252 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



song it is the music and not the words that gives the stamp of greatness to 

 the composition. With Schumann, Robert Franz, and Brahms, though 

 we feel in the presence of less godlike genius, we also feel that a truer liter- 

 ary instinct guided the composer in a more careful selection of texts. 

 Many a song- writer of today has been influenced for good by these com- 

 posers ; nevertheless a study of modern songs warrants this criticism, that 

 too often the pure lyric note is lacking, and as a result there are com- 

 posers whose songs suggest miniature symphonic poems with incidental 

 words. There are certain laws which cannot be ignored, and one is that a 

 song must, so to speak, sing itself, and for this reason no form of music 

 takes more speedy revenge on the composer who refuses to recognize its 

 demands. 



While the piano and organ have suffered more or less at the hands of 

 modern experimenters, the danger has been less, because those pianists 

 and organists worthy of being called artists, are too well acquainted vdth 

 the inexhaustible literature bequeathed by the masters for these instru- 

 ments to be easily led astray. 



To worthily speak of the modern opera, or music drama, would re- 

 quire a separate paper, involving us in a discussion of Wagner, his theories 

 relative to the music of the future, and the effect of his composition and 

 theories on the composers of today. On a gigantic scale his works illustrate 

 the influence of the literary attitude toward music, and he has unques- 

 tionably come nearer to a true statement of the matter than any other 

 modern composer, for he was consistent in his attitude and remained true 

 to his high ideals, sweeping all obstacles aside by the tremendous force of 

 his creative musical genius. 



It is in purely instrumental music rather than in the lyric drama that the 

 violation of the scientific principles of musical aesthetics is most dangerous 

 to music. Realism in instrumental music — that is, the use of a text or 

 "programme," the attempt to describe hterally a mood, a scene, or even an 

 entire poem or the life of a hero — is often commendable, not only as a guide 

 to the mood of the composer, but also as a means of assisting the imagina- 

 tion of the hearer. A privilege allowed a great composer, in lesser genius 

 is too often a temptation leading to disastrous results. It would be inter- 

 esting, did space allow, to cite instances of this realism in the works of 



