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Jrma/37 1 117
Jrma/37 1 117
Proceedings of the
Musical Association
Publication details, including
instructions for authors and
subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/
rrma18
Brahms in His
Pianoforte Music
E. Howard-Jones
Published online: 28 Jan 2009.
B R A H M S IN H I S P I A N O F O R T E MUSIC.
BY E . HOWARD-JONES.
T H E ideas and opinions expressed in the following little
paper must not be taken to be more than my own personal
opinions and deductions, guided I hope by some sense of the
general canons that are true of all great Art, and helped I
hope by an enthusiasm which does its utmost to see the good
and the beautiful, rather than to spy out the weaknesses and
faults. But before all else, these ideas and opinions are
based on a sympathy that is one of those indescribable opera-
tions of the sentiments and emotions that can only be traced
to affinity or inborn predilection. To allow this affinity to
influence one's artistic judgments is sometimes held to be an
evidence of bias, and consequently to show a state of mind
the reverse of critical and even prejudiced ; but as without
the emotional attitude one can have no enthusiasm, and
without enthusiasm true appreciation is impossible, so it has
always seemed obvious to me that true artistic criticism can
only be of the constructive or synthetic type ; seizing
that which is good in a work and holding it up to the more
general gaze.
Further, there 1s no enthusiasm without some justification,
however slight, and its tendency must be toward construc-
tiveness : and, seeing that human nature is as it is, there is
no condemnation without sotwc tendency to the merely
destructive, the result sometimes of apathy, sometimes of
lack of sympathy, and sometimes of even baser causes, but
always to my mind destructive in. its operation. If we desire
to get true appreciation, our attltude must be constructive
and positive in the main-not in the main destructive and
negative-and if I seem sometimes to lay too great a stress
on Brahms's virtues, and not to endeavour to see any charac-
teristics of an opposing type, it must be for this reason.
The achievement of contemporary success has never in the
history of Art been held to show the value of an artist's life-
work, or to be the true index of his powers. This is obviously
for the reason that all great Art is so original in both matter
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122 Brahms in his Pianoforte Music.
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