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Musical Courier 1892-05-11: Vol 24 Iss 638, 1892
81 lines. Read by computer on 19 September 2026. Printed page 9. See the scan on archive.org.
A town on its own line is one of the directory's headings. That is where the town on a maker's page comes from.
1The audience was of the most musical and discriminately appreciative, and applauded him warmly in the right places.
2AMY FAY.
333 West Thirty-first street.
5Brooklyn News.
7MESSRS. GUILMANT AND BEST, THE FAMOUS FRENCH AND ENGLISH ORGANISTS RESPECTIVELY, TO PLAY IN BROOKLYN, UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE MUSIC DEPARTMENT OF THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE—WHAT THE INSTITUTE IS DOING IN A MUSICAL WAY—A NEW DEPARTURE IN MUSIC IN BROOKLYN WHICH HAS MET WITH INSTANT SUCCESS.
9BROOKLYN, May 7, 1892.
11IT will be interesting to lovers of organ music to know that arrangements have been perfected by the musical department of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences by which Mr. Alexander Guilmant, a noted composer and the greatest living French organist, from the Church of the Trinity, Paris, and Mr. William T. Best, organ composer and organist to the city corporation, St. George's Hall, Liverpool, England, for a series of concerts to be given in this country under the auspices of the institute. Messrs. Guilmant and Best are expected to give similar concerts in New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington and possibly one or two larger cities. This will furnish to the citizens of Brooklyn the first opportunity to hear the leading organists of the world and at rates exceptionally cheaper—in fact, the expenses are practically borne entirely by the institute. Through the courtesy of Professor Hooper THE MUSICAL COURIER is privileged to make the announcement of the arrangement ahead of all contemporaries.
13Concert organ music is comparatively little known in this country, and only those who have been in the great capitals of Europe are fully aware of what the expression "concert organ music" means when presented on a large instrument by able organists like Guilmant and Best. These concerts will be supplemented by one or two concerts from leading organists in this city.
15Since its organization, less than a year ago, the department of music has made considerable progress, and there is probably not a family in Brooklyn but what is concerned, either directly or indirectly, in the work of the institute. The department was organized in response to a demand from many members of the institute who were interested in music and who felt that the subject should be presented to the public from several points of view not contemplated by any existing musical organization in the city. The city has an abundance of orchestral concerts, and of musical entertainments as such, but there has been up to this time no systematic effort to instruct the public on the history and character of music. Therefore one of the prominent features of the work of the department has been lectures on different classes of music, musical composers, music in different periods of its development, each lecture illustrated by recitals, either choruses, piano, the organ or stringed instruments.
17During the past year fourteen lectures, accompanied by illustrations, have been given. Furthermore, no musical organization in the city was calculated to bring into a common fellowship all the members of the profession and the lovers of music. The Brooklyn Institute is organized on a thoroughly democratic basis, each of its twenty-six departments a society composed of specialists in a particular science or art, who have a governing and directing body of the department and a larger number of residents who are particularly interested in all that pertains to a given science or art. The architects, for example, in the city came together to form a department of architecture to the number of sixty or seventy, and they associated with them a considerable number of wealthy citizens who were interested in architecture as householders or as connoisseurs. The constitution of the department states that its purposes are to unite in a society the members of the profession and the lovers of music, to advance the interests of music in the city of Brooklyn, and to increase knowledge of it through lectures, recitals, concerts and a musical library. There are several fields in music that have not been brought before the public to any considerable extent. One of these is chamber music. Mr. Dudley Buck, the oldest member of the profession in the city, has urged the department from the first to give a large number of concerts of chamber music. Another field almost untouched in the city is that of organ recitals. Mr. Harry Rowe Shelley and Mr. John Hyatt Brewer and other members of the department have urged the organization to provide during next season a series of organ concerts, hence the arrangement, as stated above, with Messrs. Guilmant and Best.
19Another work which the department will undertake will be that of presenting the very best music of a popular character for the benefit of the children in the public schools and also for the benefit of large numbers in our community who would be unable to pay the prices that are now required for admission to the symphony concerts at the Academy of Music, and enjoyable music should be as accessible to the public in Brooklyn as it is in any city on the continent of Europe, and the new department will not have fulfilled its mission until it has aided in bringing music within the reach of the people or making music as accessible to the people in Brooklyn as it is in Berlin or at The Hague.
21One of the most instructive and enjoyable meetings of the department during the past season was the occasion of the illustrated lecture by the Rev. Dr. Charles Cuthbert Hall on church music. The illustrations were rendered by a choir of about thirty voices. The influence of this lecture in Brooklyn has already been far reaching, and possibly the lecture was the first public and emphatic endorsement of church choruses as opposed to the old-fashioned quartet.
23During the year the department will give several lectures on the different kinds of church music. The meeting of the department to lay out the work for the season of 1892-3 will be held during the present month, and in addition to the above mentioned lines of work it is probable that still others will be proposed and carried into effect.
25That the work of the department has been appreciated by the people of Brooklyn, and especially by the lovers of music, is attested by the fact that the audiences have filled the large auditorium, which seats 1,500 people. The organization is as yet scarcely a year old and it is too early to predict what its success may be. But its interests are in the hands of the most skillful members of the profession in the city, among whom Mr. Harry Rowe Shelley, Mr. Paul Tiddem, Mr. John Hyatt Brewer, Mr. Max Spicker, Mr. Arthur Claassen, Mr. Charles H. Morse, Mr. R. Huntington Woodman, Mr. Carl Venth, Mr. Henry E. H. Benedict, Mr. August Walther, Mr. Rafael Navarro, Mr. Perlee V. Jervis, Mr. William H. Neidlinger.
27The membership of the institute is between 1,700 and 1,800, and the attendance at the meetings of the department of music has exceeded that of any of the other departments connected with it.
29DORSEY MEANY.
31Mr. Smith's Concert.—Mr. Frank W. Smith made his initial bow as a public entertainer at a concert given in the hall of the Grand Opera House on Saturday evening of last week. He is a clever reader, and has a pleasing personality and will doubtless make a success. He was assisted by Dr. Carl Martin, who was in excellent voice; Miss Amy Cable, soprano; Miss Dorothy Harrington, recitator; Mr. P. J. Smith, tenor; the Mendelssohn Quartet and the College City Quintet—all of whom were greatly appreciated.
33N. J. Corey.—Mr. N. J. Corey gave a very successful piano recital in Schwankovsky's Music Hall, Detroit, on Thursday evening, May 5, which was largely attended. Mr. Corey played solos by Liszt, Grieg and Saint-Saëns and Paderewski's sonata for piano and violin, with Mr. William Yunck. Miss Florence Choate played Beethoven's B flat concerto, with accompaniment by the Philharmonic Club. Songs by Brahms, Rubinstein and Dvorak were admirably sung by Mrs. Norton.
35Miss Mead to Go to Vienna.—Miss Olive Mead, a very talented and comely young violinist of Cambridgeport, Mass., will go to Vienna this summer to study with Mr. Grün and other masters. She has had much success recently in Boston at the Art Club, where she played with Helen Hopekirk.
37A CONDUCTOR (also solo pianist, &c.) who has held prominent positions in Germany and England would be inclined to settle in one of the larger towns of America where the conductorship of a choral and orchestral society could be offered to him. Apply to "No. 22 N." care of MUSICAL COURIER.
39WANTED—A first-class soprano soloist desires a position in a church choir; has had ample experience. Address L. B., care of this office.
41BAYREUTH.
43B. SELIGSBERG.
44Large stock in New and Second-hand Books and Music Antiquities, Engravings and Curiosities.
46ALL THE WAGNER LITERATURE.
47CATALOGUES FREE ON APPLICATION.
49N. Y. PHILHARMONIC CLUB,
50FIFTEENTH SEASON.
51Eugene Weiner, Director.
52THIS renowned organization with MISS MARION WEED, Prima Donna Soprano, Will make a concert tour through the United States during the season 1892-3. Managers and societies desiring to make engagements with the club please address:
53Eugene Weiner,
54Care of Edw. Schubert & Co., 23 Union Square, New York.
56FOREIGN NOTES.
58Minnie and the Cigarette Girls.—During her recent stay at Seville Minnie Hauk was the object of a strange ovation on the part of the girls of the huge cigarette factory there. Some of the girls, who had formerly been singing in the chorus of the opera, recognized the famous "Carmen," and the news of her presence among her would-be colleagues spread like wildfire among the gay "cigareras." They surrounded the prima donna, clapping their hands and singing the "Habanera." It took a while to free the prima donna from the enthusiastic crowd.
60A Horn Band.—There is now playing in Paris a Russian horn band, each horn being capable of producing a single note only. So perfect is the training that the band produces the effect of one equipped with ordinary instruments, and even running scales with the rapidity and precision of a violin.
62Cable Clippings.—The lawsuit between Yvette Guilbert and Mr. Mussleck, the manager of the café chantant, called the Concert Parisien—where Yvette sings every night—has just been decided. It was rushed through, thanks to the diva's influence, which apparently holds good even in judicial circles. Everybody waits, and some forever; but the star diva is the slave of none. Her lawyer brought letters from Mr. Claretie and also from Mr. Bertrand, stating that by singing at the Nouveauté matinée she had not broken her contract with Mr. Mussleck; for no mention had been made of the subject, and she had always given her services in the evening most generously. Mr. Mussleck had asked for $30,000 damages. He got nothing and the costs were divided between Yvette and himself. As it stands, they will each be obliged to pay some 15,000 frs., but plucky Yvette does not care, for she coins money, and she is a greater favorite than ever. No one can account for this extraordinary prestige, sweeping from concert hall to diplomatic salons, one is inclined to think that she has still a good many variations to her talent, but like a wisely clever little woman she works one field until the soil refuses to blossom.
64Maurel, the baritone, has just returned here from Italy, previous to his London season. He reports that Verdi's "Falstaff," taken partly from the "Merry Wives" and partly from "Henry," is entirely finished. It is in three acts and will be produced next winter at the Scala, with my informant in the title rôle. Maurel, by the way, seems to side with Paris in regard to the musical value of "Cavalleria Rusticana." He says it is pleasing, but nothing more, and far from equal to the fuss made about it. In Italy, he adds, it meets with less enthusiasm than in London or Vienna. It never was a great work, and the French critics were only wrong to judge it from that standpoint.
66Sir Arthur Sullivan Better.—Sir Arthur Sullivan, whose condition since his return to London from Monte Carlo has greatly alarmed his friends, is better, having passed a quiet night Saturday last.
68The Free Musical Union.—The program for the last concert of the Berlin Free Musical Union on Thursday, the 21st ult., was as follows:
69Piano trio in C minor, op. 101, Joh. Brahms
70Romanza for violin, Armas Järnefelt
71Rhapsody for piano, Carl van Bruyck
72"Pagina d'Amore" for violoncello, Otto Floersheim
74England at the Vienna Exhibition.—The musical portion of the Vienna Exhibition is, so far as England is concerned, probably more successful than the dramatic. Among the exhibits will be the late Sir F. Gore Ouseley's copy of "The Messiah," with Händel's corrections, Händel's manuscript of "Israel in Egypt," from Buckingham Palace, and various old harpsichords (lent by Messrs. Broadwood and other firms), violins and old instruments generally.
76Godard Not Idle.—Benjamin Godard, the French composer, is reported as having finished two operas, "The Guelphs" and "Ruy Blas," and a scenic arrangement with incidental music to Goethe's "Tasso," which is shortly to be brought out at Paris.
78Mancinelli's Success in Hamburg.—Private advices to THE MUSICAL COURIER from Hamburg state that the first performance in German of Luigi Mancinelli's three act romantic opera, "Isora di Provence," took place there a fortnight ago and proved a great success. The composer conducted in person and was called before the curtain many times, together with the principal singers. The music is described as brilliant and effective.
80Vienna's Exhibition.—Vienna, May 7.—The great International Musical and Theatrical Exhibition opened today. The most interesting feature of the exhibition will be the performances of foreign theatrical and operatic companies, as well as the two monster concerts in the Music Hall. To-day, however, the people were obliged to content themselves with the still life exhibits. Naturally the German and Austrian exhibits are the most comprehensive and popular. The crowd gathered most thickly in that portion of the rotunda gallery devoted to Mozart, Grillparzer, Goethe, Lessing, Schiller, Beethoven and Schubert.
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