Van Vechten opens with a gleeful catalogue of musical rudeness, from Beethoven’s storms and Wagner’s malice to sulking Chopin and misbehaving audiences. The essays that follow consider music for the movies, the music of Spain and Albéniz, whether Wagner’s ideals can ever be staged, the iconoclasts he calls the bridge burners, and the young pianist Leo Ornstein.
Lively, gossipy music criticism from 1916, full of the modernist excitement of its moment. Download the free EPUB.