MUSICAL COMPOSITION

DANGER SIGNALS 177(§ 9) The danger of using big means for little ends.The adage of "using a N asmyth hammer to cracka nut" is a homely method of explaining this snare.Many an intrinsically fine work, especially in opera,has been spoilt by a neglect of its lesson. Overloadingof orchestration is a frequent symptom of this weakness.If the student of opera will compare the fullscores of Otello and Falstaff, he will have before him(from the ripe judgment of Verdi) an unsurpassableinstance of the subordination of means to ends. Thesestet "Sola, sola," in Mozart's Don Giovanni, will beequally valuable on a smaller scale, the various movementsand situations which it comprises being alltreated, both vocally and orchestrally, in exact proportionto their importance in the dramatic situation. Soin orchestral work, a delicate symphony like the Gminor of Mozart is scored with a lighter hand thanthe E flat or the C major. The Pastoral Symphony ofBeethoven is a kaleidoscope of the most delicate colours;the C Minor Symphony, a massive wall of sound asimpenetrable as its theme. Let your clothes fit yourfigure.(§ 10) The danger of overloading and over-elaboratingless important moments.Every work, great and small, has its alternations ofarms and thesis, rise and fall. The instinct whichmarks down crescendo and diminuendo, forte and piano,accelerando and ritardando, must adapt itself also tothe larger field of the structure itself. If everysentence of a speech is at the same level of interest,there will be no great moments of climax. There mustbe valleys as well as mountains, or the landscape willbe a monotonoUB plain whether its elevation be low or