He was never mean or hostile toward Brahms, as some would have had him. He once said that Brahms was not an enemy of Wagner, as the Brahmsites insisted; that down in his heart he had a warm admiration for Wagner, as was shown by the praise he had bestowed on _Die Meistersinger_.
Just before his death Bruckner's thoughts were on his Ninth symphony: "I undertook a stiff task," he said. "I should not have done it at my age and in my weak condition. If I never finish it, then my '_Te Deum_' may be used as a _finale_. I have nearly finished three movements. This work belongs to my Lord God."
Although he had the religion of a child, he had read the famous book of David Strauss, and he could talk about it reasonably. Someone asked him about the future life and prayer. "I'll tell you," he replied. "If the story is true, so much the better for me. If it is not true, praying cannot hurt me."
(Born at Park Ridge, Ill., February 28, 1876)
I. En Voiture II. The Policeman III. The Hurdy-gurdy IV. The Lake V. Dogs VI. Dreams
Mr. Carpenter has told us in music the outing of a child. One of his first compositions was a collection of humorous _Improving Songs for Children_. This fondness for children as subjects for art he shares with Victor Hugo; with Swinburne, who abandoned the shrine of Venus to sing of children's beauty and innocence--after Watts-Dunton had docked him of his rum. In the _Perambulator_ there is no sentimentalism, no Sunday-school address to "you, little girl with the blue sash"; but his music is as his child saw and thought, when wheeled about.
This suite is not only an ingenious work: it has true fancy, true humor, pages of truly poetic feeling. Mr. Carpenter displays imagination; witness his glorification of the lake that supplies Chicago with water. But even his imagination was dormant at the thought of the Chicago River. An unflinching realist would have introduced the child's visit to the stockyards and slaughter houses.
The composition of this suite was begun in July, 1914, and completed in December of that year. The suite was performed for the first time at the concerts of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Frederick Stock conductor, March 19-20, 1915.
The suite is scored for these instruments: three flutes (and piccolo), two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, bass tuba, kettledrums, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, xylophone, glockenspiel, bells, harp, celesta, pianoforte, and the usual strings.