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Musical Courier 1892-12-14: Vol 25 Iss 667, 1892
68 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026. Printed page 9. See the scan on archive.org.
1Major J. B. Pond, the United States; L. M. Ruben, the earth, and Henry Wolfsohn, the universe."
3Mrs. Mary Knight Wood, the gifted composer, and Miss Jennie Dutton, the popular soprano, will sail on the steamer Ems on January 3 for Alexandria, Egypt, together with six unmusical friends. They will do Egypt thoroughly. Miss Dutton will sing in the sepulchre of the Cheops, and Mrs. Wood will gather inspiration for a composition while sitting on the Sphinx's head. A jolly journey to them!
5Prof. Charles R. Morse (no relation to R. E. Morse) is giving an interesting series of Saturday afternoon organ recitals at Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, on the reconstructed Emma Abbot organ. Next Saturday he will be assisted by Miss Lillie Komppf, one of New York's best known and most liked sopranos, who will sing Homer Bartlett's "Come unto Me" and "These are They," from Gaul's "Holy City."
7I shall long have many pleasant memories of the opening of the Mendelssohn Glee Club's new house beautiful. The members had a jovial "stag" on Saturday night, December 3, to which a few outsiders were bidden. Among the latter were Dr. Gerrit Smith, Horatio W. Parker, Purdon Robinson, Rudolph Allen, Emilio Agramonte, H. H. Sawyer, Frank Damrosch, Hiram U. King, George G. Rockwood and George W. Herbert. The building was inspected from garret to cellar—mostly the cellar, where a keg was on tap, cigars were plentiful, and because of the sandwiches there. Modest "Joe Mo" beat time, while the club sang a few numbers, and the new organ was tested by Dr. Smith and Messrs. Parker and Hawley. The wee sma' hours of Sunday morning found a chosen few in the rehearsal rooms below the concert hall, where each was obliged to "do a turn." Songs were sung by S. Fischer Miller, Frank Powers, Ben Prince, Tom Marson, Percy Hall, Brewer, Hawley, Fred Stokes, George Sherman and others, and Mr. Rudolph Allen whistled exquisitely. The gem of the club's numbers on the following Monday and Tuesday evenings, at the first private rehearsal and concert, was Mosenthal's magnificent setting of Bryant's "Thanatopsis;" and no one who heard it will soon forget its beauty, power and grandeur. The "Serenade," op. 135, of Schubert was next in point of charm, and was daintily sung by Mrs. Carl Alves and the club. Francis Fischer Powers' solos on Monday evening were warmly received, and Mrs. Alves threw her heart and soul into her numbers. Samuel P. Warren christened the organ; but the latter was not in perfect condition, and the effect was accordingly somewhat marred. There are several new active members (lucky fellows!), the list now numbering fifty-five names, "all of them desirable young men."
9Mrs. W. Hunter Brown bears the enviable reputation of being the best pianist of Jersey City Heights. She is a pupil of Scharwenka and a conscientious, wholesouled, energetic musician. Her accompaniments to songs are uncommonly precise and subdued. Mrs. Brown has an intellectual face, a graceful carriage and rare conversational powers.
11Another excellent young pianist is W. Ward Stephens, whose studio is at 25 East Twenty-first street. Mr. Stephens is also organist and choirmaster of the Church of the Redeemer (Episcopal), Morristown, N. J., where he has a fine quartet consisting of Miss Jeannette McClanahan, Miss Elsie Müller, Fred W. Elliott and Charles H. Clarendon. Miss McClanahan has a fresh, young soprano voice, well trained by Mrs. Ashforth. Miss Elsie Müller is a promising pupil of Frederic E. Bristol, and a sister of the new contralto at the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church. Her voice is rich and she sings a solo very artistically. Both ladies are fair to look upon. The former is a willowy brunette, the latter a comely blonde. Mr. Elliott was, until recently, at the Madison Avenue M. E. Church, and has one of the purest tenor voices in this country. He is a pupil of Charles Herbert Clarke. Mr. Clarendon is the first bass of the Hatton Male Quartet, and possesses a well modulated baritone voice. Thomas Dabney, formerly of St. Thomas' Church choir, has stepped into Mr. Elliott's shoes at Madison avenue and Sixtieth street. Mr. Dabney is also under engagement at Daly's Theatre and sung recently in "As You Like It." Miss McClanahan will appear in Germantown, Pa., to-morrow evening, when she will sing Hiller's "Im Maien" and De Koven's "Persian Love Song."
13Dr. Carl Dufft sang last Wednesday evening with the Bloomfield (N. J.) Choral Union, and was greatly liked. C. Wenham Smith is the talented conductor of the organization.
15Charles A. Rice, tenor of the Central Presbyterian Church, and first tenor of the Schumann Male Quartet, has been engaged for the "Messiah" at Stamford, Conn., December 27.
17Harry Pepper is out with a neat little pamphlet on the "Placing and Production of the Voice in Speaking," which contains plenty of common sense about the diaphragm and abdominal muscles. Here is a sample sentence: "I firmly believe that many a case of consumption is produced by the utter disregard of the great force pump lying dormant in the diaphragm and abdominal muscles." Harry is a hustler and a good advertiser, and deserves every bit of his success.
19I see that the piano workers have decided to form a national union for the purpose of keeping up their wages. Well and good. Now why don't the piano players, the professional artists, combine in like manner? Goodness knows there are enough of them to make such a federation formidable. Their universal cry is that they cannot get engagements, and that when they do play in public it is to oblige some friend or to help some charitable object. Their condition is indeed pitiable.
21Albert D. Hubbard's little monthly "At Home and Abroad," is a neat, enterprising paper, and always contains several pages of choice music. It appears to have come to stay, as it is now about a year old, and Mr. Hubbard has our best wishes for its prosperity.
23The December number of "The Violin World," its fourth issue, is bright, crisp and readable. It contains an excellent likeness of Adolph Brodsky, with a sketch of his career by Mr. Krehbiel; also some interesting articles and reviews of New York concerts.
25Messrs. Ferdinand and Hermann Carri will give their first of four evenings of chamber music to-morrow at Mason & Hamlin's. The other dates will be January 19, February 23 and March 23. They will be assisted to-morrow evening by Sumner Salter, at the organ; Carl Schoner, viola, and Ernst Oehlhey, 'cello.
27The Chandler-Hamlin recital at Chickering Hall last Wednesday evening was an agreeable occasion, and the violin work of Miss Chandler, the singing of Miss Hamlin and the piano playing of Miss Soudarska were thoroughly commended by the good sized audience present. The affair was well managed by our friend, Freddy Frobisher, formerly the right bower of William R. Chapman, but no longer to be found in the same pack with him.
29On Tuesday afternoon of last week Mrs. C. M. Raymond, once America's best known contralto, gave a delightful musical at her home, The Berkeley, 20 Fifth avenue. Miss Geraldine Morgan captivated all present with her exquisite violin playing, accompanied on the piano by Louis R. Dressler. Mr. Heinrich, the blind tenor from Boston, sung Schubert's "Erl King" and other German as well as Italian songs, playing his own accompaniment with remarkable facility and beauty.
31The Gounod Quartet, Miss Hilke, Mrs. Sawyer and Messrs. Henderson and Dempsey, with William C. Carl as director, will give a concert to-morrow evening at Hardman Hall.
33Horatio W. Parker, organist and choirmaster of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Madison avenue and Forty-second street, gave an excellent organ recital last Saturday afternoon, assisted by David Williams. Mr. Parker, who is one of our very best organists, as well as a composer of rare gifts, played Mendelssohn's sonata in F minor, op. 65; the adagio and finale from Widow's second symphony, and a romanza, fughetta and wedding song of his own. Horatio is perfectly at home when he writes music, and he is going to be hard to beat in this line before very long. His next recital will be on January 14.
35The Manuscript Society's private meetings are always enjoyable, and the one on Tuesday evening of last week was no exception to this axiomatic asseveration. Ad. M. Foerster, of Pittsburg, Pa., held the lead with a dainty string quartet in B flat major in three movements, skillfully interpreted by Carl Venth, Frank Porto, Herman Krasel and F. Opid. Mrs. Vanderveer Green, a stately, majestic, beautiful woman with a phenomenal contralto voice, gave a delicious rendering of three pretty songs by Victor Harris. Frederick Brandeis and Gustav Becker played on the piano the first movement of a suite for strings by Mr. Brandeis, which was repeated by special request. The suite is in four movements, but the "Divertimento" alone was heard. Wenzel A. Raboch, who was down for two piano solos of his own composition, failed to put in an appearance, much to the disappointment of a critical but indulgent audience. Last of all, and least in importance, came a bass solo and a sacred quartet for mixed voices. The song, if it be worthy of the appellation, was entitled "The Dream of a Word," and what there was of it worth singing was well sung by our old friend, John D. Shaw. The quartet was a setting of the Lord's Prayer, and its atrocious faults were partially concealed by the superb voices of three of the singers, Mrs. Elizabeth Northrop, Miss Elizabeth Boyer and Mr. Shaw. The other singer (?) and the originator of these two flagitious freaks of cacophony was
37ADDISON F. ANDREWS.
39A New Opera for the Casino.—Mr. Rudolph Aronson has just received from Messrs. Choudens Sons, Paris, the manuscript libretto and score of Varney's latest operetta, "Le Brilliant Achille," now running at the Theatre de la Renaissance, with Theo in the leading rôle.
41They Are Coming Here.—A new comic opera by Carl Weinberger, entitled "Die Uhlanen" ("The Lancers"), has just been produced with great success in Hamburg by the Frenczy Opera Company. This organization will be here in a few weeks.
43Organ Loft Whisperings.
45We can never make our valuable work adequately impressive until we have a choirmasters' association to lead us to unity.
47OUTSIDE the walls—a twilight sky like the breast of a turtle dove, the palette for silhouette of distant tree line, like the shadow of Grief upon the heart of Youth; distant spires like fingers of Hope, craggy walls and boulders like crouched monsters, castle-like buildings studded with varicolored lights like precious stones; the swinging crane of a new structure, weary and desolate at close of a day's labor without prospect for the next; two long lines of brown fronted houses, like their occupants, masks for the internal working; the street between an eddying rushing current, a torrent of jarring sound and rude clamor desecrating the garden of peace; noise clouding thought, the jangle of crossing street cars, the scraping of the feet of belabored horses over cruel cobblestones, hoarse cries and blurred retorts screaming back and forth their angry nothings; wrecks of humanity like water soaked driftwood floating by, happy people jostling thoughtlessly, and little children like dancing bubbles, all selfishly and noisily surging along.
49Within, the heart of the dove. So gentle, so sweet, so still one can hear the turn of the leaf under the organist's slender fingers, the muffled shove of the sexton's cautious step through the thick carpet, the click of a bracelet against its fellow upon my lady's gloved wrist, the faint "s—s—s—" of fan concealed whispers, carpets rich and thick as those of a drawing room, pews paneled and gilded, arching domes and rich windows bathed in soft light, a chancel draped in sunset color, with dainty, floating clouds of decoration; the sacred furniture, the assemblage of refined, well dressed people, the ineffable peace and quiet—within the walls.
51As one might imagine the music of the spheres when the first sun sunk to rest, dreamy strains of music rise through the warm coloring and the stillness, and floating over the chancel rail steal about the place like ministering angels, touching, soothing, blessing the souls assembled.
53The place was the Episcopal Church of St. James, Madison avenue and Seventy-first street; the occasion, one of the regular recitals following the regular Friday service; the organist, Mr. Alfred Stubbs Baker; the music, the overture to "Tristan;" the chorus from Rubinstein's "Tower of Babel," and the overture to Franchetti's "Azrael."
55The music was not like "pieces," "selections," "compositions." It was as though the interior of the beautiful building were being draped in sacred tone color. So rich it was, so sweet, so varied, so full of changing emotion and subtlest feeling, one lost all sight of the means by which it was produced, and only thought of—well, each according to temperament.
57With tall, young, graceful, surplice clad figure; slender, well bred face; clear cut features, large white brow, curling hair and large, dark sensitive eyes, filled with the enthusiasm of the music he had been interpreting, Mr. Baker looked every inch the typical young composer or musical artist of the Mozart period, and his conversation, apt, cultured, unaffected, deeply, earnestly musical, did not destroy the illusion.
59Mr. Baker is one of the youngest and, I believe, the best paid organist in New York city. Moreover, he has had the marked distinction paid him of being voluntarily approached by his committee with request for estimate of whatever he might consider essential to the success of his musical work. He promptly raised the number of members to forty-five men and boys—five tenors, six counter tenors or altos. One of his hobbies is an efficient alto force, saying, wisely, that weakness in this direction is one of the prevailing faults of boy choirs. He hopes still further to increase the number in his choir.
61Mr. Frank H. Lake, who has been a member of Trinity Chapel and Morristown choirs, has one of the most exquisite alto voices in the country—smooth, rich and of indescribable quality. Mr. Frank H. Potter, son of Bishop Potter, a natural and cultured musician, is tenor soloist, and Mr. Wilford Walters is basso. All are thorough and efficient workers.
63Masters Rhodius, Stout, Herman, Schutzinger, Beach, Worm and Metz are promising and talented choristers. The boys are chosen from the East Side public schools. A naturally good voice is a necessity for admission. Those who have had the pleasure of hearing the "Tower of Babel" recently given by Mr. Damrosch at Music Hall may judge of the result of tone training under Mr. Baker, as "The Angel Chorus" of that composition was sung by fifteen of his boys. This is the place to tell that they were highly complimented by Mr. Damrosch.
65Upon the day of the recital suggested above Mr. Baker had had rehearsal of his boys at Music Hall in the morning, service followed by recital in the afternoon, and choir rehearsal in the evening. And yet people will say, "Oh my, yes! A delightfully easy time the choirmaster's; play a little Sunday morning and Sunday evening!"
67Twenty minutes of each rehearsal are devoted to vocal culture. In common with all other intelligent choirmasters, Mr. Baker would gladly shift this drudgery upon the shoulders of a schoolmaster whose sole business was tone
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