Dutch composer and arranger (1868-1954) who, in 1913, was one of the founders and first director of "The Music-Copyright Office" (BUMA).
Typed letter in German, signed by him and dated in Amsterdam on 21st September 1936 to Maestro Arturo Toscanini, concerning the foundations of his music theory, Size is
8.5 x 13.8 inches, 2 typed pages in one sheet (front and back), creases, folds, with letterhead, some autograph corrections in ink, in overall very good condition.
Translation:
“…You don't know me, I got to know you as an artist, and I mean that I learned through that. If you don't have time or too little time for it, just don't read this letter. In the opposite case, read until the matter no longer interests you enough. I believe that presenting things in the simplest form has always been the best way to make one's thoughts clear to others. Especially the modern man is ashamed - why he hardly knows himself - to use this method. And so it is with many a modern composer. For me, the comprehensible musical culture does not go much further than Wagner. In this century, a new element has infiltrated musical culture, which actually cannot be a positive element in the musical sense. Until so far in musical art after good musical education it was possible to get to know a work and to understand it musically (and to love it!). Whether one calls certain modern music atonal, bitonal or pluritonal does not matter. The question is: is it possible to feel this music musically at all? If a composer with talent would dare today to compose and then perform a work that is musically comprehensible like the works of the 19th century, and suppose that this work is even a work of art, this composer would probably be laughed at these days. Snobisme has always existed. Snobisme is as necessary as bacterial colonies in the human body. Snobisme and criticism have in and of themselves no artistic form, they are however indispensable in musical society, because the development of the young creative musician will not flourish if the process of development is too smooth. The more this process is hindered, the more he learns to understand that he can only become an artist through long and diligent study. In art there is an analogue for what in nature is called biological effect. I will assume this with an example. In the beginning there must be the belief, thank God, that this time still believes in Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi, Wagner and the good that the other excellent composers have left us. The present listeners, who are not musically educated in the sphere of the 19th century, are nevertheless able to enjoy this beautiful art, although they are not aware that the key point in the development of this artistic enjoyment is faith…”. 2 pp. In-4.
Dutch composer and arranger (1868-1954) who, in 1913, was one of the founders and first director of "The Music-Copyright Office"...
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Dutch composer and arranger (1868-1954) who, in 1913, was one of the founders and first director of "The Music-Copyright Office" (BUMA).
Typed letter in German, signed by him and dated in Amsterdam on 21st September 1936 to Maestro Arturo Toscanini, concerning the foundations of his music theory, Size is
8.5 x 13.8 inches, 2 typed pages in one sheet (front and back), creases, folds, with letterhead, some autograph corrections in ink, in overall very good condition.
Translation:
“…You don't know me, I got to know you as an artist, and I mean that I learned through that. If you don't have time or too little time for it, just don't read this letter. In the opposite case, read until the matter no longer interests you enough. I believe that presenting things in the simplest form has always been the best way to make one's thoughts clear to others. Especially the modern man is ashamed - why he hardly knows himself - to use this method. And so it is with many a modern composer. For me, the comprehensible musical culture does not go much further than Wagner. In this century, a new element has infiltrated musical culture, which actually cannot be a positive element in the musical sense. Until so far in musical art after good musical education it was possible to get to know a work and to understand it musically (and to love it!). Whether one calls certain modern music atonal, bitonal or pluritonal does not matter. The question is: is it possible to feel this music musically at all? If a composer with talent would dare today to compose and then perform a work that is musically comprehensible like the works of the 19th century, and suppose that this work is even a work of art, this composer would probably be laughed at these days. Snobisme has always existed. Snobisme is as necessary as bacterial colonies in the human body. Snobisme and criticism have in and of themselves no artistic form, they are however indispensable in musical society, because the development of the young creative musician will not flourish if the process of development is too smooth. The more this process is hindered, the more he learns to understand that he can only become an artist through long and diligent study. In art there is an analogue for what in nature is called biological effect. I will assume this with an example. In the beginning there must be the belief, thank God, that this time still believes in Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi, Wagner and the good that the other excellent composers have left us. The present listeners, who are not musically educated in the sphere of the 19th century, are nevertheless able to enjoy this beautiful art, although they are not aware that the key point in the development of this artistic enjoyment is faith…”. 2 pp. In-4.
