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The Rhetoric of Modern MusicAuthor(s): Karl H. EschmanReviewed work(s):Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Apr., 1921), pp. 157-166Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/738204 .

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T H E MUSICAL QUARTERLYVOL. VII APRIL, 1921 NO. 2

THE RHETORIC OF MODERN MUSICBy KARL H. ESCHMANrT HEour elements of musical style: rhythm, melody, har-mony, and form-have occupied at one time or another,positions of varying importance in the development ofmusic. To the historian who is concerned with the processofdevelopment, these elements appear to have originated in theordernamed,althoughthe critical theorist cannot at once agreewith so simple an explanation,for he finds it difficultto conceive

of any musicalthought without its embodiment n materialform.The theorist must also consider the other elements so inter-dependent as to justify the belief that melody lies inherent inwhat appearsto be the most simple rhythmic combination,andthat harmonyis implied in any melodic succession whatever.At certain periods, however, one or more of these elementspredominate. Rhythm, thus, is the outstandingfeatureof primi-tive music, as simple melody worn smooth by usage characterizesfolk-music; while "poly-melody"is the very definition of poly-phony. The classical period is so named largely because of itsemphasis upon formal structure,although the change to an har-monic point of view was also important. Following parallelmovementsin literature and politics, music broke away fromtheclassic tradition and entered a romantic period, which has con-tinued to the present day in Realism, Symbolism, Impressionism,and other contradicting, centrifugal resultants of emotionalRomanticism. Rhythm, color, and harmony are in the fore-ground,althoughthe orderof importancemay vary withindividualcomposers. In the last forty years all three have grown moredissonant.Some, who do not object to the title "Conservatives"at sucha time as this, deplore the invasion of crass rhythm, barbaric

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The Musical Quarterlycolor, and crashing harmonic dissonance, whether brutally realisticor subtly impressionistic. They sincerely believe that the modernextremists are on the direct road to barbarism. Others who haveunbounded faith in the new "Freedom," believe that the field ofArt is unlimited and that nothing is useless as art-material justas nothing in the physical world is entirely useless. Accord-ingly, they have hope even in the music of the Italian noise-machines.The critic of modern music is at once confronted by thisproblem of the materials of the art, the harmonic vocabulary,and the melodic idiom. There is also the interesting question ofan amalgamation of the new material with the old. The impres-sion of unpleasantness sometimes resulting from a sudden juxta-position of the two, may be due to the fact that we are living ina period when the new is strange in its newness, or this impressionmay be the result of inherent differences in the two processes.The juxtaposition is nowhere more apparent than in the musicof certain lesser composers of the present day, who seem to havedecided to insert a few modern idioms in an otherwise mid-Victorian composition. However, we may admit all the newestwords in music so long as some listeners, other than the composer,understand the language. More important than problems ofvocabulary is the consideration of form and especially of whatmay be called rhetoric, in the music of to-day and of thefuture.

* *

After only a superficial survey of modern music, emphasisupon form seems unwarranted. That it is about the last elementmentioned in a characterization of the period is due in part tothe fact that design is most successful when inconspicuous andunobtrusive. It is also due to a narrow conception of the meaningof the term. When "form" is mentioned, most musicians thinkonly of the formal and arbitrary arrangements of the classicalperiod and certain extremely conservative tenets of Bussler andProut which were successfully modified by later romanticists andare now fortunately and properly relegated to the past. The im-pression that rhetorical design is relatively unimportant in modernmusic is furthered by the fact that some composers are so interestedin the vocabulary they are using as to be oblivious to style.On the other hand, a careful investigation will prove thatrhetorical form is much more important than most observers

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The Rhetoric of Modern Music 159realize,andthat the greatest composersof the presentperiod areexperts in style. Contemporarycomposerslikely to be earliestforgotten, are those who are interested only in the magic leger-demainof the new musicalvocabularyand who neglect the con-struction of a real message. It is scarcelynecessaryto emphasizethe fact that great musicis the result of a cooperationof the fourmusical elements. A composerlacking in rhythmic, melodic, orharmonicinterest is subject to immediate criticism, although atany given momentin a compositionit is not likely that all theseare of prime importance. However, the expressionof form, thestylistic rhetoric of music, is continuously important. Thedangerthat some modernmusic may fail at this point is greaterthan that it may fall into rhythmicor harmonicchaos.The best music of the nineteenth century is music in whichthere wasan amalgamationof harmonyandpolyphony. Similarlyin the twentieth century, the greatest music will be written whenthe modern harmonicvocabulary,combinedwith engagingcolorand rhythmicinterest,expresses deas with all the forceof rhetori-cal form (usingthe term "form,"as we have cometo use the termpolyphonyin its freest and best sense).

Regardfor rhetoricalstructuredoes not confinethe composerto any specificforms such as the "Sonata-form." This emphasisupon fixed designs has done much to prejudicethe study of trueform. Although the purity of outline of the classical sonata isadmiredand comparedto the formalbeauty of Greeksculpture,the moderncomposerand the modernsculptor are not expectedto confine themselves to these rather impersonal and staticforms.The ClassicalSchool, with its balancedphrasesand empha-sized cadential endings, wrote beautiful musical poetry, butto-day Scriabineand others have written in a style which morenearly approximates that of prose. This does not excuse thelatter from an examination of their rhetorical style; in fact,rhetoricis even more importantin prose than in poetry, becauseof the greaterfreedomof prose. In this comparisonof modernmusic and prose forms, there is no intention to referto the emo-tional content of prose and verse. Much that is, from a formalstandpoint,musical prose, is extremely poetic; just as Tagore'sprose is poetic. Much poetry is prosaic. Mendelssohnat timesdelighted in the niceties of formal "irregularities n regularity"somewhat as Dryden did, and will be read less and less, for thesame reason. Beethoven, like Milton, became more deeplyphilosophic n his poetic style than Strauss succeededin becoming

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The Musical Quarterlyin "Also Sprach Zarathustra." It is extremely important thatpresent-day composers face this fact and realize that the greatestcriticism of the modern school as a whole, is its lack of depth.Superficial ideas are often expressed with elaborate means, but allthe richness of harmony and orchestral color does not preventthe listener from realizing that the composer has no message.Some would say that the new idiom does not lend itself to any-thing but half-tone impressionism. Surely this is not the case.Modern composers should be able to express themselves withgreater force because of their increased resources of vocabulary,instrumental color, and rhythmic variety. Some of the Russiansare already doing so.The secret of such expression is inherent in a complete con-quest of its rhetorical aspects. This technique is not to be usedin a conscious or arbitrary manner but as an unconscious elementin the fluency of expression, for form should ever be the servantand not the master of ideas. This fluency of expression is absolutelyessential for any logical statement of musical ideas and it is aprerequisite for intelligibility. That it is lacking may account forthe incoherency of some modern music, although it is difficult tosay in all cases whether it is the intelligence of the critic or ofthe composer which is deficient.Formal intelligibility does not necessarily demand regularityin structure. In fact, the listener much prefers the subtle andinvolved, so long as there is a conviction of sincerity of utteranceand inherent, if not expressed, form. One of the main reasonswhy Bach seems a very modern composer is the fact that he foundfreedom of rhetoric in his style and that his sentence structure isquite involved and gives Messrs. Prout and Brethren moreproblems in their mathematics than any other composer theyattempt to analyze.Too much emphasis should not be placed upon a demand forplain intelligibility even, as some composers, like Debussy, preferto veil the indistinct outlines of their form, and deal in thatliterary style in which half the charm is the lack of plain statement.There is more promise in music of the vers libre type than inpoetry of that description (although no art can find its mainthoroughfare in this direction), for music can approach withsafety nearer to truth which cannot be intelligibly translated inverbal symbols. On the other hand, it is well to point out thatin the biological world, the higher the organism, the greater isits organization and that animals with strongest vertebratesystems are most important. Of all the arts, music by the very

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The Rhetoric of Modern Music 161evanescent characterof the medium itself needs careful organi-zation in its structure.

* *

Two divisions may be made of the problems of rhetoricalstructurein music:one concernedwith the largeform of the workandthe other,the detailedformof the smallerunits, the concurrentdiscourseof the musical idea. In modernmusic the latter tendsto become the more important consideration. Composershavediscovered hat the largeformof a workmay assumeany structureconsistent with the type and mood of the composition, if theykeep in mind a few fundamentalprinciples of aesthetics,unityand variety, proportionand development. They may then turntheir musicalthought in almost any direction,so long as they saysomething, i. e. so long as there is coherency in the rhetoricalstatement of ideas. The fixed mold of a large form is no longerneeded. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, literaryprogramsand designs,descriptiveof externalobjects, have oftenbeen used in the place of the classicalmodelsbut even programsare unnecessary. While literature and nature will always stimu-late the imaginationof composers,they need not be called uponto furnishsubstitutes for formaldesign. When this is fully real-ized, a true renascenceof absolute musicperse will follow. That,after all, is the larger freedom. Many musical anarchists arehoping to find in programmusic an extreme realism. Why dothey seek to be free of all harmonic and rhythmic restrictionsonly to enter a greaterbondage!The large form of his drama, in which musical themes arethe sole protagonists,will be as free as the composerdesiresandits developmentwill be limited only by the characterof the ideasthemselves. Nevertheless, it is always to be rememberedthat,however free in form his work may become, no compositioncanever ultimately free itself from the necessity of form, becauseform will continue to be the penalty which everythingmust payfor the privilegeof existing. The composermay manipulatethedramatispersone in a musical plot as he pleases. His principalcharactersneed not always be introducedat the opening of thework as they are in Sonata-form. The heroine, frequently thesecond theme of this form, need not be awaited expectantly atthe closing pedal-point of a bridge-passage,with all the othercharacterson the stage lookingtoward her entrance. Stereotypedprocedureof this sort may secure the expected applause in sometheatres but it should not be a convention required in all

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The Musical Quarterlysymphonies. There is no reason why the general atmosphere ofthe work should not be suggested by a long dialogue of secondaryideas or by an impressionistic scenic setting before any musicalidea emerges in a principal r61e. Or even, as in G. B. Shaw, theremay be no hero or heroine. Sometimes, the musical idea is grad-ually revealed in its true character and the work concludes withan apotheosis. There is much to be said in favor of saving themusical climax for the very end rather than placing it at thetheoretically correct point, both in the classic literary drama andthe musical symphony-at the end of the third act of five (i. e.at the end of Development and beginning of Recapitulation).Drama long ago, recognized this liberty and the necessity formetamorphosis and interaction among the characters until thefinal curtain, a fact which the recapitulation of the old sonata-form forgets. The "live-happily-ever-after" idea of a recapitu-lation with both themes in the tonic key, is rapidly giving placeto more artistic and less stereotyped arrangements. In all of thesematters, the composer should have complete freedom, consistentwith his own idea.The more important part of modern rhetorical style is thedetailed consideration of "sentence" structure. This is inherentlyconnected with the musical idea itself; one can scarcely say whichis form and which idea: hence, its importance. At the presenttime with Rousseauistic philosophy rampant, any emphasis uponstructure calls forth condemnation from those who believe thatthe "Inner Check" is of the Devil, that Decorum is responsiblefor all the sins of art, and Society for all the sins of the individual.Musicians of this belief will say that the theorist is, of course,quite willing to grant the composer harmonic freedom and evenfreedom in the large form, so long as he can fasten the servitudeof sentence structure upon him.It is the province of criticism in art or politics, to search forthe Law that is higher than all laws. A recognition of the falli-bility of human law and of the tendency of forms to becomeformalistic, does not imply the giving up of all standards and areturn to chaos. The old idea of sentence-structure must berecast. Much of it comes from the days when music had morethe rhythms of poetry than of prose, in which harmonic andmelodic cadences had almost the effect of rhyme and when balanceof phrases approximated verse-form. Some composers will con-tinue to write in this style, in the future as in the past, but othershave discarded this type of musical sentence, believing that thereis no practical or theoretical reason why a musical thought, cast

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The Rhetoric of Modern Music 163in a musical sentence, should always close with an accepteddominant-tonic cadence. Many modern full closes are purelymelodic or the feeling of weight is producedby other harmonicmeans,and these periodiccloses are just as satisfactory. Musicalpunctuation does not depend upon harmonic cadencesof a fixedpattern. It is indeed convenient in studying the music of someperiods, to call a half-cadence a semi-colon or comma; a fullcadence,a period;and interruptedordeceptivecadences,exclama-tion points, interrogationmarks or dashes;but these same effectshave been achievedin modernmusicin many other ways and justas unmistakablyand successfully.

Again, the composermust bear in mind that, althoughthereis no longer any need of harmoniccadences,he is not freed fromall considerationsof structure. Music must be just as intelligiblea language and capable of just as much declamation as before,with even greater art. The performercannot merely repeatwordsendlessly;he must punctuate and read into the music, theideas of the composer. Therefore,a coherent rhetorical style isan essential, and more important to-day than ever. To provethat, in the workof great composersof the present,this rhetoricalstyle is highly developed;that it is frequently lacking in others;and, in general, to analyze its processes,is an important field ofinvestigationfor the student of modern music.

* *

When an attempt is madeto isolate the formof a compositionand consider it apart from the spiritual content of music, theprotest is often heard that cruel vivisection is being practiced;but it is onlyby some suchlaboratorymethodasthis, that elementscan be isolatedand studied. Convenience,also, is the only excusefor the use of numerals as symbols. Those who oppose anysystematic study of the subject are fond of pointing out themathematical contradictions of certain theorists. That therehave been differencesof opinionin details of form,is no criticismof the study in general; ratheris it to be expected n any consider-ation of the intricate structure of music. In the few exampleswhich follow, other analyses may be held equally valid in detail.Thesearecited not in an attempt to cover the widefieldsuggestedin the precedingparagraph,but as illustrating some features ofsentencestructure.An interesting case of extremely elaborate rhythmic andharmonicmaterial, coupled with extreme simplicity (one might

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The Musical Quarterlyalmost say, poverty) of form, may be considered in the analysisof Ornstein's small piano pieces "Poems of 1917." The adjective"small" is properly applied, for, gigantic technically, as has beenthe attempt to depict phases of the world-war in music, thesepieces are all on small canvases and quite innocently regular inform. Hardly anything but regular four-measure phrases canbe found from one end of the set to the other.

I. Introductory 2.A Thesis 4: arsis 3 (producing effect of 4 by addition of a fer-mata).Ax 4:4A Same form as before.II. A Thesis of two trimeters concluded by arsis of quatrimeter.The composer adds two measures to produce complete balance6:6.Ax 4:4B 4:4A Same as before.III. A 4:4Ax 4:4A 4 quasi coda.IV. A 4:4

Ax 4:5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 8 (cumulative extension but no real rhythmicirregularity).A 4:4 Extended as above to 6 measures.V. Introductory 4.A 4Ax 4 (condensed to 3 measures).Concluding 4.VI. A 4:4:4 (triple sentence).B 4:4 (last measure extended by regular means, 2 measures).A 4:4:2 (final quatrimeter suggested by a diameter).VII. A 4:4 (continued one measure).B 4:4:4A 4 (continued two measures).VIII. A 4:4 (cumulative extension'of two measures)B 4:4Interlude 2C 4:4 (extended three measures)Cx 4:4Interlude 1C 4 (extended one measure)Ax 4:44:4IX. Introductory 5 measures.Introductory accompaniment figure 2 measures.A 4:4Ax 4:4

Concluding accompaniment figure 2 measures.

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The Rhetoric of Modern Music 165X. Introductory 4A 4:4

AX 4:4A"x 4:4Interlude 4A 4:4Coda 4:4 (with 2 measures regular extension).Numbereightof the set, whichdepictsactualwarfare,appearsto exhibit greater irregularity,but this is in content rather thanin form. The formal digressionsfrom regularquatrimeters are,in the main, repetitions of final measures to give the necessaryperiodiceffect, formerlyproducedby harmonicmeans. So strongis Mr. Ornstein'sfeeling for regularitythat he properlyadds onemeasureof rest at the end of this number. If one still choosesto mean by "form,"stereotypedregularity,it can be found herein greaterfrequency,perhaps,than in the compositionsof Mozart.Toward this fact, the observer may take one of two attitudes:either this music is to be praisedfor its "purity"of form, or onemay deplore the lack of rhetorical interest and wish that thecomposerhad treated the involved subject of a world-war n lessrigid musical phrases. One is inclined to miss, for instance, the

surging rhetoric of the Chopin Preludes to which these compo-sitionsbear someresemblance. This is not intendedas a criticismof melodicorharmonicmaterial,in whichthere is muchto interestthe listenerand to whichhe may turnhis entireattention,probablyas Mr.Ornstein ntendedhe should.Of greaterinterest from the rhetoricalstandpoint, are manyof Cyril Scott's compositions, notably his Sonata for Pianoforte.They are illustrative also of a skillful use of new methods ofpunctuation other than the simple repetition or extension of afinal measure for periodic effect, noticed in Ornstein. Scott's"Garden of Soul-Sympathy"is quite clear in form although itchanges time-signaturesin almost every measure and is moresubtly irregularhan Mr.Ornstein's et.'The ten Pianoforte Sonatas of AlexanderScriabin constitutean excellent illustration of the developmentof newermethods of

1The first eight measures are in delicately balanced structure. Then follows acomplementary phrase of the form 1, 2, 2, 3, 4 and three measures of cadenza-likematerial concluded by three of changing harmonies. Bar lines are as much a hindrancein the analysis of Scott as they evidently were in the composition itself. For instance,these last three measures have the "weight" of two, as does also the "cadenza." Thiscloses the first section, A. Now a contrasted theme, B, in regular 8-measure outline.Then B reappears in 3/8 time-regular, if we consider one measure of 6/8 inserted astwo of 3/8. The final A is interesting as it shows more of the growth which gives in-terest to rhetoric. The last two measures are twice repeated with changing harmoniesand then the final measure itself, still changing color, is repeated three times and asnatch of B brings the number to a dose.

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166 The Musical Quarterlysentence structure and punctuation. The first three Sonatas,writtensomewhat in the style of Brahms,Chopinand Schumann,respectively,are orthodox in structure. In the fourth Sonata, achangehas been made to a newerharmonicvocabularybut eachsentence still ends with the dominant-toniccadence, though thisis often disguisedby appoggiaturas, uspensionsand over-lapping.In the fifth Sonata not a single sentence ends with a full cadence.The impressionof conclusionupon the main tonality, however,isusually produced n this sonata and in thoseimmediately ollowing,by the use of a part of the tonic harmony with added notes.Gradually,withincreaseddaringandthe growthof his vocabulary,the methodsof sentence structure and punctuationbecome muchfreer and more varied. Even in the last Sonatas, however,notonly the large form but also the detailed rhetoric is extremelyclearand in the mainsurprisingly egular.An analysis of the methods by which Scriabin and othermoderncomposersachieve this clarity of form and coherencyofrhetoricwould involve detailed treatmentat some length, but aninvestigation of the form of the best modernmusic, with a con-siderationof the newer rhetoric,should answerany criticismonthat score. Rhetoric is only a means to an end, however,andmoderncomposershave yet to convince many that they have amessageof lasting worth. While the theorist must acknowledgethe relative animportanceof form in itself, yet it is difficult tothink of formapartfrom content, and an eloquent and forcefulrhythmicrhetoricshould ree andinspireexpression.