Modern music and musicians : [Encyclopedic] . SKETCHES OF BEETHOVEN BY LYSER. use a peculiar declamatory speaking-voice. We very rarely hear a goodcantilena. In Beethovens time, actual singing — il bel canto — was all-important. It is not necessary to degrade the orchestra into, as Wagnerput it, a guitar accompaniment, but it is against all art to degrade thehuman voice, which nature intended to carry the melody, into a plain in-strument, and even an accompaniment to fill in. Every great innovator is sometimes willing to shoot beyond the forced his great idea of the reformation of
Modern music and musicians : [Encyclopedic] . SKETCHES OF BEETHOVEN BY LYSER. use a peculiar declamatory speaking-voice. We very rarely hear a goodcantilena. In Beethovens time, actual singing — il bel canto — was all-important. It is not necessary to degrade the orchestra into, as Wagnerput it, a guitar accompaniment, but it is against all art to degrade thehuman voice, which nature intended to carry the melody, into a plain in-strument, and even an accompaniment to fill in. Every great innovator is sometimes willing to shoot beyond the forced his great idea of the reformation of dramatic art into ex-tremes. He despised the bounds prescribed by the laws of beauty, notindeed in every work,—the Meistersinger and parts of Tristan andIsolde are exceptions,— but m his strivings, his principles. These havebecome the laws of his school, for it is the rule that pupils imitate theweaknesses and mannerisms of their master. LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN 111. A CORNER OFTHE GARDEN, BEETHOVENS BIRTHPLACE. A review of the operatic produc-tions of the so-called North Germanschool makes it distressingly apparentthat the Master of Bayreuth has hadan unfavorable influence upon his fol-lowers. It was with intention that thegreat dramatist made small demandupon the principle of drama. Hisapostles immerse themselves in re-flections, aromas, and turns of speech,but utterly lose the ability to see thedramatic situation. In this they faith-fully imitate more than one of theirmasters works, such as Rheingold,Die Walkiire, and parts of Sieg-fried, in which, splendid though theybe, the dramatic treatment is veryfaulty. The Wagnerian school be-lieves lengthiness advantageous, and cuts in any form to be acts of de-pravity. That is why the Germanpublic drew a long breath when theItalian school set before it its lighter wares and practical dramatic situ-ations. Even the cultivated classes will finally turn from the products ofthe Wagner method; for the theat
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