Hfvieu of Reviews, Ij'^/OH. 



Leading Articles. 



495 



THE MUSICAL GENIUS. 



Mozart, Beethoven, and Others. 



On January 27th, 1756, Mozart was born at Salz- 

 burg, and the musical world has recently been cele- 

 brating the 150th anniversary of his birth. Apropos, 

 Karl Storck contributes an article on Musical 

 Genius to the February number of Westermaiiii. 



MUSIC-DRAMA. NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL. 



He begins b) referring to Gluck and Wagner and 

 their methods of reforming the opera or music- 

 drama. Gluck desired to create music which would 

 appeal to ail nations and so make what he called 

 the ridiculous differences of national music disap- 

 pear. When he found he could not manage it in 

 Germany, he went to Paris. Just a hundred years 

 later Wagner also went to Paris, imagining that 

 there only he, too, would be able to proclaiin with 

 success his ideas of operatic reform. Not that 

 Germany was wanting in talent, but it lacked na- 

 tional spirit, and Wagner, who did not wish to con- 

 quer either Paris or the world, hoped to reach Ger- 

 many through Paris. 



To-day, howexer, notwithsta.nding all the talk 

 about the internationality of art, we regard music 

 which embraces all nations rather as a limitation of 

 the greatest powers. We feel that the influence of 

 Wagner over the world and his universality lay just 

 in his Gennan nationality, whereas it is the inter- 

 na: tional qualities of Gluck's works that make the 

 revival of them so unsuccessful. But opera — that is, 

 music wedded to words — can hard'.v help taking on 

 a national character. The great exception is 

 Mozart, who has been able to compose music which 

 unites in itself characteristics to satisfy and delight 

 all nations. He is justly regarded bv the whole 

 world as the summit of musical art, though three 

 (jther names — Wagner, Beethoven, and Bach — run 

 him close for the honour. 



ABSOLTJTK Vf;R.SUS PROGRAMME MUSIC. 



Mozart, says the writer, is the only composer of 

 really absolute music. Wagner, on the other hand, 

 endeavoured to combine music with all the other 

 arts, and Beethoven was the founder of that music 

 which does not stand alone, but needs to be united 

 to another of the arts. Beethoven's tone-poems 

 suggest the idea that the music is connected with 

 poetic thoughts or philosophical ideas, or is a 

 nature-picture, and he excels all his successors in 

 this power of expressing such things in music. His 

 music still affects us more than that of any other 

 composer. The musical power of Bach in itself is 

 stronger than that of Beethoven, but with Mozart 

 everything is Titanic. His creative force is divine. 

 Composing was to him a necessity. No one is really 

 sorry that Mozart's life was so short, because of the 

 perfection of his work. He died, like Raphael, in 

 his thirty-sixth year. He created the world-lan- 

 guage of music, the art of arts ; he is the prototype 

 of the musical genius. 



The Demonmc Element in Mozart. 

 Dr. Alfred Heuss contributes to the Zeitschnp der 

 Inieniatioiwlen Musikgescllschafi for February an 

 interesting paper on the ■ Demoniac Element in 

 Mozart's Works. " By '' demoniac," or possessed, the 

 writer means the innately pas.^iioiiate passages ; and 

 Mozart, he say.s, has a strong passionate nature ; 

 passionate passages abound in his compositions. In 

 his creative work he simply let himself go — with odd 

 results occasionallv. 



SUSAN B. ANTHONY. 



The Death of a Great Pioneer. 



Miss Ida Husted Harpet contributes to the 

 Amen can Review of Reviews a brief but appreciative 

 sketch of Miss Susan B. Anthony, the Women's 

 Suffrage leader in the United States of America. 

 The article is illustrated by a full-page portrait of 

 Miss Anthony, and pays a high tribute to the energy, 

 intelligence and enthusiasm of this pious woman. 

 Miss Harper says that there will never be another 

 reformer of equal rank to Susan B. Anthony, be- 

 cause the conditions never will demand a similar 

 pioneer. She was born in 1820, and she began 

 her work in public when she was twenty-nine. She 

 made her debut in the work of temperance reform, 

 and her lir&t step w^as to insist upon the right of 

 women to send women as delegates to tem|ferance 

 conventions. This was so fiercely resented by the 

 men that she combined with Mrs. Stanton in 1852 

 to form a State Woman's Temperance Association. 

 It was in the same year that she began the agitatioii 

 for the suffrage, which she kept up to the last day 

 of her life. It was not until 1868 that she estab- 

 lished, together with Mrs. Stanton, the weekly news- 

 paper cal.ed Tlie Revolution, which was so far ahead 

 of the time that in two years and a half it had to be 

 dropped. In 1869 she helped the formation of the 

 National Woman Suffrage .Association. From that 

 day to the time of her death she devoted herself tr. 

 the advocacy of the woman's cause, and she lec- 

 tured in all parts of the United States, and besides 

 found time to write her four large volumes, " The 

 History of Woman Suffrage." She was present in 

 London in 1899 at the International Council of 

 Women, and again at one held in 1904 in Berlin. 



Miss -Anthony is the liberator of women, ami 

 endle.ss generations will read the story of her lile 

 with gratitude and reverence. When she began there 

 was no homogeneity, no esprit de corps among 

 women. They suffered many wrongs, but they had 

 been taught that to protest was rebellion against the 

 Divine will. To face this situation Susan B. .Anthony 

 brought indomitable courage, great ability, and im 

 mense resources. Miss Harper declares that she 

 will ever stand alone and unapproached, her fame 

 continually increasing as evolution lifts humanity 

 into higher appreciation of justice and liberty. 



