MUSIC American Symphony IF one may judge from the works
presented in the programme of American music at one of last week's " Proms.," American com- posers are overcoming the tendency to eclecticism which was their besetting weakness, as it was the weakness of English composers a generation ago. Or, perhaps it would be more accurate to say, that American composers have now begun to absorb the various foreign influences, to which in a country so rich in all the means of music-making and so attractive to all the most accomplished execu- tive talent of the world they are especially prone. The earliest work in this programme, George Gershwin's Pianoforte Concerto, might have been put there as an awful example of eclecticism undigested, an incongruous mixture of imitation Rachmaninoff with jazz on its best behaviour, and jazz affecting propriety is about as interesting as boiled cod without salt or sauce. Gershwin had no gift whatever for musical composition, if by that term is meant something more than the putting down of one idea after another without regard to their relations to one another or to the work as a whole.
In Hugo Weisgall's Overture, American Comedy, 1943, the newest work, traces of eclecticism remain. It begins rather like Dvorak's Carnaval Overfure, but does not continue on that level. If it is not music of a high rank, it is at least well put together. With Aaron Copland we come to a more mature composer, who has digested external influences and developed an individual tone of voice. His Lincoln Portrait is not to be judged by ordinary musical standards, since- it sets out to give us a dramatic sketch of Abraham Lincoln with the aid of excerpts from his speeches and writings, on this occasion splendidly declaimed by Lieutenant Burgess Meredith, whose ringing voice was good to hear. If the work seemed, as a musical composition, somewhat slight and tentative, as a dramatic presentation of Lincoln's personality it was effective and obviously held and moved the audience.
By far the most important work in the programme was William Schuman's Third Symphony. This consists of two large movements, a Passacaglia and Fugue and a Chorale and Toccata. The use of the Bachian forms and a certain abstruseness of manner have led to an almost unanimous use of the adjective austere to describe the Symphony. But I perceive no austerity in employment of the fullest resources of the modern orchestra, including five trombones, which are used to chant in full harmony some magnificent passages that suggest a study of Gabrieli. It is true that the harmony of the Symphony is severe and not always readily intelligible at first hearing, while the forms employed do not lend themselves to facile emotionalism or pretty lyricism. But it is some time since I have heard a work by a new composer (Schuman is 33 years old) so rich and rare, and with so clear a mastery of his chosen medium. This does not mean that it is altogether a likeable work—it is too ruthless to win affection. But it has grandeur, even in the rather noisy Toccata, and that is a scarce enough commodity to make one wish to hear it again and get to know it better.
DYNELEY HUSSEY.
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