MUSIC AND THE WAR.
THE power of music to cheer and stimulate the fighting man is beyond question, but the conditions of modern warfare make it difficult to employ its aid, except to an extremely
limited extent. There is a story of a General Order issued at manoeuvres by a humorous General: "Volunteer bands are requested nob to play when in ambush." Anyhow, there are no British military bands at the front, and up till now music has been unduly neglected as a means of en- couraging recruiting at home, though efforts are now being made to remedy this defect. In the fighting line our soldiers have had to content themselves hitherto with sing- ing, 'whistling, and the gramophone. The war, so far, has not thrown up any supreme musical product. It would be an affectation to pretend that the taste of the average British soldier is elevated. As in the Boer War, his repertory is confined to music-ball tunes and songs of an extreme and lugubrious sentimentality. The type-song of this genre in South Africa was "Mother," which was, if we mistake not, the original of one of the happiest burlesques of the late Mr. Pelissier. He appeared as a robust music-hall baritone with an expression of strained pathos and a soft hat, which he took off at each mention of the word " mother" to a sudden glare of limelight, and the refrain ran "Tent never have another mother, Though you live ten thousand years!'
But Mr. Pelissier's satire was not directed against the soldiers who sang " Mother " with genuine filial feeling : he was merely taking off the insincerity of the beefy baritone. But to return to the British soldier : an Array doctor who had been through the campaign in the firing line all the way from Mona till the end of November told the present writer that the only songs he had heard which were not included in the two classes we have mentioned had been sung by a Welsh regiment. They were also the only soldiers whom he had beard singing in parte. The average " Tommy " does not sing folk-songs or graceful chansons populaires, e.g., Meunier to dors, Tan rrundin as trap rite, like our allies, but at least he does not submit to dictation from above: be chooses for himself. The curious fact about " Tipperary," a marching song of a mild ragtime order and the one outstanding war tune of the campaign, is that it was adopted by the soldiers, and was never popularized by any music-hall singer of repute.
At home "Business as usual" has been in the main the motto of colleges and academies. But private teachers, even those of the first rank, have found it necessary to reduce their fees, and even so the number of their pupils has fallen off. It has been stated on good authority, and we sincerely hope that the statement is correct, that hitherto there has been little distress amongst professional musicians, and that the demands on the benevolent societies which exist for the relief of necessitous eases have not been exceptional. War emergency entertainments have been organized in aid of the musical and dramatic professions, the " Music in War Time" Fund has lent most efficient aid, and we have received from Messrs. Broad wood, of Conduit Street, a summary of the working of their " Camp Concerts," designed for the double purpose of providing amusements for our soldiers in outlying camps and districts and supplementing the incomes of professional artists who are suffering from the restricted demand for their services owing to the war. Between November 17th and December 31st upwards of seventy of these concerts were given, and 2963 17s. 9d. has been paid to the artists engaged. As, however, the average oust of each concert has been nearly double the original estimate, Messrs. Broadwood appeal for more fonds to carry on their patriotic scheme, which has met with the greatest accept- ance. But it is hard to estimate the full extent of the loss of earning power among professional musicians, for, as a general rule, those who are hardest hit are too proud to advertise their need or appeal for aid.. In any case, music from the educa- tional point of view is regarded ae a. decorative accomplishment, and music lessons are amongst the first " extras" to be dropped. Private teachers, especially in the humbler walks, must have suffered a considerable loss of income already, and, it is to be feared, will suffer more in the months to come.
When we turn to public performances, the falling off in the number of concerts is not so serious a thing as might be imagined- by the layman, unversed in the economies of the musical world. He needs to be reminded that in normal times, when orchestral concerts, subscription concerts, ballad concerts, and the concerts given by a very small number of famous or popular singers or players are ruled out, the great majority of the remainder are run at a lour to the concert- giver. The balk of recitals are given, not to make money,
but to keep or bring performers before the public, and the • economy imposed by present conditions can be accepted with equanimity, except perhaps by concert agents. But the number of concerts of a patriotic character which are being held at the present time, and the proceeds of which are devoted to national or charitable purposes. must mean a con- siderable reduction in the incomes of all artists who take part in them. For the rest, such concerts with a purely artistic aim as are still being given are affected by the temperament of the concert-goer as well as by economic considerations. The music-halls, it is said, are doing a splendid business, but, apart from the fact that their main object is to amuse, their programmes are to a considerable extent framed so as to dwell on the lighter side of the war and to minister to optimism. Concerts devoted to classical music, in any case, appeal to a different audience. In ordinary times women compose about five-sixths of it; and of these a good number are occupied in nursing or relief work, while personal bereavement in thousands of homes must accountfor many absentees. With the rest, and such elderly men as have leisure to attend, going or not going is entirely a matter of temperament. It is not that those who now make music or go to hear it feel less deeply than those who refrain. It is that they are able to find in it an anodyne or a distraction. Music keeps them from brooding or moping; it transports them to the realms of enchantment, to the island valley of Avilion, or faery. land forlorn. They are to be envied rather than re- buked, for to them music is "a refuge and a solace in adversity," as Lord Morley has said of literature. .8E, however, are not so constituted, and there are a good many music-lovers, and even musicians, who find it hard, if not impossible, to attain to the mood in which they can enjoy even their best-beloved composer's. It is no use going to a concert if you are thinking of other things all the while. And not a few are affected by a curious and unhappy sense of lose. They are firm believers in the view that the realm of art is world-wide, but in face of the deadly animosity of Germany, to whom our debt in this domain is the greatest, they feel that they are temporarily deprived of their heritage. It is not that they love and admire Bach and Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms less, but the attitude of the nations to which these masters belong, and which have the greatest reason to be proud of them, has poisoned the mid-fount of sweetness. This mood may not he general: it may be even a little morbid: but it is none the less genuine. Yet for the reassurance of those who harbour such thoughts it may be fairly argued that none of the great classical masters belonged to the materialistic Prassianized Germany of to-day—the Germany that boldly avows the policy of "frightfulness," commandeers the Almighty as if He were a tribal deity, and preaches the gospel of hate. It is permissible to recall Beethoven's change of mind in regard to the dedication of the Eroica" symphony, and litis a curious fact that Beethoven's forebears came from Louvain. With modern and contemporary German music the case is different. To boycott Wagner en blot, would be almost as absurd as to speak disrespectfully of the equator. But the liaisermarsch, written to celebrate triumphant Imperialism, belongs to another category, and the allies of France cannot easily forget that Wagner wrote Una Capitulation. No one could read these aggressive qualities into the genial scares of Humperdinck, but the antagonism excited by the ethos of a great deal of Strauss's music has been largely justified by recent events. The brutality of Matra, the glorification of the combative superman in Heldenteben, and the choice of one of Nietzsche's works as the programme of another of his symphonic poems—all show a spiritual affinity with the Germany revealed in the war. Yet it is one of the puzzling anomalies of the time that the patriotic manifesto issued by German professors, writers, and artists was signed by Humperdinck and not by Strauss.
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