Another modern song writer whose work centres chiefly in Vienna is Joseph Marx, who has been prolific and successful. His style has many elements of the modern, but on the whole it is clear and intelligible and does not require a new set of ears for its appreciation. Marx’s songs are often fresh and spontaneous and his sense of proportion is keen. Another of Schönberg’s contemporaries is Franz Schrecker, whose work is likewise representative of the most advanced tendencies of the new Viennese school. This school is rather left behind by one of Schönberg’s pupils, Anton von Webern, whose strange song, ‘Over the Borders of the All,’ is incapable of description in any terms hitherto used in connection with music. Which men of such a group will prove valuable to posterity is not to be decided at first investigation. But it will be well worth anyone’s while to maintain an open mind and regard an innovator as innocent until he has proved himself guilty. CHAPTER XIV MODERN FRENCH LYRICISM Fauré and the beginning of the new--Chabrier, César Franck, and others--Bruneau, Vidal, and Charpentier--Debussy and Ravel. I In a previous chapter we have mentioned the work of a generation of French song writers who represent the old and conservative school. In the present chapter we are concerned solely with the new and much more admirable French school of lyricism. But the distinction between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ generations is not, of course, a distinction of time. Some of the old generation are now living and writing in the second decade of the twentieth century, while some of the originators of the new had begun their innovations as far back as the late seventies. This overlapping of individuals is inevitable where one school supplants another. For that reason we are here dealing with composers who, judged solely by dates, should have been treated as belonging to the last third of the nineteenth century. It is well to keep in mind this overlapping. It will help us to see how fashions change in the world of art. The whole story of the transition from the old to the new in French music is of extraordinary interest. The change seemed to come at a bound, with Debussy’s first tone poems and piano pieces. But as a matter of fact no great change comes about in this way. It germinates and nourishes itself for a long time unseen before it is ready to strike out as an independent force. [Illustration: Scandinavian and French Song-Writers. Top: Emil Sjögren and Christian Sinding Bottom: Gabriel Pierné and Gabriel Fauré]