Personality in Art
The influence of the artist's personality in his art finds a most striking exemplification in the case of Fritz Kreisler. Some time before the writer called on the famous violinist to get at first hand some of his opinions with regard to his art, he had already met him under particularly interesting circumstances. The question had come up of
writing text-poems for two song-adaptations of Viennese folk-themes,
airs not unattractive in themselves; but which Kreisler's personal
touch, his individual gift of harmonization had lifted from a lower
plane to the level of the art song. Together with the mss. of his own
beautiful transcript, Mr. Kreisler in the one instance had given me the
printed original which suggested it--frankly a "popular" song, clumsily
harmonized in a "four-square" manner (though written in 3/4 time) with
nothing to indicate its latent possibilities. I compared it with his
mss. and, lo, it had been transformed! Gone was the clumsiness, the
vulgar and obvious harmonic treatment of the melody--Kreisler had kept
the melodic outline, but etherealized, spiritualized it, given it new
rhythmic _contours_, a deeper and more expressive meaning. And his rich
and subtle harmonization had lent it a quality of distinction that
justified a comparison between the grub and the butterfly. In a small
way it was an illuminating glimpse of how the personality of a true
artist can metamorphose what at first glance might seem something quite
negligible, and create beauty where its possibilities alone had existed
before.
It is this personal, this individual, note in all that Fritz Kreisler
does--when he plays, when he composes, when he transcribes--that gives
his art-effort so great and unique a quality of appeal.
Talking to him in his comfortable sitting-room in the Hotel
Wellington--Homer and Juvenal (in the original) ranked on the piano-top
beside De Vere Stackpole novels and other contemporary literature called
to mind that though Brahms and Beethoven violin concertos are among his
favorites, he does not disdain to play a Granados _Spanish Dance_--it
seemed natural to ask him how he came to make those adaptations and
transcripts which have been so notable a feature of his programs, and
which have given such pleasure to thousands.
[Illustration: FRITZ KREISLER, with hand-written note]
HOW KREISLER CAME TO COMPOSE AND ARRANGE
He said: "I began to compose and arrange as a young man. I wanted to
create a repertory for myself, to be able to express through my medium,
the violin, a great deal of beautiful music that had first to be adapted
for the instrument. What I composed and arranged was for my own use,
reflected my own musical tastes and preferences. In fact, it was not
till years after that I even thought of publishing the pieces I had
composed and arranged. For I was very diffident as to the outcome of
such a step. I have never written anything with the commercial idea of
making it 'playable.' And I have always felt that anything done in a
cold-blooded way for purely mercenary considerations somehow cannot be
good. It cannot represent an artist's best."
AT THE VIENNA CONSERVATORY
In reply to another query Mr. Kreisler reverted to the days when as a
boy he studied at the Vienna Conservatory. "I was only seven when I
attended the Conservatory and was much more interested in playing in the
park, where my boy friends would be waiting for me, than in taking
lessons on the violin. And yet some of the most lasting musical
impressions of my life were gathered there. Not so much as regards study
itself, as with respect to the good music I heard. Some very great men
played at the Conservatory when I was a pupil. There were Joachim,
Sarasate in his prime, Hellmesberger, and Rubinstein, whom I heard play
the first time he came to Vienna. I really believe that hearing Joachim
and Rubinstein play was a greater event in my life and did more for me
than five years of study!"
"Of course you do not regard technic as the main essential of the
concert violinist's equipment?" I asked him. "Decidedly not. Sincerity
and personality are the first main essentials. Technical equipment is
something which should be taken for granted. The _virtuoso_ of the type
of Ole Bull, let us say, has disappeared. The 'stunt' player of a former
day with a repertory of three or four bravura pieces was not far above
the average music-hall 'artist.' The modern _virtuoso_, the true concert
artist, is not worthy of the title unless his art is the outcome of a
completely unified nature.
VIOLIN MASTERY
"I do not believe that any artist is truly a master of his instrument
unless his control of it is an integral part of a whole. The musician is
born--his medium of expression is often a matter of accident. I believe
one may be intended for an artist prenatally; but whether violinist,
'cellist or pianist is partly a matter of circumstance. Violin mastery,
to my mind, still falls short of perfection, in spite of the completest
technical and musical equipment, if the artist thinks only of the
instrument he plays. After all, it is just a single medium of
expression. The true musician is an artist with a special instrument.
And every real artist has the feeling for other forms and mediums of
expression if he is truly a master of his own.
TECHNIC VERSUS IMAGINATION
"I think the technical element in the artist's education is often unduly
stressed. Remember," added Mr. Kreisler, with a smile, "I am not a
teacher, and this is a purely personal opinion I am giving you. But it
seems to me that absolute sincerity of effort, actual impossibility
_not_ to react to a genuine musical impulse are of great importance. I
firmly believe that if one is destined to become an artist the technical
means find themselves. The necessity of expression will follow the line
of least resistance. Too great a manual equipment often leads to an
exaggeration of the technical and tempts the artist to stress it unduly.
"I have worked a great deal in my life, but have always found that too
large an amount of purely technico-musical work fatigued me and reacted
unfavorably on my imagination. As a rule I only practice enough to keep
my fingers in trim; the nervous strain is such that doing more is out of
the question. And for a concert-violinist when on tour, playing every
day, the technical question is not absorbing. Far more important is it
for him to keep himself mentally and physically fresh and in the right
mood for his work. For myself I have to enjoy whatever I play or I
cannot play it. And it has often done me more good to dip my finger-tips
in hot water for a few seconds before stepping out on the platform than
to spend a couple of hours practicing. But I should not wish the student
to draw any deductions from what I say on this head. It is purely
personal and has no general application.
"Technical exercises I use very moderately. I wish my imagination to be
responsive, my interest fresh, and as a rule I have found that too much
work along routine channels does not accord with the best development of
my Art. I feel that technic should be in the player's head, it should be
a mental picture, a sort of 'master record.' It should be a matter of
will power to which the manual possibilities should be subjected.
Technic to me is a mental and not a manual thing.
MENTAL TECHNIC: ITS DRAWBACK AND ITS ADVANTAGE
"The technic thus achieved, a technic whose controlling power is chiefly
mental, is not perfect--I say so frankly--because it is more or less
dependent on the state of the artist's nervous system. Yet it is the one
and only kind of technic that can adequately and completely express the
musician's every instinct, wish and emotion. Every other form of technic
is stiff, unpliable, since it cannot entirely subordinate itself to the
individuality of the artist."
PRACTICE HOURS FOR THE ADVANCED STUDENT
Mr. Kreisler gives no lessons and hence referred this question in the
most amiable manner to his boyhood friend and fellow-student Felix
Winternitz, the well-known Boston violin teacher, one of the faculty of
the New England Conservatory of Music, who had come in while we were
talking. Mr. Winternitz did not refuse an answer: "The serious student,
in my opinion, should not practice less than four hours a day, nor need
he practice more than five. Other teachers may demand more. Sevcik, I
know, insists that his pupils practice eight and ten hours a day. To do
so one must have the constitution of an ox, and the results are often
not equal to those produced by four hours of concentrated work. As Mr.
Kreisler intimated with regard to technic, practice calls for brain
power. Concentration in itself is not enough. There is only one way to
work and if the pupil can find it he can cover the labor of weeks in an
hour."
And turning to me, Mr. Winternitz added: "You must not take Mr. Kreisler
too seriously when he lays no stress on his own practicing. During the
concert season he has his violin in hand for an hour or so nearly every
day. He does not call it practicing, and you and I would consider it
playing and great playing at that. But it is a genuine illustration of
what I meant when I said that one who knew how could cover the work of
weeks in an hour's time."
AN EXPLANATION BY MR. WINTERNITZ
I tried to draw from the famous violinist some hint as to the secret of
the abiding popularity of his own compositions and transcripts but--as
those who know him are aware--Kreisler has all the modesty of the truly
great. He merely smiled and said: "Frankly, I don't know." But Mr.
Winternitz' comment (when a 'phone call had taken Kreisler from the room
for a moment) was, "It is the touch given by his accompaniments that
adds so much: a harmonic treatment so rich in design and coloring, and
so varied that melodies were never more beautifully set off." Mr.
Kreisler, as he came in again, remarked: "I don't mind telling you that
I enjoyed very much writing my _Tambourin Chinois_.[A] The idea for it
came to me after a visit to the Chinese theater in San Francisco--not
that the music there suggested any theme, but it gave me the impulse to
write a free fantasy in the Chinese manner."
[Footnote A: It is interesting to note that Nikolai Sokoloff, conductor
of the San Francisco Philharmonic, returning from a tour of the American
and French army camps in France, some time ago, said: "My most popular
number was Kreisler's _Tambourin Chinois_. Invariably I had to repeat
that." A strong indorsement of the internationalism of Art by the actual
fighter in the trenches.]
STYLE, INTERPRETATION AND THE ARTISTIC IDEAL
The question of style now came up. "I am not in favor of 'labeling' the
concert artist, of calling him a 'lyric' or a 'dramatic' or some other
kind of a player. If he is an artist in the real sense he controls all
styles." Then, in answer to another question: "Nothing can express music
but music itself. Tradition in interpretation does not mean a
cut-and-dried set of rules handed down; it is, or should be, a matter
of individual sentiment, of inner conviction. What makes one man an
artist and keeps another an amateur is a God-given instinct for the
artistically and musically right. It is not a thing to be explained, but
to be felt. There is often only a narrow line of demarcation between the
artistically right and wrong. Yet nearly every real artist will be found
to agree as to when and when not that boundary has been overstepped.
Sincerity and personality as well as disinterestedness, an expression of
himself in his art that is absolutely honest, these, I believe, are
ideals which every artist should cherish and try to realize. I believe,
furthermore, that these ideals will come more and more into their own;
that after the war there will be a great uplift, and that Art will
realize to the full its value as a humanizing factor in life." And as is
well known, no great artist of our day has done more toward the actual
realization of these ideals he cherishes than Fritz Kreisler himself.
X
Violin Mastery