The Project Gutenberg eBook, Symphonies and Their Meaning; Third Series,
Modern Symphonies, by Philip H. Goepp
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Title: Symphonies and Their Meaning; Third Series, Modern Symphonies
Author: Philip H. Goepp
Release Date: July 13, 2004 [eBook #12903]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
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SYMPHONIES AND THEIR MEANING
THIRD SERIES: MODERN SYMPHONIES.
by
PHILIP H. GOEPP
1913
PREFACE
Criticism of contemporary art is really a kind of prophecy. For the
appreciation of the classical past is an act of present perception, not
a mere memory of popular verdicts. The classics live only because they
still express the vital feeling of to-day. The new art must do
more,--must speak for the morrow. And as the poet is a kind of seer, the
true critic is his prophetic herald.
It is with due humility that we approach a view of the work of our own
time, with a dim feeling that our best will be a mere conjecture. But we
shall the more cheerfully return to our resolution that our chief
business is a positive appreciation. Where we cannot praise, we can
generally be silent. Certain truths concerning contemporary art seem
firmly grounded in the recorded past. The new Messiah never came with
instant wide acclaim. Many false prophets flashed brilliantly on the
horizon to fall as suddenly as they rose. In a refracted view we see the
figures of the great projected in too large dimension upon their day.
And precisely opposite we fail to glimpse the ephemeral lights obscuring
the truly great. The lesson seems never to be learned; indeed it can, o
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