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Musical Courier 1892-09-07: Vol 25 Iss 654, 1892
101 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 9. See the scan on archive.org.
1Katzenmayer in a touching speech of thanks wound up with a "Hoch" for the Emperor and Vienna, which was responded to with a will.
3After the Männergesangverein came the Schubertbund with an immense laurel wreath and a fine speech by Secretary Fetzmann, to which again Katzenmayer replied most happily. Gutmann, of the exhibition commission, tendered another wreath and yet another one was brought on the stage by Director Hoefft in the name and as representative of the Princess von Metternich. Our president received it with the words: "Will you kindly tell the princess in our behalf that we beg to thank her first of all for the great honor and distinction which was shown to the Arion by the invitation to participate in this exposition, and to add to it the assurance that we German Americans have every reason to regard our sojourn in the Kaiserstadt on the Danube as the most brilliant portion of our trip.
5"Like all the world we pay to Her Highness the tribute of unreserved admiration for her unselfish activity and the unflagging zeal by which this brilliant, incomparable art exposition was brought into being.
7"Like representatives of art in every quarter of the globe we see in the most gracious princess, the originator and protector of our international enterprise, which is calculated to exercise a wholesome influence not only on the art which is in its whole essence cosmopolitan, but in the social and other relations of nations, which will draw the nations closer together, and make them more accessible to the ennobling idea of universal brotherhood.
9"Slight as may be the claim that German-Americans can put forward of having contributed to the success of this exposition, all the greater and more sincere is our appreciation of the distinction which was conferred upon us by being requested to take part therein.
11"The days that we have passed in the Kaiserstadt will remain forever unforgotten, and what we have seen and heard here, especially the kindness and goodness that we have experienced, the heartiness of our welcome in every quarter, the hospitality which has been tendered us at every turn, all will compel us to look back with gratitude upon the first visit of German-American singers to the beloved and never to be forgotten land from which they sprang.
13"Permit me, in the name of the Arion, to thank Her Highness from our heart of hearts."
15A lady present then flung upon the concert platform still another wreath on behalf of the ladies of Vienna, to which ovation Mr. Katzenmayer promptly replied with the unanswerable exclamation: "What would Vienna be without the Viennese ladies?"
17I must not forget to mention that the soloists likewise came in for their well earned share of applause. Rummel played the Liszt E flat concerto most brilliantly and was four times recalled, while Miss Powell created a perfect furore with the Bruch G minor concerto, the Chopin nocturne in E flat and the Sauret "Farfalla." She was overwhelmed with applause and had to submit to an encore, for which she chose that grand old musical thought the Bach air on the G string. All the Vienna papers are unanimous in declaring her the greatest living lady violinist.
19After the concert a magnificent spectacle was offered in the burning of fireworks, in which the American flag played a great part, but which was slightly dimmed by intermittent, though not drenching, rain showers.
21O. F.
23Miss Fay Expostulates.
25NEWPORT, August 26.
27MR. W. S. B. MATTHEWS, in the August number of "Music," in speaking of Miss Gaul's playing at the M. T. N. A. meeting in Cleveland, gives us the following: "I have elsewhere mentioned the charming playing of Miss Celia Gaul, whose beautiful tone particularly interested me. The best of it was that she gained her triumphs in compositions not generally regarded as offering an artist an opportunity. Beethoven's thirty-two variations on the Diabelli waltz (I) are always interesting to the musical hearer, but the variations are rather out of fashion nowadays, and it is only a few artists who care to bring them forward."
29Miss Gaul's Christian name is Cecilia, not Celia, and she played for her first number Beethoven's thirty-two variations in C minor, a magnificent and oft played concert composition. From the Matthews article one is tempted to ask if it were possible that he indulges still in his old trick of criticising concerts he has not heard. It is difficult to believe that the distinguished editor of "Music" could mistake the well-known C minor variations with their grand and possible theme for those on the Diabelli waltz. As far as Miss Gaul's playing is concerned, I can vouch for the correctness of his judgment, having been at the concert myself. It was most artistic, finished and musical, and her "tone" would certainly have interested Mr. Matthews had he heard it, although she did not play the Diabelli waltz.
31AMY FAY.
33HERMANN WETZLER,
34Graduate DR. HOCH'S CONSERVATORIUM,
35Frankfort-on-Main. Pupil Mme. Clara Schumann.
36Piano, Composition, Theory, Organ, Violin.
37Address care of THE MUSICAL COURIER.
39Organ Loft Whisperings.
41OUR ORGANS.
43"MASSACHUSETTS, December 8, 1797.
45TO the lovers of harmony in churches: Dr. Flagg, a surgeon-dentist, intending to embark for Europe in the ship Hancock, if a sufficient number of purchasers offer, intends to contract in Europe for a number of Organs calculated to play all tunes usually sung in places of worship, with interludes to each psalm, without the assistance of an organist. Their prices will be various, supposed from £60 to £200. No money to be paid until the instruments are delivered. Small commission."
47From which it may be seen that the musical Yankee early learned to combine "dollars" with "notes," and to unite the "pleasures" of musical advancement with the disagreeable "duties" of molar extraction.
49"How much did it cost? How many pipes has it? How many draw stops? What is the size of the case?"
51The organist himself is not more frequently unwisely judged than is the organ. In both the sign is taken for the thing signified, visible and aggressive qualities are accepted as tests, and the spirit wholly lost sight of in the mention of grandiloquent environment.
53The response of this king of instruments to its particular demands of place and character, its artistic relation to the requirements of the composer, its power as a translator of musical thought, its speaking power, its stirring qualities, its proper adjustment to the size of the chamber in which it stands, its answer to the acoustic limitations of that chamber—these subtle conceptions, the real test bases of instrumental perfection—how seldom are they thought upon? How few realize the wealth of material in which each department must be absolutely complete in order to make a symmetrical result, and how small a flaw will produce some one of the varieties of distressing or unimpressive characteristics with which lovers of the instrument are familiar.
55Size and cost are indeed superficial estimates of organ excellence.
57Many imagine, too, that the office of stops and pipes is to produce loudness, whereas their real purpose is to produce a wealth of tone color, with which the artist may weave out or paint his conceptions. No one out of an organ workshop can realize what the "voicing" of even a very small organ costs its builder. Besides this there are the mechanism, connections and facilities for control to be arranged to such nicety that the most indifferent listener must say, "That's nothing; that's as it should be, of course," while the connoisseur bows his head saying, "How like the creation of a human soul!"
59By faulty relations with each other individual stops of great beauty may be made simply hideous. No human organism is more capable of disarrangement of intrinsically beautiful qualities than is the church organ.
61Latter day inventions and improvements have chiefly to do with mechanism. Experiments have about ceased in the line of creating new qualities of stops, the traditional and conventional ones being adhered to. Effort is directed to making these as perfect as possible of their kind and producing new combinations.
63There is no more visible demonstration of the advance from material to spiritual development in human life than in organ building. The aim of modern science seems to be to place a man as close to inspiration, as free from mechanical thought and muscular exertion as possible. All the newest patents have been in the line of reduction in parts of mechanism, thus reducing manual effort and the opportunities for mistake, confusion or complication.
65Organ action is made so light that almost a piano touch is secured in the best makes. By pressing a little knob, as easy as the touching of a vest button, a man can cause fifteen or twenty stops to change position. By pressing the same knob in the same way the same set of stops may be made to move in a totally different way—some that before went in coming out, and vice versa; while others move as they did before, or even remain immovable. Pistons and combination pedals can be adjusted in an instant, either to draw on or throw off any stop or number of stops. By a peculiar placing of these pistons a selected combination may be "set" so that when it is afterward pressed that combination will be drawn, every stop not desired being thrown in at the same time. Moreover, as often as this piston is pressed so often will that particular combination be drawn till another combination is "set" on the piston, which the organist can do while playing as easily as he could brush a fly from his nose.
67Then these pistons are but the guides for pneumatic power, requiring no muscular exertion whatever, and the changes are so distinctly registered in full sight that by a glance the player can tell exactly the tonal condition of the organ. A single lever will draw every stop in the organ at once, another will draw them or throw them off, one by one, as the organist may desire. Swell boxes are arranged to act separately or in combination. A peculiar effect may be produced by opening one while closing the other, or a day of judgment effect may be secured by opening all at once. Wind is furnished by different pressures, and regulating appliances are so profusely introduced that the utmost steadiness can be secured. Air compressors are drawn by electric motors, wound dynamos generate currents and storage batteries are provided for this use. The new systems of combinations also are marvelous, adding great power to man's ability to be artistic.
69To the uninitiated these things savor of the sorcerer's and magician's, not the carpenter's and electrician's, work. What would have been thought of the prophecy of them in the days, not 200 years ago, when men fought over the introduction of "the ungodly tuning fork" into the organ loft, and when in the advanced and perdition seeking congregations the hand organ was turned to grind out the woes of the lost; or later, when the setting up of an organ drew such a crowd of spectators from all about that it was necessary to appoint a committee to keep the people from interfering with the work; or, when the "key organ" with fourteen stops and two banks of keys costing $2,000 and a year's time in the setting up, was described as "having a second set of keys designed to play the swell down to fiddle G." (One feature of this ancient day is now neglected, however, no doubt to the grief of many, namely "the passing around of rum and punch to the workmen in order to aid them in their most curious and wonderful workmanship.")
71The great organ in the Auditorium Building in Chicago contains perhaps the greatest number of the latest marvels in the "art" of organ building. It is next to the largest in the world, and save the faculty of voluntary action and composition nothing is lacking to make of the musical monster a monster genius of music. Happy were it for musical genius were it always so equipped mechanically.
73Electricity, as related to modern organ manipulation, will be considered in my next letter. Then many interesting details as to workshops, workmen, materials used and their preparation, the peculiarities of organ building as related to location and climate, some interesting organs in the city and the extent of exportation from this country, not yet 400 years old, the treatment of organs in our churches (tuning, temperature, &c.), and hints from the organ loft to church architects. FANNIE EDGAR THOMAS.
75Ocean Concert Funds.
77FOR many years the question of the distribution of the proceeds of the concerts given on board the ocean steamers has been one of much criticism. Heretofore the bulk of the money has been donated to foreign institutions.
79Recently such lines as the Inman, White Star and Cunard adopted the rule that all money raised on shipboard should be divided between institutions in both countries. There is one company that still insists that all the money in such cases shall go to a foreign country. That line is the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique.
81On a recent voyage from Havre to this city, when the customary concert on the steamer La Bretagne was announced, Counsellor Edward Lauterbach, of this city, who was a passenger, suggested to Captain Collier that the proceeds should be divided between a French and an American institution. Captain Collier informed Mr. Lauterbach that such a proceeding was impossible, as the by-laws of the company provided that any money raised on shipboard in any way should be given exclusively to one of three French institutions.
83When Mr. Lauterbach further suggested that the American people aboard be allowed to give a separate concert he was told that the music room could not be used for such purposes. The result was that all the Americans aboard the Bretagne did not take any part whatever in it. The next day a meeting was called and a set of resolutions adopted protesting against the rule of the company which prohibited any concert or entertainment on shipboard unless the proceeds are to go to one of the three French institutions.
85A copy of the resolutions has been sent to the company's office in Havre.
87Agent Forget, whose office is in this city, declined this morning to discuss the matter. He expects to be instructed in the matter from Havre in two or three weeks.—"Commercial Advertiser."
89NEW YORK COLLEGE OF MUSIC,
90128 and 130 EAST 58th STREET.
91ALEXANDER LAMBERT, Director.
92Mme. FURSCH-MADI, Principal of Vocal Department.
93ALL BRANCHES OF MUSIC TAUGHT
94Faculty comprises the most eminent instructors.
95NOTICE.—The New York College of Music will remain open during the entire summer.
97New York German Conservatory of Music,
985 & 7 West 42d St. near Fifth Ave., New York.
99L. G. PARMA, Director.
100ALL BRANCHES OF MUSIC TAUGHT FROM BEGINNING TO HIGHEST PERFECTION.
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