The deadly solemnity of the affair had robbed it for him of its strangeness, its abnormality; even his sense of its ludicrousness had fled. He was consumed by a desire to see Luga once more. She had been a burden: she was waspish of tongue and given to seeking the admiration of others, notably that of the d.a.m.nable horn-player--Pobloff clenched his fists--but she was his wife, Luga, and could tell him what he wished most to know....
He seemed to have spent a week, his face pressed to the boards, his eyes concentrated on the uneven progress of a file of ants in a crack. The cautious tap at the stage door had not ceased before he was there seizing in a clutch of iron the carpenter. "The rolls! Have you got them with you?" he gasped. A cylinder was shoved into his eager hand and with it he fled to the auditorium, not even shutting the doors behind him.
What did he care now? He was sure of victory. Placing the roll in reverse order in the cylinder he started the mechanism of the organ.
Slowly, as if the grave were unwilling to give up its prey the music began to whimper, wheeze and squeak. It was sounding backward and it sounded three times before the unhappy man saw failure once more blinking at him mockingly. But he was not to be denied. He re-read the score, set it going on the organ, then picked up the tam-tam. "These old Chinese ghosts caused the trouble once and they can cause it again," he muttered; and striking the instrument softly, the music for the fourth time went on its way quivering, its rear entering the world first....
The terrified carpenter, in relating the affair later swore that the darkness was black as the wings of Satan. A lightning flash had ended the music; then he heard feet pausing in the gloom, and from his position in the doorway he saw the stage crowded with men, the musicians of the Balakian orchestra, all sc.r.a.ping, blaring and pounding away at the symphony, Pobloff, stick in hand, beating time, his eyes closed in bliss, his back arched like a cat"s.
When they had finished playing, Pobloff wiped his forehead and said, "Thank you, gentlemen. That will do for to-day." They immediately began to gabble, hastily putting away their instruments; while from without entered a crazy stream of women weeping, laughing, and scolding. In five minutes the hall was emptied of them all. Pobloff turned to Luga. She eyed him demurely, as she covered with historic green baize her brave harp.
"Well," she said, joining him, "well! Give an account of yourself, sir!"
Pobloff watched her, completely stupefied. Only his discipline, his routine had carried him through this tremendous resurrection: he had beaten time from a sense of duty--why he found himself at the head of his band he understood not. He only knew that the experiment of playing the enchanted symphony backward was a success: that it had become disenchanted; that Luga, his violet, his harpist, his wife was restored to him to bring him the wonderful tidings. He put his arms around her.
She drew back in her primmest att.i.tude.
"No, not yet, Pobloff. Not until you tell me where you have been all day." He sat down and wept, wept as if his heart would strain and crack; and then the situation poking him in the risible rib he laughed until Luga herself relaxed.
"It may be very funny to you, husband, and no doubt you"ve had a jolly time, but you"ve not told where or with whom." Pobloff seized her by the wrists.
"Where were _you_? What have you been doing, woman? What was it like, that strange country which you visited, and from which you are so marvellously returned to me like a stone upcast by a crater?" She lifted her eyebrows in astonishment.
"You know, Pobloff, I have warned you about your tendency to apoplexy.
You bother your brain, such as it is, too much with figures. Stick to your last, Mr. Shoemaker, and don"t eat so much. When you fell off the stage this morning I was sure you were killed, and we were all very much alarmed. But after the hornist told us you would be all right in a few hours, we--" "Whom do you mean by _we_, Luga?" "The men, of course."
"And you saw me faint?" "Certainly, Pobloff."
"Where did you go, wife?" "Go? Nowhere. We remained here. Besides, the doors were locked, and the men couldn"t get away." "And you saw nothing strange, did not notice that you were out of my sight, out of the town"s sight, for over thirty hours?" "Pobloff," she vixenishly declared, "you"ve been at the vodka."
"And so there is no true perception of time in the fourth dimension of s.p.a.ce," he sadly reflected. His brows became dark with jealousy: "What did you do all the time?" That accursed horn-player in her company for over a day!
"Do?" "Yes," he repeated, "do? Were there no wonderful sights? Didn"t you catch a glimpse, as through an open door, of rare planetary vistas, of a remoter plane of existence? Were there no grandiose and untrodden stars? O Luga, tell me!--you are a woman of imagination--what did you see, hear, feel in that many-colored land, out of time, out of s.p.a.ce?"
"See?" she echoed irritably, for she was annoyed by her husband"s poetic foolery, "what could I see in this hall? When the men weren"t grumbling at having nothing to drink, they were playing _pinochle_."
"They played cards in the fourth dimension of s.p.a.ce!" Pobloff boomed out reproachfully, sorrowfully. Then he went meekly to his home with Luga, the harpist.
MUSIC THE CONQUEROR
The hot hush of noon was stirred into uneasy billows by the shuffling of sandals over marble porches; all Rome sped to the spectacle in the circus. A brave day, the wind perfumed, a hard blue sky, the dark shadows cool and caressing and in the breeze a thousand-colored canopies fainted and fluttered. The hearts of the people on the benches were gay, for Diocletian, their master, had baited the trap with Christians; living, palpitating human flesh was to be sacrificed and the gossips spoke in clear, crisp sentences as they enumerated the deadly list, dwelling upon certain names with significant emphasis. This mult.i.tude followed with languid interest the gladiatorial displays, the chariot races; even a fierce duel between two yellow-haired barbarians evoked not a single cry. Rome was in a killing mood: thumbs were not often upturned. The imperial one gloomed as he sat high in his gold and ivory tribune. His eyes were sullen with satiety, his heart flinty.
As the afternoon waned the murmurs modulated clamorously and a voice shrilled forth, "Give us the Christians!" The cry was taken up by a thundrous chorus which chaunted alternately the antiphonies of hate and desire until the earth trembled. And Diocletian smiled.
The low doors of the iron cages adjoining the animals opened, and a dreary group of men, women, children were pushed to the centre of the arena; a half million of eyes, burning with antic.i.p.ation, watched them.
Shouts of disappointment, yells of disgust arose. To the experts the Christians did not present promise of a lasting fight with the lions.
The sorry crew huddled with downcast looks and lips moving in silent prayer as they awaited the animals. In the onslaught nothing could be heard but the snarls and growls of the beasts. A whirlwind of dust and blood, a brief savage attack of keepers armed with metal bars heated white, and the lions went to their cages, jaws dripping and bellies gorged. The sand was dug, the bored spectators listlessly viewing the burial of the martyrs" mangled bones; it was all over within the hour.
Rome was not yet satisfied and Diocletian made no sign. Woefully had the ma.s.sacre of the saints failed to please the palate of the populace. So often had it been glutted with butcheries that it longed for more delicate devilries, new depths of death. Then a slim figure clad in clinging garments of pure white was led to the imperial tribune and those near the Emperor saw him start as if from a wan dream. Her bronze-hued hair fell about her shoulders, her eyes recalled the odor of violets; and they beheld the vision of the Crucified One. She was a fair child, her brow a tablet untouched by the stylus of sin.
The populace hungered. Fresh incense was thrown on the brazier of coals glowing before the garlanded statue of Venus as flutes intoned a languorous measure. A man of impa.s.sive priestly countenance addressed her thrice, yet her eyes never wandered, neither did she speak. She thus refused to worship Venus, and angered at the insult offered to the beautiful foe of chast.i.ty, Rome screamed and hooted, demanding that she be given over to the torture. Diocletian watched.
A blare of trumpets like a brazen imprecation and the public pulse furiously pounded, for a young man was dragged near the Venus. About his loins a strip of linen, and he was goodly to see--slender, olive-skinned, with curls cl.u.s.tering over a stubborn brow; but his eyes were blood-streaked and his mouth made a blue mark across his face. He stared threateningly at Diocletian, at the mult.i.tude cynically antic.i.p.ating the punishment of the contumacious Christians.
St.u.r.dy brutes seized the pair, but they stood unabashed, for they saw open wide the gates of Paradise. And Diocletian"s eyes were a deep black. Urged by rude hands maid and youth were bound truss-wise with cords. Then the subtile cruelty caught the mob"s fancy. This couple, once betrothed, had been separated by their love for the Son of Galilee.
She looked into his eyes and saw there the image of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He moistened his parched lips. The sun blistered their naked skins and seemed to laugh at their G.o.d, while the Venus in her cool grot sent them wreathed smiles, bidding them worship her and forget their pale faith. And the two flutes made dreamy music that sent into the porches of the ear a silvery, feverish mist. Breathless the lovers gazed at the shimmering G.o.ddess. The vast, silent throng questioned them with its glance. Suddenly they were seen to shudder, and Diocletian rose to his feet rending his garments. In the purple shadows of the amphitheatre a harsh, prolonged shout went up.
That night at his palace the Master of the World would not be comforted.
And the Venus was carried about Rome; great was the homage accorded her.
In their homes the two flute players, who were Christians, wept unceasingly; well they knew music and its conquering power for evil.
By JAMES HUNEKER
MEZZOTINTS IN MODERN MUSIC
Essays on
BRAHMS, TSCHAKOWSKY, CHOPIN, RICHARD STRAUSS, LISZT, WAGNER
12mo ... $1.50
_Opinions of the Press_:
Seven essays are included in this work: a masterly and exhaustive study of Brahms ent.i.tled "The Music of the Future;" "A Modern Music Lord,"
dealing with Tschakowsky (the only personal and professional study of the kind in print); "Strauss and Nietzsche;" "The Greater Chopin," an inquiry into what Chopin was and was not, that has no superior; "A Liszt etude;" "The Royal Road to Parna.s.sus," a fluent survey of modern primitive works; and last, "A Note on Richard Wagner."--_Literature._
The most interesting contribution to musical criticism that has come from the American press in years. It is marked by that exceptionally brilliant style which is Mr. Huneker"s individual gift.--_New York Sun._
By JAMES HUNEKER
MEZZOTINTS IN MODERN MUSIC
_Opinions of the Press:_
Mr. Huneker is, in the best sense, a critic; he listens to the music and gives you his impressions as rapidly and in as few words as possible; or he sketches the composers in fine, broad, sweeping strokes with a magnificent disregard for unimportant details. And as Mr. Huneker is, as I have said, a powerful personality, a man of quick brain and an energetic imagination, a man of moods and temperament--a string that vibrates and sings in response to music--we get in these essays of his a distinctly original and very valuable contribution to the world"s tiny musical literature.--_London Sat.u.r.day Review._