AFTER EIGHT YEARS

The French Cabinet has made the necessary gesture and now Beethoven's music is to be performed and his centenary this year officially celebrated by the French Republic. Again the spirit of Locarno walks abroad and soon the movements of a symphony will bring again to mind the well cooked courses of the trout concerto. The wave of a French baton over a German score will add a pretty flourish to the hopeful tune of "Hands Across the Rhine".

But Beethoven in Valhalla might smile a trifle bitterly to see his earthly origin made so much of. Immortals, he might sigh, are never allowed to forget that they once were born. That the French are willing to hear him again with honor would hardly yield much gratification to one who would have every right to consider it only their loss if they didn't. Nevertheless in scouting the notion that there is the slightest connection between musical scores and political treaties, Beethoven in Valhalla might have forgotten something about Beethoven in Vienna. Perhaps during the celebration the capital of France will hear a certain symphony once dedicated to the Emperor of the French. Swept by enthusiasm for the ideals of the French revolution and its battlecrles of fraternity and equality for all, the composer saw in Bonaparte the militant Messiah who with sword in hand was advancing to do battle with the foul breathed dragon of oppression. When instead of striking off the fetters of Europe, Napoleon bound it with the chains of his empire, Beethoven in a fit of disappointed rage tore the dedication of his symphony into a thousand shreds. But, after all, the majestic Eroica still sounds just the same.