Part 13
Most of Ornstein’s music is inspired by things about him, some of it by abstract ideas. His social conscience is awake. He wanted to call _The Wild Men’s Dance_, _Liberty_ (“I attempted to write music which would dance itself, which did not require a dancer”), but finally decided on the more symbolic title. “I am known as a musical anarch now,” he explained to me, “I could not name a piece of music _Liberty_--at least not _that_ piece--without associating myself in the public mind with a certain social propaganda.” Just the same he means the propaganda. In the _Dwarf Suite_ he gives us a picture of the lives of the struggling Russian Jews. These dwarfs are symbols.... He is fond of abstract titles. He often plays his _Three Moods_. “In Boston they did not like my _Three Moods_. They found my _Anger_ too unrestrained; it was vulgar to express oneself so freely.... But there is such a thing as anger. Why should it not find artistic expression? Besides it is a very good contrast to _Peace_ and _Joy_ which enclose it.” The _Impressions of the Thames_ I have already referred to. With the two _Impressions of Notre Dame_ it stands as his successful experiment with impressionism. The _Notre Dame_ pictures include gargoyles and, of course, bells.... I have not heard the violin and piano sonata, opus 31. Nor can I play it. Nor can I derive any very adequate idea of how it sounds from a perusal of the score. Strange music this.... Some time ago some one sent Ornstein the eight songs of Richard Strauss, Opus 49. The words of three of these songs (_Wiegenliedchen_, _In Goldener Fülle_, and _Waldseligkeit_) struck him and he made settings for them. Compare them with Strauss and you will find the Bavarian’s music scented with lavender. “In the _Wiegenliedchen_ Strauss gives you a picture of the woman rocking the cradle for his accompaniment. I have tried to go further, tried to express the feelings in the woman’s mind, her hopes for the child when it is grown, her fears. I have tried to get _underneath_.” But the _Berceuse_ in Ornstein’s _Nine Miniatures_ is as simple an expression as the lover of Ethelbert Nevin’s style could wish. Not all of Ornstein’s music is careless of tradition. He was influenced in the beginning by many people. His _Russian Suite_ is very pretty. Most of it is like Tschaikowsky. These suites will prove (if any one wants it proved) that Ornstein can write conventional melody.
Ornstein has also written a composition for orchestra entitled _The Faun_, which Henry Wood had in mind for performance before the war. It has not yet been played and I humbly suggest it to our resident conductors, together with Albeniz’s _Catalonia_, Schoenberg’s _Five Pieces_, and Strawinsky’s _Sacrifice to the Spring_.
Leo Ornstein was born in 1895 at Krementchug, near Odessa. He is consequently in his twenty-first year. He is already a remarkable pianist, one of the very few who may be expected to achieve a position in the front rank. His compositions have astonished the musical world. Some of them have even pleased people. Whatever their ultimate value they have certainly made it a deal easier for concert-goers to listen to what are called “discords” with equanimity. His music is a modern expression, untraditional, and full of a strange seething emotion; no calculation here. And like the best painting and literature of the epoch it vibrates with the unrest of the period which produced the great war.
_June 14, 1916._
THE END
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Transcriber’s Note
New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.
Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Hyphenation was standardized.
Spelling was retained as in the original except for the following changes:
Page 44: “Greig’s _Peer Gynt_” “Grieg’s _Peer Gynt_” Page 73: “_l’Heure Espagnole_” “_L’heure Espagnole_” Page 77: “colour of Zurburan” “colour of Zurbaran” Page 77: “Juan de Juares” “Juan de Juarez” Page 84: “_Fantasy_ of Farrega” “_Fantasy_ of Tárrega” Page 136: “oder Der misverstandene” “oder Der missverstandene” Page 178: “is a _pointe de depart_” “is a _point de départ_”