Page:The Spirit of French Music.djvu/204

But the value and pleasure of all this detail of the symphonic fabric are subject to one obvious condition: it is that the piece must present at the same time some general lines, a complete design, of which the hearer never ceases to be conscious and to which all the ornaments are subordinated. Without this condition of unity the most ingenious symphonic developments will not charm us in the least; they will give an effect of vain diffusion, of barren research. Now the lines which give shape to the whole are provided by the generated themes. These themes, therefore, must be simple and clear, of large and vigorous design, of clean-cut outline and of the most definite character, all things which presuppose a strong tonal and rhythmic determination. Let us imagine them with the opposite qualities: subtlety, complexity, ingenuity, fluidity, shifting tonality, vague rhythm. The result can be foreseen. We shall have shades of expression extracted from the development of an idea which itself expresses nothing but a shade, details engendered by the exploitation of an idea which itself has only a value of detail: these will have no charm save for those who love the amorphous, and even (a still more dreadful thing) the amorphous and prolonged. For all others they will be wearisome; they will be loaded with that special weariness which is given off by so many works of modern music chock-full (alas) of "science" and "craftsmanship." I call such weariness special in the sense that it is accompanied by a hope that is always disappointed: one keeps on hoping that so many sounds are going to produce at last a little music, and it never comes. The source of this weariness is to be found just where Wagner puts it, in the paradox that consists of wanting to construct sym-