Whoever wishes to live must adapt himself to the new
conditions of life. The future of art is at stake. To continue as we are
doing is not only to weaken music by condemning it to live in unhealthy
conditions, but also to risk its disappearing sooner or later under the
rising flood of popular misconceptions of music. Let us take warning by
the fact that we have already had to defend music[260] when it was
attacked at some of the parliamentary assemblies; and let us remember
the pitifulness of the defence. We must not let the day come when a
famous speech will be repeated with a slight alteration--"The Republic
has no need of musicians."
[Footnote 260: At any rate, certain forms of music--the highest. See the
discussions at the Chambre des Deputes on the budget of the Beaux-Arts
in February, 1906; and the speeches of MM. Theodore Denis, Beauquier,
and Dujardin-Beaumetz, on Religious Music, the Niedermeyer School, and
the civic value of the organ.]
It is the historian's duty to point out the dangers of the present hour,
and to remind the French musicians who have been satisfied with their
first victory that the future is anything but sure, and that we must
never disarm while we have a common enemy before us, an enemy especially
dangerous in a democracy--mediocrity.
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