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Musical Courier 1892-08-03: Vol 25 Iss 649, 1892
88 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 10. See the scan on archive.org.
1hoping to doze sweetly, when, hark! one after another, there sounded the steam whistles of the machine works and factories in the neighboring city. Inanimate though they are, they, too, had it, the soulful swelling sound, and I rolled over and over on my couch like "a sausage in a frying pan" (classical quotation from Homer; not, however, a German or Bologna, but a Greek sausage, the sufferer Odysseus), and I groaned and I moaned: "Alas, that I cannot produce that on my upright!"
3Let us be serious!
5Observe the genuine, in some instances irrepressible (audible in the concert room), admiration for the best American pianos by foreign artists who visit us. There is not a vocal effect which cannot in an ideal and artistic manner be produced by a clever pianist on our best pianos, except the one of which Dr. Tudor makes the most—the swelling of a single tone. It is thinkable and quite feasible that a contrivance for swelling the single tones on the piano within the ordinary range of the human voice (say from bass F below the first line of the staff to treble C above the staff) could be invented. But it is not desirable. Any two realistic imitations of that kind cease to be artistic and to serve the purposes of high art; there is that difference between wax work and sculpture.
7I remember now an old "klavier" as high as a cabinet organ with pedal contrivances and appendix of cymbals, bells and drum, standing in an inn on the banks of the Rhine, whither people went for picnics, when I was a very young boy—I am an old boy now, forty-six—about 1852.
9The aesthetic value of both vocal and orchestral effects on the piano consists more in their combination and in their suggestive, imaginative, ideal equality—to which is added a peculiar beauty all its own—than in their reality.
11Then there are two other vocal effects, in which the piano is perhaps somewhat deficient, though Dr. Tudor does not mention them, as probably with him less "soulful;" they are the portamento and tremolo. I do not allude to the touch improperly called portamento, which would better be termed non-legato and demi-legato, but I mean the carrying of the voice from one end of an interval to the other over the intermediate notes; it can be done on the piano only to a very limited extent; but there is the glissando, which is utterly impossible for the voice. (With proper technique we produce glissando easily, simple, in thirds, sixths and octaves).
13Moreover, it is claimed by some pianists (Teresa Carreño tries it) that a single tone can be increased on the piano by raising the wrist on it with a lever to the motion from the elbow, pressing it out, so to say, and superadding the tri-chord pedal after it has been struck; a single tone certainly decreases by the law of vibration, and by the very gradual lifting up of the foot from the pedal or superadding the una-chord pedal. A sort of "shimmering," tremolo-like vibration of tone has been heard from the magic fingers of some pianists. Be this as it may, the swelling of a single tone, the portamento, the tremolo, all three ought to be of very rare occurrence in good singing, and all three are not in themselves and necessarily reflex of soul emotion, but rather, especially the swelling, imitations of sounds in nature, such as the wind, the water, &c.
15Apart from these effects the piano is equal in others and has advantages in some over the voice. It has all four voices with their pitch, timbre and exceeding the compass of each bass, tenor, alto and soprano; and that not only solo each, but it can combine them in duets, trios, quartets, and can even suggest a whole chorus like in some of Liszt's and Chopin's pieces. (Pardon me, Dr. Pudor, for using the odious word "piece," I meant "tone poems.") The piano can shade infinitely better than the most cultured, trained voice, exhausting its resources; it can sustain a pianissimo longer and finer, a fortissimo more powerfully; make an "attack" more bravely and vigorously. The piano touch has the additional aid of three pedals, breaths in themselves. In legato the voice can be equaled (though it is sadly missing among our American pianists; shall I ever hear such perfect legato playing as my teacher's, Ferd. Hiller?); in staccato the piano surpasses; the slurring vocal effect, as if of breath misgiving, failing, fainting, no trained voice can produce more refined and purer than the piano touch by gliding with the finger over the length of the key, and while gliding still holding it and, gradually and simultaneously with the pedal, withdrawing the finger; with most voices it is a gasp.
17(To be continued.)
19(Incorporated May 1, 1891.)
21NEW YORK VOCAL INSTITUTE.
23FRANK HERBERT TUBBS, Musical Director.
2597 Fifth Avenue, New York City.
27COMPLETE EDUCATION IN VOCAL MUSIC.
29Singers naturally prefer study where Voice Culture and Singing receive chief attention. All the teachers use the same method. Homes selected for pupils. Circulars sent on request.
31NEW YORK VOCAL INSTITUTE, 97 Fifth Avenue.
33HOME NEWS.
35Fannie Hirsch.—Miss Fannie Hirsch has been singing very successfully at Richfield Springs and Saratoga. She returns to New York August 12.
37Damrosch Items.—An army of workmen is employed at Carnegie Music Hall making extensive alterations and additions to that temple of music.
39Mrs. William C. Whitney is arranging for a series of musicales, to take place at her Newport cottage during August. The Brodsky String Quartet has been invited to furnish the program for the first musicale.
41Washington will have an elegant music hall, now nearly erected, and to be dedicated in the early part of November by Walter Damrosch and the Symphony Orchestra of New York. The concert on this occasion will be the first of a series of six choral and symphony concerts, given at intervals of a month each and with the co-operation of the Choral Society of that city. The first, third and fifth will be symphony concerts, and the "Messiah," "Elijah" and the "Damnation of Faust" will be given in the order named.
43William W. Covell.—William W. Covell, a bass singer of New Jersey and president of the noted Owl Club, of Elizabeth, died on Friday night at his home in Trinity place. Mr. Covell was thirty-two years old, and for some years was bass soloist in St. John's Episcopal Church, Elizabeth. For the last nine years he had been soloist of the Dutch Reformed Church, Jersey City. He belonged to the Madrigal and Orpheus singing societies, the Glee and Madrigal Society, of Elizabeth, and was a member of the well-known Apollo Quartet, of Newark.
45The Eastern Normal Music School.—The Eastern Normal Music School, which has been in session at Rockland College in Nyack for three weeks, closed on Thursday night last. The graduates were: Mrs. Helen Bacon, A. Lillian Byington, Mrs. A. J. Probst, Mrs. L. D. Cushman, E. D. Chamberlin, Emma R. Chapin, E. C. Dearing, M. S. Doty, S. C. Edgar, M. W. Flanagan, E. A. Gowan, E. A. Grimm, A. H. Jackson, L. C. Macnee, L. M. Maynard, Lizzie S. Pratt, E. E. Randall, Elizabeth Stiles, W. J. Titcomb, Harriette Tucker, Vinia A. Weeks and W. N. Waters. F. D. Beattys, the secretary, said that sixteen States were represented by the members of the school: New York, 46; Massachusetts, 24; New Jersey, 7; Pennsylvania, 6; Rhode Island, 5; Connecticut, 3; Vermont, 3; New Hampshire, 3; Illinois, 3; Michigan, Maine, Kansas, Wisconsin, Indiana and Washington one each, making a total of 108.
47A Music Critic Dead.—Willard Oscar Carpenter, the veteran newspaper man and musical critic, died last night in Troy of a complication of diseases, originating from the grip a year ago. He was about sixty years old, and had been employed as a writer on the Troy "Budget" and Troy "Times" for the past thirty years.
49Musicians Object.—State Senator Owen Miller, in his capacity as an executive officer of the Fourth District National League of Musicians, last week sent the following emphatic protest to Secretary of War Elkins against the employment of soldier musicians who come into competition with civilians who follow the same avocation. The gist of Mr. Miller's protest is to the effect that the musician is a laborer in the strictest sense of the word, as well as a professional man. The letter was as follows:
51St. Louis, Mo., July 25.—Hon. Steven B. Elkins, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.: Dear Sir—As the executive officer of the Fourth District National League of Musicians I hereby enter my protest against the employment of musicians in the service of the United States Government for the Knights Templar Conclave to be held in Denver, Col., in August, 1892.
53I do this upon the same ground that I would object to the Government detailing its soldiers to take the place of the locked out workmen at Homestead, Pa. We are laborers in the field of music, and the only reason soldiers are permitted to take our places is because our terms are not satisfactory to the employers in our line of labor. It is not a part of the function of the Government to interfere in disputes between citizens, except when necessary to protect life or property, and neither is in danger in this instance. As an American citizen, speaking for American citizens, I demand that this parody of the Government allowing its non-taxpaying, non-citizen soldiers to compete with its paying citizens be done away with. There is no excuse for it, as there are 60,000 professional musicians in this country who are ready to furnish all the musical labor necessary, and there can be no necessity for calling upon the few hundred musicians voluntarily leaving civil life to become soldiers to have the advantage of being fully pro-vided for by the Government, and then be allowed to compete with the citizen, who has no bonus of $18 per month and everything found.
55With the belief that you and the party you represent are honest in the assertion that you wish to protect labor against unfair competition, I have the honor to remain, very respectfully, OWEN MILLER.
57Executive Fourth District National League of Musicians.
59New York Vocal Institute.—Mr. Tubbs closed his summer session of the institute last Saturday. It was held this year at Stamford, Conn., and has been thoroughly successful and very interesting. The other branches of the institute, which are under the charge of assistant teachers at Allentown, Pa., and Middletown, N. Y., are still in progress and each has a large number of students. The peculiar way of conducting business at the institute appears to please people, and expressions of praise for the institute work come from all.
61Mr. and Mrs. Tubbs are now in the Catskills, and after two weeks there go to the White Mountains to remain till the opening of the autumn term of the institute on September 19.
63Discharging Receiver.—An order was entered last Thursday morning discharging the Continental Trust Company as receiver of the American Opera Company. The assets, consisting of unpaid stock subscriptions collected, were distributed among judgment creditors of the defunct enterprise.
65Bohlmann's Success.—Chicago, July 15.—"The concert in the armory last evening introduced to the Chicago people Theodore Bohlmann, a pianist who for the last eighteen months has been a teacher in the Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, but who came before his audience last night virtually unknown to every person present. Although heard under conditions most unfavorable for piano music, in a hall whose size and form render ineffective all save the broadest shading in the playing, and cause to be entirely lost all of those delicate touches and nuances which prove the artist, Mr. Bohlmann, nevertheless, satisfied his hearers and surprised them by his finished technique and by what seemed to be, so far as such qualities may be judged under the conditions existent, his broad musicianship and high artistic nature. His playing of the Rubinstein D minor concerto compelled instant recognition for its virility and power, and awakened a desire to hear the artist in a suitable hall and under conditions that enable a better estimate of his abilities."—Chicago "Tribune."
67Charles Legér Returns.—Charles Legér, whose interesting letters to THE MUSICAL COURIER from Vienna may be remembered, has just returned to the city. While in Vienna Mr. Legér studied violin and composition with Klein at the conservatory, and will both teach and play during the coming season. His address is 155 East 106th street.
69Epsteins in the Catskills.—The Messrs. Epstein brothers, of the Beethoven Conservatory of Music, St. Louis, are spending this week in the Catskills, at the Hotel Kaaterskill.
71FOREIGN NOTES.
73A Violin Virtuoso of Tender Years.—Bronislaw Huberman, an eight year old violinist, about whom Joachim declared that he had never met such precocity, played in Carlsbad recently with tremendous success. This was the trying program: Spohr's second concerto, D minor; Mendelssohn's capriccio, op. 5; Vieuxtemps' balade and polonaise; Paganini's "Witches' Dances" and numerous encores.
75"Haste to the Wedding."—London, July 27.—Gilbert and Grossmith's new musical comedy, "Haste to the Wedding," met with a diversified reception on its initial performance at the Criterion Theatre to-night.
77The critics declare that the piece is not destined for a long run.
79The play contains several catchy airs, but the music is not of the best. The book is far below Gilbert's usual productions.
81Mascagni in Moscow.—Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" is still reaping the advantage of being the last thing talked about in the musical world. After being heard in Italian, German, French and English it was performed in Russian at Moscow recently, under the direction of Peter Schostakowski, the principal of the Moscow Philharmonic School.
83A Warning to American Students Abroad.—London, July 29.—John James Gardiner, indicted for having conspired with Louis Leon Goldstein, alias Roberts, to defraud and assault a number of girls, was sentenced to-day to six months' imprisonment. Gardiner and Goldstein, as exposed by "Truth," advertised under a fictitious name for pupils for the stage. On receiving applications the men would require tuition fees in advance, give would-be actresses a few lessons in singing and then try to assault them.
85Festivities at Pesaro.—The Rossini festivities in progress at Pesaro this month consist, among other things, of the dedication of the Musical Lyceum and the opening of the Rossini Museum. Pedrotti conducts the concerts.
87Angermann Gone.—Many visitors to Bayreuth this summer will miss with great regret the famous old resort in that town known as "Angermann's." Last winter the building was condemned by the Government for post office uses, and it has now been pulled down. Angermann's was a little restaurant and "Bierwirtschaft" in a side street, near the principal square of the town. Wagner himself passed many hours there, and ever since the festivals were instituted, in 1876, it has been a favorite meeting place of the singers and musicians after the performances, all, from the conductors and leading artists down to the humblest orchestral player and chorus singer, coming together on equal terms of good fellowship and German "Gemuthlichkeit." It was sometimes difficult to get a good supper
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