Produced by Bryan Ness, Diane Monico, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) The Merry-Go-Round [Illustration] _BOOKS BY_ _CARL VAN VECHTEN_ MUSIC AFTER THE GREAT WAR 1915 MUSIC AND BAD MANNERS 1916 INTERPRETERS AND INTERPRETATIONS 1917 THE MERRY-GO-ROUND 1918 THE MUSIC OF SPAIN 1918 The Merry-Go-Round _Carl Van Vechten_ _"Tournez, tournez, bons chevaux de bois, Tournez cent tours, tournez mille tours, Tournez souvent et tournez toujours, Tournez, tournez au sons de hautbois."_ PAUL VERLAINE [Illustration] New York Alfred A. Knopf MCMXVIII COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Contents PAGE IN DEFENCE OF BAD TASTE 11 MUSIC AND SUPERMUSIC 23 EDGAR SALTUS 37 THE NEW ART OF THE SINGER 93 _Au Bal Musette_ 125 MUSIC AND COOKING 149 AN INTERRUPTED CONVERSATION 179 THE AUTHORITATIVE WORK ON AMERICAN MUSIC 197 OLD DAYS AND NEW 215 TWO YOUNG AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHTS 227 _De Senectute Cantorum_ 245 IMPRESSIONS IN THE THEATRE I _The Land of Joy_ 281 II A Note on Mimi Aguglia 298 III The New Isadora 307 IV Margaret Anglin Produces _As You Like It_ 318 THE MODERN COMPOSERS AT A GLANCE 329 FOOTNOTES 330 INDEX 331 Some of these essays have appeared in "The Smart Set," "Reedy's Mirror," "Vanity Fair," "The Chronicle," "The Theatre," "The Bellman," "The Musical Quarterly," "Rogue," "The New York Press," and "The New York Globe." In their present form, however, they have undergone considerable redressing. In Defence of Bad Taste "_It is a painful thing, at best, to live up to one's bricabric, if one has any; but to live up to the bricabric of many lands and of many centuries is a strain which no wise man would dream of inflicting upon his constitution._" Agnes Repplier. In Defence of Bad Taste