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Agenbite of Inwit, whole no. 4, Spring 1944
Page 14
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Agenbite of Inwit -- Spring, 1944 -- Page Fourteen ********************************** almost everyone. That is the point I was making. Like the twelve-year old, smoking his first butt behind the bran, and getting violently sick, only to return against his own better judgement to smoking, in order to prove himself adult, so this imitative mass of juvenile flesh swallows the supposedly mature opinions presented to it, in an effort to convince itself that it is becoming mature likewise. Growing older, this mass succeeds in convincing itself of its own sincerity, in much the same fashion as the millionfold chewers of betelnut in Asia, or the smokers of tobacco in America. That in no way testifies to the correctness of the views held. The cold light of scientific analysis has time and again proven the viewpoint of the masses completely erroneous on many such points. That my views seem out of step with those of the multitude no more means that I am wrong than were the views of Galileo and Columbus. JBM: Mr. Wollheim, passing by your interesting opinions on betelnuts, I should like to know what your definition of music may be. DAW: Music is a pattern of vibratory impressions designed to produce an effect upon the human ear, and, according to some, to reproduce synthetically certain emotions, or visions. My opinion is that what is termed music today fails almost totally to achieve those aims, except through the medium of previously instilled suggestion. Suggestions similar to the course of learning given to children and to rising adults. JBM: Mr. Wollheim, would you give a short critique on modern music in relation to your own viewpoint, using the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor as a point of departure? DAW: (Exultantly) I am very thankful to you for giving me the particular example. The Toccata and Fugue in D Minor left me cold and without any specific impression of emotion whatever. That this basically is true of this series of scales, concords and discords was demonstrated by the efforts of the highly skilled Disney studios to derive an impression from it. The only impression that they could derive was that shown upon the screen -- namely a series of meaningless, sometimes geometric, sometime ungeometric color impressions, having no point and no value. Now the point that I make here is that this piece, like most pieces, fails to present any picture, vision, or emotion worthy of the name -- that this masterpiece, when compared with any other field of art, such as drawing, would be the equivalent of a child's scribble, compared to even the simplest of comic-strip drawings, let alone the fine paintings of artistic perfection. Now, the other pieces in Disney's "Fantasia" did prove more susceptible to artistic portrayal than that one, yet, it is noticeable that the clamor that the professional music authorities made in protest of certain cutting and alterations forced upon the Disney studio, to fit these immature sound-compositions into coherently cohesive visual production, proves that the emotions and visions held previously by these people were not the same with those of the Disney editors. Yet these editors had conferred at great length, to try to determine the meaning of these musical pieces. My contention is that the best of musical compositions thus proveably fail to produce their intended emotion or vision with sufficient capacity for any mature brain to grasp. The impressions people have of the intentions of musical compositions are almost invariably derived from the explanations previously given by the composer or his "interpretors". Thus we see that what impressions are derived are self delusions. No one needs be told the meaning of a good painting or literary expression; it is clear enough and accurate enough to speak for itself. However,
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Agenbite of Inwit -- Spring, 1944 -- Page Fourteen ********************************** almost everyone. That is the point I was making. Like the twelve-year old, smoking his first butt behind the bran, and getting violently sick, only to return against his own better judgement to smoking, in order to prove himself adult, so this imitative mass of juvenile flesh swallows the supposedly mature opinions presented to it, in an effort to convince itself that it is becoming mature likewise. Growing older, this mass succeeds in convincing itself of its own sincerity, in much the same fashion as the millionfold chewers of betelnut in Asia, or the smokers of tobacco in America. That in no way testifies to the correctness of the views held. The cold light of scientific analysis has time and again proven the viewpoint of the masses completely erroneous on many such points. That my views seem out of step with those of the multitude no more means that I am wrong than were the views of Galileo and Columbus. JBM: Mr. Wollheim, passing by your interesting opinions on betelnuts, I should like to know what your definition of music may be. DAW: Music is a pattern of vibratory impressions designed to produce an effect upon the human ear, and, according to some, to reproduce synthetically certain emotions, or visions. My opinion is that what is termed music today fails almost totally to achieve those aims, except through the medium of previously instilled suggestion. Suggestions similar to the course of learning given to children and to rising adults. JBM: Mr. Wollheim, would you give a short critique on modern music in relation to your own viewpoint, using the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor as a point of departure? DAW: (Exultantly) I am very thankful to you for giving me the particular example. The Toccata and Fugue in D Minor left me cold and without any specific impression of emotion whatever. That this basically is true of this series of scales, concords and discords was demonstrated by the efforts of the highly skilled Disney studios to derive an impression from it. The only impression that they could derive was that shown upon the screen -- namely a series of meaningless, sometimes geometric, sometime ungeometric color impressions, having no point and no value. Now the point that I make here is that this piece, like most pieces, fails to present any picture, vision, or emotion worthy of the name -- that this masterpiece, when compared with any other field of art, such as drawing, would be the equivalent of a child's scribble, compared to even the simplest of comic-strip drawings, let alone the fine paintings of artistic perfection. Now, the other pieces in Disney's "Fantasia" did prove more susceptible to artistic portrayal than that one, yet, it is noticeable that the clamor that the professional music authorities made in protest of certain cutting and alterations forced upon the Disney studio, to fit these immature sound-compositions into coherently cohesive visual production, proves that the emotions and visions held previously by these people were not the same with those of the Disney editors. Yet these editors had conferred at great length, to try to determine the meaning of these musical pieces. My contention is that the best of musical compositions thus proveably fail to produce their intended emotion or vision with sufficient capacity for any mature brain to grasp. The impressions people have of the intentions of musical compositions are almost invariably derived from the explanations previously given by the composer or his "interpretors". Thus we see that what impressions are derived are self delusions. No one needs be told the meaning of a good painting or literary expression; it is clear enough and accurate enough to speak for itself. However,
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