I would even venture
to say that the historical importance of Debussy's work is greater than
its artistic value. His personality is not without faults, and the
gravest are perhaps negative faults--the absence of certain qualities,
and even of the strong and extravagant faults which made the heroes of
the art world, like Beethoven and Wagner. His voluptuous nature is at
once changeable and precise; and his dreams are as clear and delicate as
the art of a poet of the Pleiades in the sixteenth century, or of a
Japanese painter. But among all his gifts he has a quality which I have
not found so evident in any other musician--except perhaps Mozart; and
this quality is a genius for good taste. Debussy has it in excess, so
that he almost sacrifices the other elements of art to it, until the
passionate force of his music, even its very life, seems to be
impoverished. But one must not deceive oneself; that impoverishment is
only apparent, and in all his work there are evidences that his passion
is only veiled. It is only the trembling of the melodic line, or the
orchestration which, like a shadow passing before the eyes, tells us of
the drama that is being played in the hearts of his characters.
Pages:
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321