Contemporary American Composers: Being a Study of the Music of This Country, Its Present; Conditions and Its Future, with Critical Estimates and; Biographies of the Principal Living Composers; and an; Abundance of Portraits, Fac-simile Musical Autographs, and; CompositionsHughes, Rupert
History
Contemporary American Composers: Being a Study of the Music of This Country, Its Present; Conditions and Its Future, with Critical Estimates and; Biographies of the Principal Living Composers; and an; Abundance of Portraits, Fac-simile Musical Autographs, and; Compositions
Hughes, Rupert
Composers -- United States -- Biography; Music -- United States -- History and criticism
Arnold's "Dramatic Overture" shows a fire and rush very characteristic
of him and likely to be kept up without sufficient contrast. So also
does his cantata, "The Wild Chase." Arnold has written two comic
operas. I have heard parts of the first and noted moments of much
beauty and humor. The Aragonaise, which opens the third act, is
particularly delightful. The orchestration throughout displays
Arnold's characteristic studiousness in picturesque effect.
For piano there is a czardas, and a "Valse Elegante" for eight hands;
it is more Viennese than Chopinesque. It might indeed be called a
practicable waltz lavishly adorned. The fruits of Arnold's Oriental
journey are seen in his impressionistic "Danse de la Midway
Plaisance;" a very clever reminiscence of a Turkish minstrel; and a
Turkish march, which has been played by many German orchestras. There
is a "Caprice Espagnol," which is delightful, and a "Banjoenne," which
treats banjo music so captivatingly that Arnold may be said to have
invented a new and fertile and musical form. Besides these there are a
fugue for eight hands, a "Minstrel Serenade" for violin and piano, and
six duets for violin and viola.
There are also a few part songs and some solos, among which mention
should be made of "Ein Maerlein," in the old German style, an
exquisitely tender "Barcarolle," and a setting of the poem, "I Think
of Thee in Silent Night," which makes use of a particularly beautiful
phrase for pre-, inter-, and postlude. Arnold has also written some
ballet music, a tarantelle for string orchestra, and is at work upon a
symphony, and a book, "Some Points in Modern Orchestration." His
violin sonata (now in MS.) shows his original talent at its best. In
the first movement, the first subject is a snappy and taking example
of negro-tone, the second has the perfume of moonlit magnolia in its
lyricism. (In the reprise this subject, which had originally appeared
in the dominant major, recurs in the tonic major, the key of the
sonata being E minor.) The second movement is also in the darky
spirit, but full of melancholy. For finale the composer has flown to
Ireland and written a bully jig full of dash and spirit.
_N. Clifford Page._
The influence of Japanese and Chinese art upon our world of decoration
has long been realized. After considering the amount of interest shown
in the Celestial music by American composers, one is tempted to
prophesy a decided influence in this line, and a considerable spread
of Japanese influence in the world of music also. Japanese music has a
decorative effect that is sometimes almost as captivating as in
painting.
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