take it seriously. The crisis was the cue for Noel Coward to include it in his cavalcade of tunes, and encountering it there, more than one hardened critic confessed that he was moved to tears.
The fact that we are no longer bored by " I may be crazy " or ashamed of " Land of Hope and Glory " suggests that, in the concert world, a renewed interest in the major orchestral works of Elgar will be revealed. For the new patriotism is not like the old. Those whose temperaments lead them to surrender to it as to a purely emotional force arc continually being resisted by those who desire to allow a certain amount of reason to play upon the situation. Those who are inclined to talk of England," as one of Kipling's critics puts it, " in a way that destroys all England's greatness " are no longer encouraged.
The old patriotism has been transcended by the new. By all the laws, therefore, there should follow a vogue for Elgar's later orchestral music, since it is precisely in this that we find transcended the Edwardian type of patriotism. The dedica- tion of the Second Symphony " to the memory of his late Majesty King Edward VII " has provided a most convenient peg upon which to hang a description of the work as " an epic of the Edwardian age." The peg, however, is superfluous. It is not necessary to go so far as to assert that, even without the inscription, it would have been possible to deduce the dedica- tion from the music itself. Nevertheless, it is impossible for anyone with ordinary musical sensibility to miss the general mood and atmosphere evoked by this Symphony.
The successive episodes of splendour, ecstasy, -foreboding, sorrow, spiritual struggle and resignation which are found in the work show it to be essentially a farewell to greatness. The First Symphony, on the other hand, is a proclaiming of greatness, while the later Violoncello Concerto, viewed from the same angle, can be said to be a mourning for departed greatness. Certainly the context of these and others among Elgar's works for orchestra should make them fitting counter- parts to the change which has recently taken place in the national consciousness. Those who, in anticipation of this possible vogue, wish to become acquainted with the structure of the Variations for Orchestra, the two Symphonies and the Violin Concerto; may be reconunended to read Profesabr Shera's addition to the " Musical Pilgrim " Series: (OxfOrd University Press. ls. 6d.). The author gives a sound and enlightening technical analysis of each of these works. Such a method, of course, can never explain the transcendental qualities of the music, but, rightly handled, it can make one the more intensely aware of those qualities.
The reader may ask : " If a- counterpart to the new patriotism is being sought, will it not more readily be found in music whose content is more tangibly national Y " --FOr answer, the inquirer it referred to a paragraph from Mr.'Ceeil Gray's new study of Sibelius. (Oxford University Press. 7s. eid.) " Nationalism in Music," Mr. Gray writes, " may be said to be of two kinds: In the one a specific regional character is deliberately and consciously ,cultivated by means of the employment of folk-songs as thematic material, or by the con- coction of idioms largely based upon the peculiarities to be found in them ; in the other it is wholly unconscious and un- intentional, the outcome of environment or tradition, latent. in the basic thought rather than in the outward style, a thing One can neither cultivate nor rid oneself Of even if one would:' Continuing the thought, it may be said that music which is unconsciously national (national by nature) is more likely to accord with the type of patriotism which is now being deve- loped than music which is consciously national (national by adoption but not always by grace). No composer, for example, expresses national identity more naturally than Sibelius. Yet, in his most representative music; there is no use of folk- song and no deliberate use of its idiom. Not even " Finlandia " can be quoted to support the contrary case. (Incidentally, Mr. Gray is to be thanked for collecting so much important evidence and material concerning this out-of-the-vray com- poser, and for the trenchant way in which he has dispelled a number of misconceptions, not least those made current by Dr. Walter Nieman.)
In many ways, indeed, Elgar and Sibelius present parallel eases. There is one obvious difference. It is hardly possible that Sibelius will rise upon the crest of a towering patriotic wave—or that the small, hitherto " dry," cultured population of Finland will ever need such a manifestation.
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