Passage 9
I have been told that there are many people who read the newspapers on the day
after they have attended a concert or operatic representation for the purpose
of finding out whether or not the performance gave them proper or sufficient
enjoyment…Certain it is that some men who write about music for the newspapers
believe, or affect to believe, that criticism is worthless, and I shall not escape the
charge of inconsistency, if, after I have condemned the blunders of literary men,
who are laymen in music, and separated the majority of professional writers on the
art into pedants and rhapsodists, I nevertheless venture to discuss the nature and
value of musical criticism. Yet, surely, there must be a right and wrong in this as in
every other thing, and just as surely the present structure of society, which rests
on the newspaper, invites attention to the existing relationship between musician,
critic, and public…
I lay down the proposition that the relationship between the three factors
enumerated is so intimate and so strict that the world over they rise and fall
together; which means that where the people dwell who have reached the highest
plane of excellence, there also are to be found the highest types of the musician
and critic; and that in the degree in which the three factors, which united make up
the sum of musical activity, labor harmoniously, conscientiously, and unselfishly,
each striving to fulfil its mission, they advance music and further themselves, each
bearing off an equal share of the good derived from the common effort... In this
collaboration, as in so many others, it is conflict that brings life. Only by a surrender
of their functions, one to the other, could the three apparently dissonant yet
essentially harmonious factors be brought into a state of complacency; but such
complacency would mean stagnation…
The complacency of the musician and the indifference, not to say ignorance,
of the public ordinarily combine to make them allies, and the critic is, therefore,
placed between two millstones, where he is vigorously rasped on both sides, and
whence, being angular and hard of outer shell, he frequently requites the treatment
received with complete and energetic reciprocity. Is he therefore to be pitied? Not
a bit; for in this position he is performing one of the most significant and useful of
his functions, and disclosing one of his most precious virtues. While musician and
public must perforce remain in the positions in which they have been placed with
relation to each other it must be apparent at half a glance that it would be the
simplest matter in the world for the critic to extricate himself from his predicament.
He would only need to take his cue from the public, measuring his commendation
by the intensity of their applause, his dispraise by their signs of displeasure, and
all would be well with him. We all know this to be true, that people like to read that
which flatters them by echoing their own thoughts. The more delightfully it is put
by the writer the more the reader is pleased, for has he not had the same idea? Are
they not his? Is not their appearance in a public print proof of the shrewdness and
soundness of his judgment?...
As a rule, however, the critic is not guilty of the wrong of speaking out the thought
of others, but publishes what there is of his own mind, and this I laud in him as a
virtue, which is praiseworthy in the degree that it springs from loftiness of aim,
depth of knowledge, and sincerity and unselfishness of purpose…
Krehbiel, H. E. (2006). How to listen to music (7th ed.). Project Gutenberg. (Original
work published 1896)
Which of the following descriptions are paired correctly?
A) The critic - able to evade public scrutiny and condemnation easily and by
choice
B) The public - skilled in the differentiation of fine arts
C) The musician - aligned with the public and never hostile towards the critic
D) The critic, the public, and the musician - unable to profit equally when all
three are working together
Correct answer is A
The author notes that the critic faces a predicament: “the critic is, therefore, placed
between two millstones, where he is vigorously rasped on both sides, and whence,
being angular and hard of outer shell, he frequently requites the treatment received
with complete and energetic reciprocity.” In other words, the critic faces the hatred
of both the public and of musicians. Despite this predicament, the author notes
that “it must be apparent at half a glance that it would be the simplest matter in
the world for the critic to extricate himself from his predicament,” but that critics
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willingly choose to remain in their debacle because they would not be critics worth
their title if they simply acquiesced to the opinions of musicians and the public.
Instead, argues the author, the proper critic is willing to state his opinions and then
to stand his ground, even if it means that he draws the dislike of others. For this
reason, Answer A is correct because, if he wished, the critic is capable of evading
public scrutiny and condemnation easily and by choice.
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