Chapter 44

CHAPTER XX

THE VARIED TENDENCIES OF

MODERN MUSIC

Modern music—broadly speaking, music since the beginning of
the twentieth century—is certainly manifesting the characteris-
tics which the preceding survey has shown to be inherent in its
nature: that is, it has grown by a course of free experimentation,
it is the youngest of the arts, and it is a human language as well
as a fine art. Hence we find that modern composers are making
daring experiments in dissonance, in rhythmic variety, in subtle
blends of color and, above all, in the treatment of the orchestra.
In comparison with achievements in the other arts music often
seems in its infancy; being limited by no practical or utilitar-
ian considerations, and employing the boundless possibilities of
sound and rhythm, there is so much still before it. The truth
contained in the saying, that music is the youngest as well as
the oldest of the arts, becomes more apparent year by year; for
although a work which originally had imaginative life can never
die, yet many former works have passed out of recognition sim-
ply because they have been superseded by more inspired ones,
composed since their day. We can no longer listen with whole-
hearted enthusiasm to many of the older symphonies, songs and
pianoforte pieces, because Brahms, Franck, Debussy and d’Indy
have given us better ones.