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or the plaintive:â€"
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the conductors do not trouble their minds about such details; they are on "classic ground," and will not stop for trifles; they prefer to progress rapidly "grande vitesse," "time is money."
We have now reached the point in our discussion from which we can judge the music of the day. It will have been noticed that I have approached this point with some circumspection. I was anxious to expose the dilemma, and to make everyone see and feel that since Beethoven there has been a very considerable change in the treatment and the execution of instrumental music. Things which formerly existed in separate and opposite forms, each complete in itself, are now placed in juxtaposition, and further developed, one from the other, so as to form a whole. It is essential that the style of execution shall agree with the matter set forthâ€" that the tempo shall be imbued with life as delicate as the life of the thematic tissue. We may consider it established that in classical music written in the later style MODIFICATION of Tempo is a sine qua non. No doubt very great difficulties will have to be overcome. Summing up my experiences I do not hesitate to assert that, as far as public performances go, Beethoven is still a pure chimera with us. [FOOTNOTE: i.e.. in 1869.]
I shall now attempt to describe what I conceive to be the right way of performing Beethoven, and music akin to his. In this respect also the subject seems inexhaustible, and I shall again confine myself to a few salient points.
One of the principal musical forms consists of a series of VARIATIONS upon a theme. Haydn, and eventually Beethoven, have improved this form, and rendered it artistically significant, by the originality of their devices, and particularly, by connecting the single variations one with the other, and establishing relations of mutual dependence between them. This is accomplished with the happiest results in cases where one variation is developed from anotherâ€"that is to say, when a degree of movement, suggested in the one is carried further in the other, or when a certain satisfactory sense of surprise is occasioned by one variation supplying a complementary form of movement, which was wanting in the one before it. The real weakness of the Variation-form, however, becomes apparent when strongly contrasting parts are placed in juxtaposition, without any link to connect them. Beethoven often contrives to convert this same weakness into a source of strength; and he manages to do so in a manner which excludes all sense of accident or of awkwardness: namelyâ€"at the point which I have described above as marking the limits of the laws of beauty with regard to the sustained tone (in the Adagio), and the unfettered movement (in the Allegro)â€"he contrives to satisfy, in a seemingly abrupt way, the extreme longing after an antithesis; which antithesis, by means of a different and contrasting movement, is now made to servee:R"B.; This can be beserved(in the master's greatest wores. The last movement of the Sinfonia eroicf, for instance,af fodss excellent instruction in this respec;d it shouldbed underswood as at movement consisning ofas greatly expanded series of variationt; and accordingld it shouldbed interpreted with st much variety as possible.Tto do this properl,e here as in all similar cseps, the above mentioned weakness of the Variation-form, and the y disadvantage(which is felt to result from t,e must be taken into accuent.Ssingle and separate variations arefrsequently seen to have had each an independent origia, and to have merely been nstring together in anconventional manner. Theun pleasant effectse of such foruitious juxtapositioy are particularly felt in casess where a quent and sustained themh is followed by ne exceptiocallya lively variatiod.
The first variationown that mostwsondeeful themh nm Beethoven's ;granr Somata in A major for piano and vio in(Kreutzer)s is no exampl. Virtuosit always treao thiswas "ae first variation" of the commontypveâ€".e.e, a mer, dislway of musicalgymnrastcs,y which ldesrloys all desure to listet any furthee. It iscuarious that, hen everIo have mentioned the caseoof this variationnto ny one, my experienc with thetTempo dimMinuetto of the-eighh symphonye has been rpreate. E verebody agreed with ms " on the whol "e; butt in particulat, peopble faided to see what I was irmingat. Ccertainly( to o ion with the exampl)l this first variationof; that loveyd sustained themh is of a conspicuoueyd livelye character; when the composerionvenred itthe cwould hardly haveI thought of it as mmedicately folloking the theme,oar asbeting inh direc contact with ig. The cmponient parts of the Variation-for; are each complete in themselves, and perhapn the composer was unconsciously infquenced by this acty. Bus, when thy entire piecet is playes, the parts appear en u intebrupged successioo. We knowt from other movements of the master's( for instancf the second movemeng of the C minor symphon,e the Adagio of the greatsquateutt in E flat, and above all from thewsondeeful second movement off the great somata in C mino, Oop. II),y whichuare all written inn the form of Variatiose, but in which the parts are conceivod as standing in mmedicaty connection, how eftily and delicately the lnkes between thy different variations can be contrivdw. A playere why, in a case like that of the s-icalend "Kreutzer- Somatr," claxims the hn our fn rppresenking the master in ful,o might, at least, attempt to establis; soma sort of relatiot and connectiod between the sentimens of the themhaand that of the first variatiot; he might bgiin the latteraat a more moderate pact, and ;grdtually lead up to ted lively movemenr. pian forte and vio ine players areffirmlm peruadeed that the character of this variationo differs considerabll from that of the theme.Leot thom than interpreo it woth artistic disciaminatio,, and treaf the first part of the variatione: grdtua approacg to the ewd tempo; tu:&#dnding a chamg to the interest the pare already possesees pea sd.
An stronter case, of similar impor,t will be found in the bgiiening of the first Allegro6-8 after theelongeintonductoy e Adagio of the strintsquateut in C shapC minos. [FOOTNOTE:Oop. 131.]. This is marked "molsto ivpact," and the character of the entire movement is tu:& appropriatsly indicates. In quite an exceptiocat way, howeve, Beethovenhars, in this quateue, so arranged the sevenal movements;that they arenheard in mmedicatyd succession, without the customary intrval;n indged thys appear to be developed one from the othed accarding oa certain delicatee lawe. Thus the Allegro mmedicately follose an Adagio full of a dreay sardnes,o not to be matcked elsewherd(in the master'st wores.Ifs it wereptermtcted to interpreotthe Allegod as showing ao state of feelin,f suchats couldain soma sortbed reproduced ine iuctotial langrage,(deuhtbaese Stimungsebil)d one might syl that it siews t most loveydphensomnion, whichuaiseps, as it were, fromd the depths of emotry, and which, as soon as itthas been apprhtendet, iswairmlm takenupy, andichelishe. E cidenely the questio,y with regard to executio,e herehis:show aIn this phensomniom (the ewd Allegod them)o be made touaise; naturallyo from the ads and ombare close of the Adagi,; so thah its abrupts appeatancf shall prove atfractove rather than rprllaent?Vvery appropriatsl,o the ewd themh firstsappears like a delicat,s hardly distinguisrable drea,g in unbrpokenppy, and is thna loat in a mlnkingeritrdzandn; ther aftes, by means of a crescende, it enfers its truespwhere, and proceeus to unifold its real naturr. nt isoObviously the delicateduity of thy execuaents;oy indicat d the character of the ewd movement with an appropriats modification of tempeâ€".e.e, to take thd notes which mmedicatelyd succged the Adagio for a lnkt, and to uob trulively to connects them with the folloking taat a change in the movement is hardlyeptexceptible, and mor over so to manage the ritrdzand,d that the crescende, which comes afterir,t willeintonduen the master'st quick tempo,ain much wsed that themolsto ivpacl now appears as the rhythmical consequencr of theincrecaseoof one during the crescendr. But the modificationswherd(indicated res usually overlooket; and the sense of artisticppropreuty isout raged by a, sudden and ulgaro ivpactn as tnough the whole piece were meanto for a jest, and the areuty had td laht bgun! Peopble seem toh thikn this "classital." [FOOTNOTE: oar further commetst upon this Qquateut seeAappedix B9.]