He must not seek to inhibit any portion of his impulse. He
must not attempt to deny his modes of apprehension and realization
because they are racially colored. He must possess spiritual harmony.
The whole man must go into his expression. And it was just the "whole
man" who did not go into the work of the composers who have hitherto
represented "Judaism in Music." An inhibited, harried impulse is
manifest in their art.
For, like Meyerbeer, convinced of the worthlessness of their feelings,
they manufactured spectacles for the operatic stage, and pandered to a
taste which they least of all respected. Or, like Mendelssohn, they
tried to adapt themselves to the alien atmosphere of Teutonic romance,
and produced a musical jargon that resembles nothing in the world so
much as Yiddish. Or, with Rubinstein, they gloved themselves in a pretty
salon style in order to conceal all vestiges of the flesh, or tried,
with Gustav Mahler, to intone "Ave Maria." Some, no doubt, would have
preferred to have been true to themselves. Goldmark (the uncle) is an
example. But his desire remained intention, largely. For his method was
a trifle childish. He conceived it as a lying on couches amid cushions,
sniffing Orient perfumes in scent-bottles. He did not realize that the
couch was the comfortable German _canape,_ the cushions the romantic
style of Weber and the early Wagner, and that through the
"Sabaean odors from the spicy shore
Of Araby the blest"
there drifted the doubtlessly very appetizing smell of Viennese cookery.
Pages:
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292