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Musical Courier 1892-06-15: Vol 24 Iss 643, 1892
98 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 14. See the scan on archive.org.
1erty, N. Y., to conduct a chorus for the summer. On her return in the fall she will be permanently engaged as assistant drill master to the director, the Rev. Miller Hageman.
3In a recent address to the members of the Brooklyn Fenelon Circle Bishop McDonnell manifested his interest in art by advising the society to "broaden the course of its studies and include architecture." Having already pledged himself to promote musical culture throughout his new diocese the bishop's latest advice is to be commended. I may mention as an indication of the aroused interest in the art of music the pronounced success of the Fenelon's effort of last Tuesday evening. The program was in excellent taste and the several numbers were rendered in a highly artistic manner. The vocal selections of Mrs. Helen O'Donnell and Mr. H. Woram were agreeable features in an altogether agreeable evening's entertainment. Prof. Bernard O'Donnell proved a brilliant accompanist. The whole affair may be summed up as a charming chamber concert. Steinway's grand was heard to advantage. Others, no doubt equally delightful, will be given in the early future.
5The success of the concert has awakened extraordinary interest in musical circles for the Fenelon Society. This has been shown by the many applications for membership. The Fenelon is evidently about to enter upon a new career of prosperity in every way, and, as the good bishop hopes, it will broaden its field of artistic usefulness and extend its refining influence throughout the community in which it is already so warmly appreciated.
7It is always interesting to note the advances that have been made during a comparatively brief period in the matter of church music. One doesn't have to turn back many pages in history to recall the days when even the sound of an organ was tabooed in many places of worship. We can now smile at the organ and anti-organ factions that excited such discord among the brethren, and sisters, too, in devout congregations and led to such bitter warfare. Happily for artistic progress these battles, so we are informed, usually resulted in the defeat of the anti-organ factions; and it is of still further interest to add that those who were so bitterly opposed to the introduction of instrumental music in the churches, after having their foolish prejudices rewarded by the success of their opponents, soon became the most ardent advocates for organs and other appropriate musical instruments as valuable aids to the worship of Almighty God.
9The Roman Catholic Church has always been foremost in recognizing the value of music as an aid to religious worship, and to that communion we are largely indebted for the promotion of the musical tastes of the public in this as in other communities. It is no uncommon event on special occasions to find the usually artistic efforts of the well selected Catholic choirs supplemented by full orchestras and to have our musical sense charmed by programs which include selections from the most eminent masters. To say that all this has heightened the solemnity of the service and added to the popular interest is only to say what every intelligent person already knows.
11But there are innovations and innovations in church music as in other things, and I am moved to these observations by the introduction of a fife and drum corps, on a recent occasion, in St. Benedict's Roman Catholic Church. The audience included many young men of the congregation, members of a military organization, and they appeared on this occasion in their full uniform.
13Without wishing to discuss the desirability of fife and drum corps in our church choirs, it may be said that the introduction of instrumental music of this extraordinary character was by no means displeasing to the general congregation, and especially gratifying to the youth inspired with military ardor.
15All of which tends to prove that church music is in process of development, and that the effort of our vocalists will be aided in the future by such instrumental music as may seem most consistent and appropriate as an adjunct to reverential worship.
17It affords me pleasure to make known the fact through the columns of the widely read THE MUSICAL COURIER that a rare musical treat was enjoyed by the congregation of the New York Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. The choir of this church has among its members several highly cultured musicians, both vocal and instrumental, and as a musical body it is a strong and evenly balanced organization. On the evening of May 29 this choir presented its initial performance of Gounod's "Galicia," a sacred cantata, together with the "Sanctus," "Send out Thy Light," and Mozart's "Twelfth Mass" (the "Gloria") and also the "Gloria," by Sydenham, and other selections.
19DORSEY MEANY.
21WANTED—A position as musical director at a college or head of piano department, or teacher of advanced pupils at a conservatory; fifteen years of experience and continual success. "South," care of MUSICAL COURIER.
23The Dances of Spain.
25DANCING is a national vice in Spain. The danza prima, in Asturias, the jota aragonesa in Aragon, the muñeira in Galicia, las habas verdes, the cachucha, the rondenas and the Malagueña in Andalusia are dances peculiar to each province. Dancing is not a modern accomplishment in this peninsula, for Martial sings of the Cadiz dancing girls who delighted Roman voluptuaries. In the South of Europe, as in the Orient, man dances less frequently than in Northern countries, and woman seems to monopolize this pastime.
27There ne'er was born a Spanish woman yet,
28But she was born to dance.
30In Seville, at a bull fighters' resort in the Sierpes, I saw a dance in all its couleur locale. Although the establishment was not of a high character the girls on the stage were modest both in dress and demeanor, the very antithesis of what would be seen at a similar place in London or New York, or particularly Paris—this voluptuous Constantinople of the Occident. The girl who danced moved languidly, but always gracefully. With all her motions she preserved the gentle curves of her feminine form, and seemed more like a woman dancing than like a danseuse. Her head at times was thrown back so far as almost to touch the floor with her shoulders. With us the body hardly moves, while the legs spread out immoderately. In Andalusia it is the body that dances, while the feet barely shuffle. The way in which the torso is twisted makes one think of a boa. I had already seen such harmonious undulations in Lower Egypt. There, however, the girls added the danse du ventre, which, though interesting, owing to its novelty, would soon disgust anyone but an Arab. If the Moors have left no other traditions they have, at least, bequeathed to Spanish woman the Eastern way of gracefully dislocating the human body without Oriental obscenity.
32One beautiful evening last summer I went to La Caletta, the Manhattan Beach of Malaga, to hear a genuine interpretation of a Malagueña. I sat in a garden by the shore of the Mediterranean, sipping some of the nectar named Malaga wine. Overhead hung a thick canopy of vine leaves, dotted here and there with luscious grapes, or scintillating stars which in "color though varied" in beauty vied. To add to this enchanting environment a string quintet and a flutist were playing music new and strange to me, resembling the csárdás. These hot blooded Andalusians seemed to perform with more passion and energy than even the fiery Hungarians. And what effects of contrast! Now, a languid, minor strain would evoke the picture of a beautiful Arabian girl at a Suez kahwa, performing her slow and worm-like contortions; later, the wild, tempestuous accents would fall upon the still night air like the awful crash of a ship breaking asunder in mid ocean. In these rhapsodies, how odd the rhythm, how extravagant the expression, how brusque the modulations. Many good old rules of harmony were trampled upon in a manner that seemed Wagnerian with a vengeance. And yet these compositions were anything but modern or what is sometimes termed music of the future. But, after all, of what avail would be science with Malagueña? These happy children of a sunny clime need only to express joy or sorrow with their music, and they do indeed!
34The balmy air, the sensuous music, the delicious wine and the sight of coquetish wearers of red roses and black mantillas, educing the occult powers of this magic scene, lulled me with eyes wide open into a profound reverie.
36I deplore to record the fact that the old customs are fast disappearing; that civilization brushes aside the picturesque, and that our stiff and formal movements are supplanting the characteristic dances of Spain. The baile nacional is a thing of the past. Outside of the concert garden, the theatre or the country festival no longer are seen boleros or fandangos. The better classes in Spain, as in other civilized countries, have adopted long ago the customs of French and English society. In good circles when conversation lags a guitar may still be used. The hidalgo of to-day may pluck the strings and beat the time with the palm of his right hand against the instrument while singing a Flamenco couplet. The company will perhaps add an obligato of "Hay! hola!" and the clapping of hands will resound through the marble patio, but should some one propose to dance, adieu to guitar and castanets, to cachuchas and Malagueñas. A prim señorita seated at a thin toned piano will begin a waltz of Waldteufel or a polka of Fahrbach. The prosaic dance finished and the unavoidable varnish-like chocolate swallowed, you will return to your hotel after making a courtly bow and saying to your hostess: "A los pies de usted" ("At your feet, madam").
38In one sense Spain is a musical country. The twang of guitars and the impassioned phrases of love songs reach the ear from every corner. But Spanish music is light, very light! It is astonishing that a people which carries its fondness for this art to the very verge of insanity, a nation, too, that has given the world Murillo, Cervantes and Seneca, should not have produced one great composer. Shall I venture to offer a reason for this? I may err, but I think it is laziness. The Neapolitan lazzarene, compared with the Spanish musician, is a mere amateur in the art of the "dolce far niente."
40LOUIS LOMBARD.
41Utica Conservatory of Music, May, 1892.
43Gerrit Smith's 150th Free Organ Recital.
45FEW men in this country have done more to make organ music popular than has Gerrit Smith. For seven consecutive seasons his free organ recitals have been a musical feature of this metropolis. Monday evening of last week, at the South Church (Dutch Reformed), of which he is the organist and choir master, he gave his 150th recital before an audience which completely filled the church. Dr. Smith was assisted by Messrs. Brewer, Lindsay and Gilbert at the organ, and also by Mrs. Gerrit Smith, soprano; Mr. Francis Fischer Powers, baritone, and Mr. Adolf Hartdegen, violoncellist. The program, which was unique by reason of the novel character of most of the numbers, is given below. There is not space in this notice for a critical review of the works; suffice it to say that those by Messrs. Parker, Huss, Smith, Brewer and Bartlett were particularly interesting. The program, in pamphlet form, contained a complete list of 825 compositions which Dr. Smith has performed at the South Church during these series. Among the musical people in the audience were noticed Prof. R. Ogden Doremus, Mr. and Mrs. Duncan D. Parnly, Dr. and Mrs. Henry G. Hanchett, Sumner Salter, G. Edward Stubbs and his nephew, Mr. Baker, the new organist of St. James' Church; J. H. McKinley, Thomas M. Wheeler, the Misses Wheeler, James A. Metcalf, Harry Girard, assistant organist of Holy Trinity Church; C. C. Miller, Thomas Doane, Henry Holden Huss, Miss Babetta Huss, Lucien G. Chafin, Homer N. Bartlett, Miss Bartlett, Mr. Jardine, the Misses Wilson, John Hyatt Brewer, Heman Howard Powers, Addison F. Andrews and Organist Gale, of Calvary Church.
47Following is the complete program:
49Fugue, E minor, op. 48, No. 5. Th. Salome (Dedicated to G. S.)
50Andante sostenuto ed allegro giocoso, G minor. Alex. Guilmant major, op. 47. (Autograph copy sent for the occasion.)
51Vocal solo, "Agnus Dei." Georges Bizet
52Mr. Francis Fischer Powers.
53(Accompaniment of violoncello, piano, organ.)
54Vision, D major… Horatio W. Parker
55Scherzo, D minor… (op. 82, Nos. 2, 3) (MS. written for this recital.)
56Offertoire religieuse, E minor-major… Henry Holden Huss (MS. written for this recital.)
57Grand fantasia, G minor, op. 117, No. 3… Homer N. Bartlett (MS. written for this recital.)
58Romanza, A major, op. 22, No. 2, 'cello and organ… John Hyatt Brewer Mr. Adolf Hartdegen. (MS. written for this recital.)
59Recit, "Tis the voice of my beloved." Gerrit Smith
60Vocal solo… "Air, 'For lo! the winter is past.'"
61"Song of Solomon."
62Mrs. Gerrit Smith.
63Concert sketch, D minor-major… Gerrit Smith (MS. written for this recital.)
64Theme and variations, C minor, op. 27. Arthur Bird (Arranged by W. H. Days.) one of two readings
65(MS. sent from Berlin for this recital.) one of two readings
66Theme and variations, C minor, op. 27. Arthur Bird (Arranged by W. H. Days.) (MS. sent from Berlin for this recital.) one of two readings
67Vocal duet, "God is Love." E. H. Goss
68Mrs. Gerrit Smith, Mr. Francis Fischer Powers.
69Marche nuptiale, E major (autograph copy)… F. de la Tombelle
71D. E. Woolley.—Mr. D. E. Woolley, who established and published the Philadelphia "Musical Journal," and afterward founded the Philadelphia "Music and Drama," has withdrawn from music journalism and taken the business management and city editorship of the Atlantic City "Daily Union." Mr. Woolley was also for a number of years connected with the music house of F. A. North & Co., 1308 Chestnut street, Philadelphia.
73Mr. E. M. Bowman at Vassar.—Mr. E. M. Bowman's department of music at Vassar College covered itself with glory at the recent examinations there. The Poughkeepsie "Daily Eagle" had this to say about the matter:
75Perhaps no department in the college has made such a marked advance during the past year as the department of music. The college was fortunate in securing the services of Prof. E. M. Bowman, of New York city, a man of wide reputation, great natural ability, the best foreign training and a born teacher. Professor Bowman has brought unbounded energy and enthusiasm to the work and the department now gives promise of being a strong part of the college.
77The Scharwenka Conservatory Excursion.—On Friday morning last some ninety persons connected with the Scharwenka Conservatory of Music as teachers and pupils boarded the steamer Blackbird, of the Starin line, at the foot of East Thirty-second street, and enjoyed a sail and visit to Oakdale Park.
79The weather seemed slightly unfavorable at first, but as the day progressed it cleared up and was as pleasant as could be desired.
81Prof. Emil Gramm was chosen commodore for the occasion and his attention to the wants of all on board made their comfort and enjoyment an assured fact.
83Earnest Neyer's orchestra of the Broadway Theatre furnished the music.
85Both Xaver and Philipp Scharwenka were present and entered heartily into the festivities.
87Mr. Edward Behr and family joined the excursionists at the grove.
89The return was made in the cool of the evening and all expressed much gratification for the very enjoyable day given them.
91Frederick Dean's Lecture.—The next lecture in connection with the Scharwenka Conservatory of Music by Mr. Frederick Dean will be held Saturday morning.
93On this occasion Hungarian or the gypsy music will be discussed.
95A Hungarian band will be in attendance and illustrate from the composers presented.
97Other preparations quite extensive have been made and the lecture promises to be of more than usual interest.
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