MUSICAL COMPOSITION

96 MUSICAL COMPOSITIONpainting can make its appeal both by its beauty ofline, its subject, its perfection of draughtsmanship, andby its mastery of colour as well. A musical compositioncan do the same. But as the bird with beautyof voice will always touch the hearts of mankindmore than the bird with beauty of plumage, andno man would hesitate as to which he would chooseto live with, so the beauty of melodies and of theperfect treatment of them will always live longerand accord more with the natural sympathies ofman than volumes of prismatic sound devoid ofpure melody or finished workmanship. Excessivelybrilliant colour may temporarily blind the eye anddeafen the ear to deficiencies in both, but sooner orlater it will pall, and the underlying faults and failureswill become more and more evident. It is alwaysa sound test of a picture to photograph it, and ofan orchestral piece to arrange it for a monochromeinstrument such as the pianoforte. If the musicalwork is beautiful in melody, finished in detail, andwell-balanced in design, the cold arrangement on whatvon BUlow termed a "box of hammers" will giveas much pleasure in its limited scope as a photographor an engraving of a masterpiece of Velasquez orof Bellini. We shall miss "the top-dressing" andno more. A composition which relies primarily orsolely on its orchestral colour will be Intolerablewhen reduced to black and white. No musician canhonestly say that the greater part of Berlioz' workgives real pleasure when it is played in a pianofortearrangement, while even the most complicated andhighly-coloured pages of the Nibelungen, of theMeistersinger, or of Tristan will stand the test