CHAPTER     IV

HIS    INFLUENCE

JUST  as  the  assertion  that  Joachim  plays  out
of  tune  amazes  those  whose  ears  are  suffi-
ciently trained  to  distinguish  between  perfect
intervals  and  the  makeshifts  of  the  tempered
scale,  so  it  is  astonishing  for  those  who  realise
with  what  breadth  of  view  he  interprets  the
classics  of  music,  ancient  or  modern,  to  read
that  he  has  from  time  to  time  been  accused
of  narrow-mindedness  or  partiality.  It  is
difficult  to  see  on  what  possible  grounds  such
a  charge  is  based,  except  in  so  far  as  it  might
be  brought  against  any  one  who  prefers  the
good  to  the  bad  in  any  art.  It  is  generally
to  be  traced  to  one  quarter,  that  of  the  ultra-
modern school,  and  in  that  school  to  the
Liszt-Wagner  party,  for  the  followers  of  these
two  great  men  are  rather  apt  to  forget  the
support  which  the  cause  of  modern  tendencies

43


44  JOSEPH    JOACHIM

has  received  from  men  who  have  afterwards
felt  it  to  be  their  duty  to  return  to  the
broader  lines  of  music.  To  call  him  an  anti-
Wagnerian,  because  he  does  not  approve  the
system  which  governs  the  composition  of
Liszt's  symphonic  poems,  is  ridiculous  ;  but,
unfortunately,  it  is  not  without  parallel  in  the
quarter  from  which  the  charge  proceeds.  A
list  of  works  by  Wagner — complete  acts  of
operas,  as  well  as  separate  orchestral  pieces
— produced  at  the  Hochschule,  of  course  with
Joachim's  authority,  is  given  in  Moser's  "Life,"
and  Joachim's  admiration  for  "  Lohengrin "
survived  the  time  when  he  became  acquainted
with  its  striking  prototype  in  Weber's  "Eury-
arithe."  Of  the  relations  between  Liszt  and
Joachim  mention  has  already  been  made  ;
and  the  termination  of  their  artistic  inter-
course became  inevitable  when,  as  it  seemed
to  Joachim,  the  symphonic  poems  were  pro-
duced in  direct  antagonism  to  all  the  recog-
nised rules  of  classical  structure,  and  in  direct
support  of  the  system  of  making  music  sub-
servient to  some  pictorial  or  narrative  idea.
