Shall
I say that the sincere pleasure they take in his orchestration and the
gay life of his subjects is enhanced a little by a slight disdain for
French frivolity--_waelschen Tand_?
"Now listen to that," said Richard Strauss to me during the third
movement of _Impressions d'Italie_; "that is the true music of
Montmartre, the utterance of fine words ... Liberty!... Love!... which
no one believes."
And on the whole he found the music quite charming, and, without doubt,
in the depths of his heart approved of this Frenchman according to
conventional notions that are current in Germany alone. Strauss is
really very fond of Charpentier, and was his patron in Berlin; and I
remember how he showed childish delight in _Louise_ when it was first
performed in Paris.
But Strauss, and most other Germans, are quite on the wrong track when
they try to persuade themselves that this amusing French frivolity is
still the exclusive property of France. They really love it because it
has become German; and they are quite unconscious of the fact. The
German artists of other times did not find much pleasure in frivolity;
but I could have easily shown Strauss his liking for it by taking
examples from his own works.
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