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THE MICHIGAN DAILY

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Stravinsky- Composer or

Musical Roughneck?


hpeaks queen bee with the destruction of the
emppOnent male, her lover, in the dy heig
thereat if it will!" This completely -this vital energy, this ferocious
When Igor Stravinsky was first misinterprets Stravinsky, at least the lyricism, have served me as a sort of
approached with offers to come to our Stravinsky revealed to us last week. literary basis for this symphonic
American El Dorado from which few ' In tuth, there is very little of the poem. The orchestral score of this
.' Ausicians can long be persuaded to iconoclast and the reformer it this 'work was the last composition of
remain absent, he consented, but said composer. Of loudness and "excruc- mine with which my Master, Rinmsky-
'that no, he would not conduct his t s' s r Korsakff was acquainted."
o"' rks here and that no, neither Unfortunately one is tempted to ask
vould he play the piano for he did ly little, while the lack of originality for whom? Stravinsky's accomplish-
nIot keep in practice. When asked nmist be apparent to the most casual ments in this work are quite com-
gently just what he WOULD do here, auditor. Mr. Stravinsky is, without mensurate with the magnitude of his
Ie arranged the folds of his fur-and- doubt, the high priest of a growing inspiration: nothing more important
brocade dressing gown, lowered his Il than a commotion in an apiary is sug-
F6 Moncle figerd is adecras aticult of modern musicians whose de etd lhuhtevie fa es
onocle, fingered his jde cross and votion to novelty and sensationalism
replied, "I SHALL COME." has lel them to abjure all accepted five great composers, notably Wag-
On Tuesday evening, March 3, Mr. criteria of musical value, but the sug- nr, are discernible in rather distortcd
travinsky CAMIE to Detroit, al- gestion that he is a great leader, the form. Mr. Stravinsky's musiil
though it would be absurd to suggest herald of a new era in tone poetry, a mechanism functioned well when he
that that was all he did. He con- Beethoven or a Wagner, is really In- produced this Scherzo, but it is quite
ducted the Detroit Symphony Orches- dicrous. destitute of poetry and seems inter-
rri in a concert of his own works, Admittedly we have yet to hear minable though it lasts but a few
he gave one of the first performances "Le Sacre du Printemps" in whic minutes.
"'ln America of his new concerto for Mr. Stravinsky's eccentricities are The piano concerto is Mr. Stravin-
p$anoforte and "l'Orchestre d'Har- said to be most effectively displayed, sky's most recent production and
'n6nie" and thus gave rise to what but we do know the concerto, the since he is now in his forty-third
were, on the whole, the most extra- Scherzo Fantastique, the Feuerwerk year, it is not unfair to assume that
ordinary noises ever heard within the the Petrouchka, and L'Oiseau do 'it gives the best possible account of
confines of Orchestra hall. Mr. Kolar Feu. There is nothing in any of his genius. The piano is accompanied
aided and abetted the celebrated them to indicate genuine radicalism solely by an "Orchestre d'Harmonie"
.visitor, Mr. Gabrilowitsch being at a and nothing even to arouse suspicions which is nothing more than a brass
safe distance in Florida, basking in that here is a great, insurgent for band plus the double basses and
V he tropical sunshine and resting struggling for utterance. The pro- which finds its raison d'etre in Mr.
from his arduous labors for a brief phetic element is quire lacking and Stravinsky's startling discovery that,
+ eriod. in its stead we can discover a good "a sound scraped and a sound struck
# ' f,,he affair was of the kind which deal of jazzy ingenuity, a good deal d tsound well together; sounds
press-agents term "gala." The bon of cheap imitation of Bach, Wagner struck and blown do!" For the bone-
on of Detroit was all out in its most and Rimsky-Korsakoff, and an almost fit of obtuse critics, the composer de-
formal attire and several fashionaile unbelieveable poverty of melodic in- lares that this is not "an incomplete
* Individuals gave dinners for Mr. Stra- terest. orchestra, but a type of orchestra
v nsky during his stay in the metrop- If Mr. Stravinsky comes to our separate and distinct from the sym-
S os, not at all dismayed, it would shores as a fine pianist and as an in- phony orchestra." Mr. Stravinsky
sqem by the fact that he is absolutely teresting composer of clever an ,will not require a patent to insure his
lharticulate in English. The house piquant ballet music, we must we_ exclusive enjoyment of this invention!
Was neai'ly sold outi applause was come him with enthusiasm. But if However foolish all this sounds,:
liberal and at the conclusion there he comes, pretending, as his friends one could forget it if the result were
was an ovation, aided by fanfares contend, to be a really great com- good music. But one listens in vain
t W m .the orchestra, which would poser, the mightiest figure in music for any manifestation of a strong
pgve been an adequate greeting for since the death of Tschaikowsky and musical personality. There is a pro-
1kehard Wagner. Mr. Stravinsky, Brahms, he is a palpable fraud. fusion of Bach-like counterpoint com-
who is both nervous and insignificant The various compositions played in mingled with enisodes of the sort
in appearance, heightened the pecul- Detroit a-re not worthy of extended found in "A Rhapsody in Blue" or
i. A effect of his musie by his monkey- comment. The scherzo, Feuerwer, the chef d'ouvres of Mr. Paul White-
like hopping about at the conductor's Op. 4 is one of Mr. Stravinsky's man. Incidentally, Mr. Stravinsky is
desk. youthful pecadillos, as slight in musi- reported as saying that he "adores
While waiting for the anticipated cal value as it is abbreviated in -
deluge to commence, we glanced overlength. The so-called "arrangement" -
the program notes prepared for the of the Volga Boatmen's Song adds
occasion by Mr. Cyril Arthur Player nothing to a composition naturally
jf the Detroit News. We came upon devoid of any authentic beauty. The
the astounding words which follow: Scherzo Fantastique, Op. 3 is trash. .lr
If Stravinsky is not the Karl Marx Mr. Stravinsky gives the following
of music, he is the Trotzky who has account of its miraculous conception:
tl#ocomnplete courage of his radicalism /"The unceasing work in the bee- Has a reputation f
and is unafraid to give it expression, I hive, continuing for generations and
let all the world stutter and drool generations; the nuptial flight of the on expert service tha
and conscientious.
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Bach" which may explain at last why
it is that all the young revolution-
ists who have thrown Beethoven,
Schubert and Schumann overboard
still cry up the genius of Johann
Sebastian. The rhythms in the con-
certo are perverse, fascinating and
diabolically clever; the solo portion
is written with arresting brilliance;
and the whole composition pulsates
with a nervous energy which pro-
I vents boredom. But there is a cer-
tain hard, thin, superficial quality
pervading the entire work which bars
its consideration as a prospective ad-
dition to the too-small literature of
great concertos for the piano.
It is, without doubt, upon the bal-
let music, Petrouchka and I/Oiseau
de Feu, that Mr. Stravinsky's repu-
tation must rest. The latter suite
for orchestra has just been recorded
f by Leopold Stokowski and the Phlia-
delphia Orchestra and seems to us the
most charming of the Stravinsky
works. Both these suites are weird,
fantastic and full of the "atmosphere"
which is so lamentably missing in
Mr. Stravinsky's other works. But
grace and diablerie, captivating
though they be, are an insubstantial
foundation for enduring musical'
fame.
Most of Mr. Stravinsky's American
critics have proceeded on the theory
that by judiciously praising rim they
will be celebrated for prescience if
he turns out to be another Wagner
and they will not be discredited in
care he falls short of their rhapsodic
predictions. Looking into the past,f
the most confident critic must speak
with trepidation when he ponders the
judgments upon most great musiciansl
by their contemporaries. Recall, if
you will, that Mendelssohn thought
"Tatlnhauser" to be only pretentious
ebombast, and that Rossini, after the
first performance of that noble opera,
wished never again to be exposed to
Wagner. The world is still laughing
at the facetious critic of the London
Times who heard the premiere of
"Parsifal" at Bayreuth and wrote
that it was merely "piano tuning with
impediments." And then there is

Henry Theophilus Finck whose excori- T
ations of Brahms were once regarded The Proponent Speaks
as witty and are now considered --- a work containing so much borrowed
merely childish. But it does not fol- When Igor Stravinsky, the distinct-; material i.e., Bach counterpoint and
low that, "every toad, ugly and yen -ly stormy petrel of the musical jazz rhythm, can have no claim to
yeta peciusjewel i world appeared at Orchestra hall last! real greatness." This I suppose on
his wetad." It may be that familiarity w the critics were roused in ar- account of the work being filled with
would lead us to discover things in ious degrees. The audience, one of "borrowed material." I would like to
this music which one hearing fails the most critical factors that an artist point out to Mr. Gnau that no com-
toydisclose, and that, as the French has to please, were swept with' en- poser has ever been strictly original.
say,"l 'y1u l rmirpsqua .
, n'y a quo ti premier pas thusiasm at the beginning of his pro- All compositions have some borrowed
There is a final objection to Mr. gram; but in no comparison to their material." Bach is a good example
Srinsky's aconcentrated applause at the close of to take. Were not a number of his
opiainskyoremusic that is, in our the concert. These were not the only works written in the suite form, and
opinion, more fundamental than any critics who were pleased. With re- were not the dances included in this
theretoforesmentioned Allth ofpteni gard to his performance at the piano, form some of the popular ones of
and insincere It represents the ex Charlotte Tarsney of the Detroit Free the age, such as the minuet? To the
andme ininerIt represe th Press remarked: "The speed, the nor- seventeenth century Bach's suites
treme degeneration of some of the
theories of Richard Wagner and the vous energy of his performance and contained as much jazz as StraviK
antithesis of all that Johannes his regard for the many gradations of sky's symphonies to the twentieth
Brahms stood for-sanity, balance, dynamics made a profound stir." century. And surely his style was
As usual there were critics who merely a copy of th'e 'already much
proportion and the "high seriousness"
of the poet When Mr Stravinsky spoke unfavorably, condemning him used polyphony. Bach did not invent
is not merely intriguing he is spec- as a rhythm maniac. He is an "In- everything, he frankly copied. But
tacuar overwrought and hysterical.I fant terrible" to the academicians, in one mind he grasped the important
tacl, oerwrout and thyteril and an epochal pathfinder to the elements and brought them together,
Only the bizarre and the neurotic moderns. .le has been accused of' that is where his greatness lies. And
seem to engage his interest and the using jazz mixed with Bach In his perhaps Stravinsky is merely follow-
result is music of an essentially usn
ephemeral nature. For all that, compositions. Any man who can take ing in that great master's footsteps
is a gifted prestidigitator and h-is k a piece of American jazz and make and doing the same thing once again.
in that respect cannot be denied by it into something worth while, is a The "Scherzo Fantastique" is said to
the most inveterate opponent hero to my mind. And even though "Smack of the second act of Tristraj"
-E. H A Stravinsky owns that he "Takes rag-: that even a genuine Wagnerian might
time pieces, remakes them, and thus be fooled. In short it is uni mpLrt nt
makes them Impressive," whole heart- music."
edly denies that he is a "modern" in I never knew before that Wagner
f a jazzy or otherwise offensive sense. was unimportant . . . . at least his
"I write classical music," he con- Influence is strongly manl sted in

NO'
:bat's the average of oo! men sellinngg
eleuant individnat, distinctive tniiored w
sbnirte. clttsive tterns. B it pN
HONOR ip HOPPOR THHtR MAKERS' Direct rj
large airs, mina to wearer. Out of ordinary vatpx endon rrand. $ grepeatttttsiuess WedelivcsrJ itin Stores. Na capi,'tal or experience require. HEITJAH Gee. Mgt . CHICAGO SHIOT CY3'4 it W gp Sh" tQg:. Ct1i Vo, M.,

tends, "my classics are the classics
of our century. Some people might:
have denounced Bach as ultra-modern
in his time. All he did was to give
his epoch the best of his unsurpassed'
genius. I try to give my age the
best that is in me." Arthur Gnau of
the Michigan Daily has remarked con-
' cerning his concerto that "certainly

most of the music of today, Lot only
in StruvinskM, but in tfi earlier
wtrc; ml°Io Scriabin. I wor id not call
tL, "Scherzo Fantastique" unimport-
ant music just because is "smacked"
of Wagner. Though Mr. Gnau .lw
said that Stravinsky's music ' i
hard to und'erstand," I still do no. i i
(Continued on Page Sixte n)

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