DOI article:
Sadakichi Hartmann, Broken Melodies
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31215#0058
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in his medium did not venture quite so far. He uses music to paint delicious
little Stimmungsbilder mood pictures: mere broken fragments, but
he utilizes stagecraft and calcium light, dramatic action and literary thought
to emphasize the aural illusion. And of what does the essence, the principal
charm of fragmentary representation, consist?
A melody is complete in itself. Produced by instinct, it also controls the
instinct of the listener. It is fluid, sensuous and hypnotic. We are carried
away, as on the rush of strange musical waters. A broken melody, ending
abruptly in silence or in sounds unrelated to the melody, starts us up from
our “mystic musings.” It is subtler, irritating, it makes us think.
Conclusions are not positive. The object or idea of representation
becomes less real. The effects are more uncertain. The
result is half-fancied. It is like struggling in the breakers.
It is more true to life and disdains all elements of popularity.
Would not the Venus of Milo, restored, be deprived of its most intrinsic
charm? Why do we dream of the ideal human form, an invisible wonderland,
as we gaze at the torso of the Vatican? And why do the mutilated figures
of the British Museum make us dream of physical perfection
by the very elimination of facts wrought by time and acci-
dent ? This may explain our fondness for fragmentary expression. For are we
not all eager to pick out a few favorite sentences from a long and otherwise
wearisome poem and to store them as cherished treasures in our memory?
Of how many paintings do we remember naught but a fortunate combination
of brush strokes or an accidental passage of beautiful texture! And of the
impersonations of some famous actor—what do we recall but single gestures
or a facial expression! For it is usually not the totality of the effect which
produces the after-flavor in our enjoyment of art, it is more frequently the
result of individualized moments, individualized by our personal relation to
the production. The average mind has to absorb too many superficial interests,
it is taxed too heavily by the effects of memorizing and classifying eclectic in
formation, to give works of art a long and intricate consideration. And per-
hapswehavegrown more mental, so that we want to be convinced by repetition
of argument even in art. All the rudimentary difficulties of
art have long been overcome. The mechanical processes no longer represent
a search for expression. The care and intelligence in every touch—the great
charm of primitive art—had to be replaced by a pretense of ignorance and
lack of skill. FLUENCY OF EXPRESSION CRUMPLED UP BY
THOUGHT, produces a semblance of spontaneity. Music drifts unbidden
into our physical consciousness and stirs our emotion as we never
fully comprehend its meaning. It is wrapt in mystery.
It is a language of unique sort, like some ideal Volapuk which you labor to
learri. A reproduction of form, on the other hand, whether in the round or
in plane representation, can acquire this feeling—as if of floating impressions-
only by becoming fragmentary. The artist of the older schools tried to produce
in one idealization all the beauty he had ever fancied or seen in the particu-
lar object or event of his selection. He did not acquaint us with the process
34
little Stimmungsbilder mood pictures: mere broken fragments, but
he utilizes stagecraft and calcium light, dramatic action and literary thought
to emphasize the aural illusion. And of what does the essence, the principal
charm of fragmentary representation, consist?
A melody is complete in itself. Produced by instinct, it also controls the
instinct of the listener. It is fluid, sensuous and hypnotic. We are carried
away, as on the rush of strange musical waters. A broken melody, ending
abruptly in silence or in sounds unrelated to the melody, starts us up from
our “mystic musings.” It is subtler, irritating, it makes us think.
Conclusions are not positive. The object or idea of representation
becomes less real. The effects are more uncertain. The
result is half-fancied. It is like struggling in the breakers.
It is more true to life and disdains all elements of popularity.
Would not the Venus of Milo, restored, be deprived of its most intrinsic
charm? Why do we dream of the ideal human form, an invisible wonderland,
as we gaze at the torso of the Vatican? And why do the mutilated figures
of the British Museum make us dream of physical perfection
by the very elimination of facts wrought by time and acci-
dent ? This may explain our fondness for fragmentary expression. For are we
not all eager to pick out a few favorite sentences from a long and otherwise
wearisome poem and to store them as cherished treasures in our memory?
Of how many paintings do we remember naught but a fortunate combination
of brush strokes or an accidental passage of beautiful texture! And of the
impersonations of some famous actor—what do we recall but single gestures
or a facial expression! For it is usually not the totality of the effect which
produces the after-flavor in our enjoyment of art, it is more frequently the
result of individualized moments, individualized by our personal relation to
the production. The average mind has to absorb too many superficial interests,
it is taxed too heavily by the effects of memorizing and classifying eclectic in
formation, to give works of art a long and intricate consideration. And per-
hapswehavegrown more mental, so that we want to be convinced by repetition
of argument even in art. All the rudimentary difficulties of
art have long been overcome. The mechanical processes no longer represent
a search for expression. The care and intelligence in every touch—the great
charm of primitive art—had to be replaced by a pretense of ignorance and
lack of skill. FLUENCY OF EXPRESSION CRUMPLED UP BY
THOUGHT, produces a semblance of spontaneity. Music drifts unbidden
into our physical consciousness and stirs our emotion as we never
fully comprehend its meaning. It is wrapt in mystery.
It is a language of unique sort, like some ideal Volapuk which you labor to
learri. A reproduction of form, on the other hand, whether in the round or
in plane representation, can acquire this feeling—as if of floating impressions-
only by becoming fragmentary. The artist of the older schools tried to produce
in one idealization all the beauty he had ever fancied or seen in the particu-
lar object or event of his selection. He did not acquaint us with the process
34
