MUSICAL COMPOSITION

INFLUENCES IN INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC 159d' amour in his / Romeo and Juliet' is meant by himto reproduce in musical phrases the lines about the larkand the nightingale in Shakspeare's balcony scene, butit does nothing of the sort - it is not intelligible asmusic. . .. This so-called Symphonic Dramatique ofBerlioz's as it now stands is neither fish nor fleshstrictlyspeaking it is no symphony at all. There isno unity of matter, no unity of style. . . .II When occasion offered I could venture to depictstrange and even terrible things in music, because theaction rendered such things comprehensible: but musicapart from the drama cannot risk this, for fear ofbecoming grotesque." And in 1879 he wrote II whenevera composer of instrumental music loses touch oftonality he is lost"; adding an example from his ownworks, which, he said, was intelligible in the theatrewith action and words, but impossible in absolutemusic.The writer has quoted these excerpts at length,because they are the appeal of one of the greatestmasters of our day to the rising generation to abstainfrom writing formless, illogical and ill-balanced workfor the concert room. Wagner would have been thelast to disparage such masterpieces as the Leonora orthe Freischutz overtures (which are so far programmemusicthat they illustrate by anticipation the dramawhich they introduce) or as his own Flying Dutchman,Tannhiiuser, Lohengrin, Tristan, Meistersinger andParsifal Preludes. All of these will stand the testof being listened to as instrumental music, and willneed no explanation to make them intelligible andenjoyable for their own sakes. It is true that theygain in vividness of suggestion when the opera which