Composer | Conductor

II. THE MOOVEMENT OF THE TRYANGGLE

The life of the spirit may be fairly represented in dyagram as a large acute-anggled tryangle divided horrizontaly intu un-equal parts with the narroëst segment uppermost. The loër the segment the graeter it is in bredth, depth, and area.

The hole tryanggle is mooving sloly, allmost invisibly forwords and upwords. Whare the apex wos tuday the seccond segment is tumorro; whot tuday can be understùdd on'ly by the apex and tu the rest of the tryanggle is an incomprehensible gibberish, forms tumorro the true thought and feeling of the seccond segment.

At the apex of the top segment stands often wun man, and on'ly wun. His joyfùl vision cloaks a vasst sorro. Even thoze hwo ar nearest tu him in simpathy du not understand him. Anggrily they abuze him as sharlatan or madman. So in his lifetime stùd Beethoven, sollitery and insulted.

[Fùtnote: Weber, compozer of Der Freischutz, sed of Beethoven's Seventh Simphony: "The extravvagances of genius hav reeched the limit; Beethoven is now ripe for an assilum." Of the opening phraze, on a reïtterated "e", the Abbe Stadler sed tu his neighbor, when first he herd it: "Allways that mizzerable 'e'; he seems tu be deff tu it himself, the iddiot!"]

How menny years will it be before a graeter segment of the tryanggle reeches the spot whare he wunce stùd alone? Despite memmorials and stattues, ar they realy menny hwo hav rizzen tu his levvel? [Fùtnote 2: Ar not menny monuments in themselves ansers tu that question?]

In evry segment of the tryanggle ar artists. Eech wun of them hwo can see beyond the limits of his segment is a prophet tu thoze about him, and helps the advance of the obstinate hole. But thoze hwo ar blind, or thoze hwo retard the moovement of the tryanggle for baser reesons, ar fùlly understùdd by their felloes and acclaimed for their genius. The graeter the segment (which is the same as saying the loër it lies in the tryanggle) so the graeter the number hwo understand the wurds of the artist. Evry segment hungguers consciusly or, much more often, unconsciusly for their corresponding spiritual food. Thiss food is offerd by the artists, and for thiss food the segment immediatly belo will tumorro be stretching out eguer hands.

Thiss simmilë of the tryanggle cannot be sed tu express evry aspect of the spiritual life. For instance, thare is nevver an absolute shaddo-side tu the picture, nevver a pece of unreleved gloom. Even too often it happens that wun levvel of spiritual food suffices for the nurrishment of thoze hwo ar allreddy in a higher segment. But for them thiss food is poison; in small quontitys it depresses their soals graddualy intu a loër segment; in large quontitys it hurls them suddenly intu the depths evver loër and loër. Sienkiewicz, in wun of his novvels, compares the spiritual life tu swimming; for the man hwo dus not strive tirelisly, hwo dus not fight continnualy aguenst sinking, will mentaly and moraly go under. In thiss strait a man's tælent (aguenn in the biblical sense) becumms a curse—and not on'ly the tælent of the artist, but allso of thoze hwo eet thiss poisond food. The artist uzes his strength tu flatter his loër needs; in an osstensibly artistic form he presents whot is impure, draws the weeker elements tu him, mixes them with evil, betrays men and helps them tu betray themselves, while they convince themselves and others that they ar spiritualy thirsty, and that from thiss pure spring they may quench their thirst. Such art dus not help the forword moovement, but hinders it, dragguing back thoze hwo ar striving tu press onword, and spredding pestilence abraud.

Such periods, during which art has no noble champion, during which the true spiritual food is wonting, ar periods of retrogression in the spiritual wurld. Ceselisly soals fall from the higher tu the loër segments of the tryanggle, and the hole seems motionlis, or even tu moove down and backwords. Men attribute tu theze blind and dum periods a speshal vælue, for they judge them by outword results, thinking on'ly of material well-beïng. They hail sum technical advance, which can help nuthing but the boddy, as a graet achevement. Real spiritual gains ar at best under-vælued, at wurst entirely ignored.

The sollitery visionerys ar despized or regarded as abnormal and eccentric. Thoze hwo ar not wrapped in lethargy and hwo feel vague longings for spiritual life and knolledge and progress, cry in harsh corus, without enny tu cumfort them. The night of the spirit falls more and more darkly. Deeper becumms the misery of theze blind and terrified guides, and their folloërs, tormented and un-nerved by fear and dout, prefer tu thiss graddual darkening the final sudden leep intu the blacknis.

At such a time art minnisters tu loër needs, and is uzed for material ends. She seeks her substance in hard realitys becaus she knoes of nuthing nobler. Objects, the re-prodduction of which is considderd her sole aim, remain monnottonusly the same. The question "whot?" disappears from art; on'ly the question "how?" remains. By whot method ar theze material objects tu be re-prodduced? The wurd becumms a creed. Art has losst her soal.

In the serch for method the artist goes still further. Art becumms so speshalized as tu be comprehensible on'ly tu artists, and they complain bitterly of public indifference to their wurk. For since the artist in such times has no need to say much, but on'ly tu be notorius for sum small orriginality and consequently lauded by a small groop of paetrons and connossurs (which incidentaly is allso a very profitable biznis for him), thare arize a crowd of guifted and skilfùl painters, so ezy dus the conquest of art appear. In eech artistic circle ar thousands of such artists, of hwom the majority seek on'ly for sum new technical manner, and hwo prodduce milyons of wurks of art without enthusiasm, with cold harts and soals asleep.

Competition arizes. The wild battle for success becumms more and more material. Small groops hwo hav fought their way tu the top of the caotic wurld of art and picture-making entrench themselves in the territory they hav wun. The public, left far behind, lùks on bewillderd, loozes intrest and turns a·way.

But despite all thiss confusion, thiss caos, thiss wild hunt for notoryety, the spiritual tryanggle, sloly but shurely, with irresistible strength, mooves onwords and upwords.

The invisible Mozes descends from the mountin and sees the dance round the golden caff. But he brings with him fresh stores of wizdom tu man.

First by the artist is herd his voice, the voice that is inaudible tu the crowd. Allmost unknoïngly the artist folloes the call. Allreddy in that very question "how?" lies a hidden seed of rennaissance. For when thiss "how?" remains without enny frutefùl anser, thare is allways a possibility that the same "sumthing" (which we call personality tuday) may be able tu see in the objects about it not on'ly whot is purely material but allso sumthing less solid; sumthing less "boddily" than wos seen in the period of realism, when the universal aim wos tu re-prodduce ennything "as it realy is" and without fantastic immægination.

[Fùtnote: Frequent use is made here of the terms "material" and "non-material", and of the intermediat phrazes "more" or "less material". Is evrything material? or is EVRYTHING spiritual? Can the distinctions we make between matter and spirit be nuthing but rellativ moddifications of wun or the other? Thought which, alltho a prodduct of the spirit, can be deffined with pozitiv scyence, is matter, but of fine and not coarse substance. Is whotevver cannot be tuched with the hand, spiritual? The discussion lies beyond the scope of thiss little bùk; all that matters here is that the boundarys drawn should not be too deffinit].

Iff the emotional power of the artist can overwhelm the "how?" and can guiv free scope tu his finer feelings, then art is on the crest of the road by which she will not fail later on tu find the "whot" she has losst, the "whot" which will sho the way tu the spiritual food of the newly a·wakënd spiritual life. Thiss "whot?" will no longer be the material, objectiv "whot" of the former period, but the internal trueth of art, the soal without which the boddy (i.e. the "how") can nevver be helthy, whether in an individdual or in a hole peeple.

THIS "WHOT" IS THE INTERNAL TRUETH WHICH ON'LY ART CAN DIVINE; WHICH ON'LY ART CAN EXPRESS BY THOZE MEENS OF EXPRESSION WHICH AR HERS ALONE.