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Musical Courier 1890-07-02: Vol 21 Iss 541, 1890
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1A New Study in Wagner.
2THROUGH the press of G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, Mr. Albert Ross Parsons, president of the Music Teachers' National Association, pianist and eminent thinker, has published "Parsifal: the Finding of Christ through Art, or Richard Wagner as Theologian." The book, amplified with appendices, was in substance delivered in lecture form, May 19, 1889, at All Souls' Episcopal Church, in this city.
4The title page of the volume bears a most significant quotation from the collected writings of Richard Wagner: "The God revealed to us by Jesus—this God who never can be revealed again, because then and for the first time he was revealed to mankind."
6This is the keynote to the volume.
8The author of this study appreciates thoroughly the false light in which Richard Wagner is placed not alone by his enemies but likewise by his friends, a light far from being an enviable one. I do not refer now to the musical genius of the man, nor yet to his dramatic writings, but to his ethics.
10Accused on the one hand of absorbing all that was baneful in Schopenhauer's philosophy, and on the other of pandering to sensual appetites in his tone creations, many will be naturally amazed at the new Wagner Mr. Parsons presents us with, although it is a Wagner accessible to all of us in his collected writings.
12In his preface Mr. Parsons considers how Wagner came to write "Parsifal" and while admitting the traces of Buddhism in the work, still sees Christianity dominating the work and not "subordinating the Light of the World to the Light of Asia."
14Mr. Parsons thinks that Wagner's avowed hatred to Judaism, his horror of the bloodthirsty tribal Jehovah, have led many people to imagine that he was not a believer in the grand central truths of Christianity; but certainly the array of evidence which our author has collated is rather bewildering to anyone who adheres to the idea of the great master's infidelity.
16Mr. Parsons starts very definitely by asserting that there is an ethical tendency in Wagner's works, and not an ethical tendency that is a mere artistic calculation of stage effect.
18Religious dogmatism Wagner abhorred. He ever passionately sought the underlying spirit and spurned the letter of the law.
20It cannot well be denied, after reading Mr. Parsons' more than interesting volume, that Wagner, if not a practical churchman, was a profound thinker on Christianity. Wagner could not help recognizing, and perhaps perforce acknowledging, the incalculable benefits Christianity as a moral system has conferred on mankind. He, too, seriously deprecated the attitude of physical science toward things on the spiritual plane, an attitude now perhaps less marked this last decade of the century than twenty-five years, when, flushed by victory, science asserted the eternal supremacy of matter. All that is changed now. Matter and spirit are convertible terms, and we are, I hope, on the threshold of an era of sweetness and light, when science and religion will acknowledge their mutual indebtedness and the warfare now waged will cease. Wagner's paganism was his passionate love of formal beauty; but he ever recognized moral beauty, for what else do his music dramas reveal but the struggle and final purification of erring human nature by divine help. Wagner's appreciation and admiration of the character of Jesus are remarkable in view of the fact that we have been led to believe just the reverse by critics who neglected this side of his nature.
22"The founder of the Christian religion was not wise, he was divine. To believe in him is to imitate him and to seek union with him," thus Richard Wagner.
24I will not attempt to quote the many excerpts Mr. Parsons has so lovingly collected as strong evidences of his original assertion that Wagner was Christian to the core.
26Schopenhauer's pessimism is handled by Mr. Parsons, who, like Wagner, believes in the underlying greatness of the iconoclastic philosopher's ethics, truly Christian at times in utterance.
28Mr. Parsons thinks the confounding of what each person considers the correct view of Christianity has much to do in obscuring our vision of the grand moral character of the poet-dramatist.
30Mr. Parsons sees in "Parsifal" the artistic creed of an original and independent mind that worked out its own salvation in fear and trembling.
32The book aptly ends as follows: "And now—Wagner having long since learned, contrary to his former opinion, that the Christian dare bring deeds to offer to his God—the name for the 'Victory, or the Most Perfect Salvation,' was found. It was 'Par-si-fal,' which being interpreted is 'fool without guile,' or, as St. Paul writes, 'The foolishness of God, which is wiser than men,' namely, 'Christ Crucified.'"
34It may be remembered that in 1856 Wagner wrote to Liszt of a "splendid subject" he meant to execute, entitled "Victory, the Most Perfect Salvation."
36It was afterward called "Parsifal." The appendices to this new study of Wagner show the depth and breadth of Mr. Parsons' studies.
38The book I warmly recommend to lovers of music in general and admirers of Richard Wagner in particular.
40It is forcible, sincere, reverent, and to many cannot fail to be convincing.
42JAMES G. HUNEKER.
43June 25.
45PERSONALS.
47VOGL'S ANNIVERSARY.—Heinrich Vogl, the Wagner tenor, well remembered here from last season at the Metropolitan Opera House, will on November 5 celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of his artistic début and connection with the Munich Court Opera House.
49MATERNA'S SUCCESSOR.—Mrs. Sthamer-Andriessen, of the Leipsic Theatre, has just been engaged for the Vienna Court Opera House as successor to Amalia Friedrich-Materna, who retires at the close of the present season. Mrs. Sthamer-Andriessen is one of the most handsome women on the stage; she can, however, hardly be called as great an artist and dramatic singer as was the lady whom she is to replace.
51WENHAM SMITH.—Mr. Charles Wenham Smith, organist of Temple B'Nai Jeshurun, Newark, N.J., and St. James' Roman Catholic Church, James-st., New York, will leave for England on the Umbria on July 5. His vacation will be chiefly spent in London, and among his many friends who will be glad to see him will without doubt be his old time colleague, Meyer Lutz, the conductor of the Gaiety orchestra.
53A NEW SINGING TEACHER.—Mrs. Melitta Otto-Alvsleben, formerly court opera singer at the Dresden Royal Opera, has become first vocal teacher at the conservatory of the Saxonian capital.
55BAERMANN'S VACATION.—Prof. Carl Baermann, who stands at the head of Boston's magnificent list of pianists and teachers, takes a much needed rest and well earned vacation, leaving for Europe on the Lahn on Wednesday of this week. Professor Baermann, accompanied by his amiable wife, will visit Munich, where his mother is living, and will spend the greater portion of the summer at Kochel in the Bavarian Highlands. He intends to return on the Lahn, leaving Bremen on September 17, and will resume his onerous duties by the beginning of October.
57MISS MALTEN DECORATED.—Therese Malten, the great prima donna of the Dresden Court Opera House, has been decorated by the Duke of Saxe-Altenburg with the highest class of the Order of Merit for art and science.
59GENERAL SICKLES' ADVICE TO CAMPANINI.—General Sickles takes many of his meals at Martinelli's on Fifth-ave., and while at lunch recently Campanini met the general and told him that he would regain his voice through the assistance of a physician who had been treating him with that end in view. "Don't you believe it," said the general, "it cannot be done. You have reached that age when the voice naturally goes into decadence. The best thing you can do is to give singing lessons, which will become a source of wealth to you. And don't give them here in New York, for the thing is overdone here. Go to Chicago and, as a singing teacher, you will have more to do than you can attend to." The general seems to know all about it.
61WHOM HE MET.—Blumenberg, the violoncellist, who has been playing in London, has just returned. During his short sojourn in the English metropolis he met the following celebrities: Hans Richter, Frederic Cowen, Jacques Blumenthal, Moritz Moszkowski, Teresa Carreño, Belle Cole, Alice Shaw, Kate Percy Douglas, Zelie de Lussan, Mrs. Fursch-Madi, Isidora Martinez-King, Henry Mapleson, Prud' ette, Broderick and many others. Blumenberg's success was very flattering, and he has arranged for a large number of concerts for next season in London.
63DEATH OF AN ACCOMPLISHED AMATEUR.—Charles T. Hall, a well-known business man and an accomplished amateur violinist, died in Binghamton on Wednesday, June 18, aged forty years. He was born in Chenango and entered business life with a mercantile firm at Binghamton. He was afterward for several years engaged with the Chemung Canal Bank at Elmira. He was compelled to give up a business career by failing health. From boyhood he had manifested remarkable talent as a violinist, and he went to Boston, and afterward to Berlin, Germany, and for four years pursued a course of study under distinguished instructors. On his return home he won high recognition in amateur circles as an artist, but he modestly refrained from seeking professional honors. He brought from abroad a Stradivarius violin, for which he paid $3,500. He is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Hall, of Chenango, and by a sister, Mrs. Thomas Parker, of Binghamton.
65JOSEF KASPAR LEAVES FOR EUROPE.—Mr. Josef Kaspar, of Washington, the conductor of the Wilhelmj Club of that city, and a violinist of more than usual merit, leaves for Europe on June 28, to be gone during the summer.
67PATTI'S HEALTH.—The indisposition of Adelina Patti has given rise to exaggerated reports of her health, besides totally unfounded rumors of her approaching retirement. We stated correctly last week that the prima donna had "resolved not to again sing in public until her vocal powers are thoroughly restored, even though such a step might necessitate the relinquishment of one or all of her summer concerts." As she has been suffering from nothing worse than severe hoarseness, she is now practically out of the doctor's hands.
69THE DE RESZKES FOR LONDON.—Jean and Edouard de Reszke a fortnight ago signed contracts by which their services were secured for the London Royal Italian Opera season of 1891. It may be added, although the fact is of infinitely greater interest to himself and to the management than to the public at large, that the fees Mr. Jean de Reszke will then receive will be exactly double those paid him under the contract which expires this summer.
71GODOWSKI IN LONDON.—Armed with strong letters of recommendation from Saint-Saëns, Leopold Godowski has arrived in London, and last Thursday made his début at a recital at Steinway Hall. Godowski is a young Polish pianist of twenty years, and has for some time past been a pupil of Saint-Saëns. He is still pleasantly remembered also in New York, where he appeared several seasons as a Polish prodigy.
73ZOLLNER'S LATEST COMPOSITION.—We learn from Cologne that Heinrich Zollner, the new conductor of the New York Liederkranz, has just finished an ode for male chorus and orchestra which is to be sung by the united male chorus organizations of Cologne on the occasion of the forthcoming celebration of the 450th anniversary of the invention of the printer's art which is to be held in the Rhenish city shortly.
75A SURPRISE FOR HENSCHEL.—A pleasant little surprise has been sprung upon Mr. Henschel, the conductor of the London Young People's Orchestral Concerts. An address has been presented to him, signed by a large number of young people of either sex, expressing the great enjoyment they experienced at the concerts during this season, and begging him to give some more next year. The wishes of the young folks will, we learn, be gratified.
77BOEKELMAN SAILS.—Bernardus Boekelman is another one of the great number of musicians who are going to spend their summer vacation in Europe. He sailed on the Normandie on last Saturday and will join his children in Paris, where he will stay the greater portion of his time. Mr. Boekelman will return by the middle of September and resume his piano teaching at the young ladies' school of Miss Porter and Mrs. Dow at Farmington, Conn.
79MELBA LEAVES PARIS.—The famous soprano Mrs. Melba-Armstrong has followed the example of the brothers De Reszke, and has seceded from the company of the Paris Opéra.
81A PLAQUE FOR PAGANINI.—A plaque has, on the anniversary of Paganini's death, been placed on the house in Parma where he so long resided.
83IN HONOR OF BELLINI'S MEMORY.—Catania, the birthplace of Bellini, is in full fête, a grand new theatre having just been built, which was inaugurated by a very successful performance of "Norma." There is also an exhibition of objects connected with Bellini, which contains many items of much interest—original manuscripts of some of his works, and many letters and drawings by Malibran, who, as is well known, was an enthusiastic admirer of the Sicilian musician.
85—From the "London Musical World" we extract the following interesting piece of gossip about Benjamin Godard: "Down the street comes a familiar figure; long, lean, dark, slow, distingue—Benjamin Godard. He 'arrived,' even if the teachers at the conservatoire would not allow him to concour for the prix de Rome. There was too much Godard about his work and too little Cherubini—the same fault found with Berlioz years before. How well I recalled the time I first went to Godard's house. One of his pupils had said that I must meet him, and at the hour appointed I went to his modest little home. The pupil was playing a suite for violin solo—a composition of Godard's—and I shall never forget the impression produced upon me during this reception. Godard sat about 5 feet from the player; one long hand spread over the left knee, the face lifted a little toward the violin; and not once during the five movements did he change position or apparently move a muscle—an incarnation of perfect stillness. He told me the other day all about his studies here at the conservatoire, and why it was that his teachers did not wish him to concour. They recognized his talent, but knew that in technical skill he was not equal to many others. 'I could never,' he said, 'write a fugue; I was continually putting in phrases foreign to such an architectural composition. Fugue and counterpoint fill me with horror—' this with hands before his face, palms outward, as if pushing away some detested object—they are to me like mathematics. I will never teach them—I cannot; I realize the necessity for such study, but I prefer to teach composition—the results of such study.'"
87How many a weary student will hereafter bless the name of Godard, and piously wish that all composers will follow his example!
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