Scan 7
Musical Courier 1893-01-04: Vol 26 Iss 670, 1893
131 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 8. See the scan on archive.org.
1the house to do correcting, orchestrating, &c., and this alone proves that the firm of Schubert, during a period of over ten years after the alleged plagiarism, did not hesitate to look upon Mr. Spicker as a thoroughly trustworthy artist. This makes it apparent, to speak mildly, that some other interest caused the sudden depreciation of Mr. Spicker's value.
3Mr. Spicker would not buy his music at Schubert's; hence that firm is to blame for the appearance of the convenient Mr. Tikari and the similarity of the songs. Isn't this all very sad?
5Now the charge that our Mr. Maxwell tried to get an advertisement for THE MUSICAL COURIER is absolutely a lie. Mr. Maxwell never met Mr. Spicker in his life, and is prepared to make an affidavit to that effect; besides, Mr. Spicker utilized the advertising columns of THE MUSICAL COURIER before Mr. Maxwell was connected with it. THE MUSICAL COURIER has not "argued the affair in an unkind manner" at all. We gave Mr. Spicker the benefit of the doubt as long as we consistently could, because we even regarded Mr. Spicker as an excellent musician, and for justice sake we defy anyone to find a single paragraph written in THE MUSICAL COURIER in this matter which smacks aught of malice. One of the functions of a newspaper is to expose fraud, and facts are facts. It is a pity that Mr. Spicker should have intrusted his defense into the hands of a notoriously incompetent person. Better still, if he discontinued the matter and thus let the scandal die out.
7A LAST SHOT.
9PROFESSOR WILLHARTITZ, of Los Angeles, Cal., has been having a lively time of it lately for some of the tables he has printed in THE MUSICAL COURIER. He sends us the following interesting communication about the matter, with another short table, to all of which we willingly give space, for the professor is a delver in strange fields of musical knowledge:
11The last sentence of my contribution headed "A Chip from a Californian's Workshop," which appeared in THE MUSICAL COURIER of October 26, has called forth quite a fusel-laid of corrections, inquiries, innuendoes and what not from vocalists, voice builders (?), brass band leaders, flute and violin teachers, organists, piano teachers, auditors of life insurance companies and secretaries of benevolent insurance bodies.
13During these seven weeks of siege I was fortified behind the breastworks of a Presidential election, in which I took a very lively part. Between an active season as an instructor in music, preparing and delivering lectures on musical and educational subjects, rehearsing and directing an operatic concert of some magnitude, little time was left to prepare a sortie from behind my fortification walls to dislodge the enemy; but the onslaught came and it became necessary for me to rush out of my stronghold and face the—music.
15The shots fired at me were of various kinds and of different calibre. There was the blunt, wooden arrow from a girl student of singing; the minie ball of another future artist of the other sex; the canister shot of the brass band master, whose vocabulary was in keeping with his spelling and decency; a bombshell from a piano player, who took me for an instrument maker in place of an instrument breaker; the solid shot from a violin teacher, who advised me to mind my own business in preference to hurting him in his calling, by my remark on the short life of the string players; and the final shot fired from an Armstrong of an organist, because I did not mention the king of instruments.
17While I would not object to keep up in this warlike strain, the piping period of peace also makes its demands, and I will try to be as piece-able as possible in the following statistical and therefore dry work.
19The number of the several main branches of musical vocation is seventy-six, which number I have generalized into eleven sections, placing them alphabetically.
21Instrument Makers—67 Years 11 Months 23 Days.
22Brass makers, Bell founders, Bow makers,
23Harp makers, Lute makers, Organ builders,
24Piano makers, Violin makers, Wind instrument makers.
26Teachers—66 Years.
27Instrumental teachers, Vocal teachers.
29Writers—65 Years 10 Months 6 Days.
30Acousticians, Counterpointists, Critics,
31Historians, Librettists, Theorists,
32Translators, Writers on music.
34Miscellaneous—63 Years 8 Months 7 Days.
35Bandmasters, Inventors of instruments,
36Bell ringers, Jews' harpists,
37Collectors of musical instruments, Music type founders,
38Conductors, Operatic managers,
39Drummers, Printers of music,
40Engravers, Publishers of music,
41Glass harmonicists, Whistlers,
42Harmonicists, Xylophonists.
44Vocalists—61 Years 7 Months 6 Days.
45Altists, Bards, Baritones,
46Bassos, Buffos, Contraltos,
47Meistersaenger, Minnesaenger, Sopranists,
48Sopranos, Tenors, Troubadors.
50Wood Wind Instrumentalists—61 Years 4 Months.
51Bassoonists, Clarinetists, Flageoletists,
52Flutists, Musette players, Oboeists.
54Metal Wind Instrumentalists—60 Years 10 Months 21 Days.
55Cornetists, Horn players, Ophicleidists,
56Serpent players, Trombonists, Trumpetists,
57Tuba players.
59Composers—58 Years 7 Months 15 Days.
60Organists—57 Years 6 Months.
61Pianists—56 Years 7 Months 6 Days.
62String Players—52 Years 18 Days. one of two readings
63String Players—52 Years and 18 Days. one of two readings
64Celloists, Cythern players, Double bass,
65Gambists, Guitar players, Harpsits,
66Lutists, Mandolinists, Viele players,
67Viola players, Violinists, Theorbe players,
68Zither players.
70Recapitulation.
711. Instrument makers, 67 years 11 months 23 days.
722. Teachers, 66 years.
733. Writers, 65 years 10 months 6 days.
744. Miscellaneous, 63 years 8 months 7 days.
755. Vocalists, 61 years 7 months 6 days.
766. Wood Wind, 61 years 4 months.
777. Metal Wind, 60 years 10 months 21 days.
788. Composers, 58 years 7 months 15 days.
799. Organists, 57 years 6 months.
8010. Pianists, 56 years 7 months 6 days.
8111. String players 52 years 18 days.
83It may be seen from the above that the longevity of the mechanics in the musical fraternity is the greatest, and that for two good reasons: first, the physical exercise the mechanic gets in his vocation tends to lengthen life; and there being no short lived prodigies in that branch, and there not being many females employed, the average, of course, increases.
85Teachers and writers live longer than their confrères for the reason that many of the more phlegmatic musicians take up teaching and philosophizing as their ultimate vocation; they are less excited than is the musician who comes direct before the people, instead of preparing in obscurity their work. Another good reason for long life in teachers is the association with the young, which tends to lengthen life, as has been sufficiently exemplified and proven by the longevity of the regular school teachers.
87Of vocalists, who stand in the fifth grade, much must be deducted from the general average. Thus none but those of robust health is taken by good and honest vocal teachers to prepare for the concert or operatic stage (of others the above list shows no record). Again, there are but few, even among male singers, who follow that calling for more than thirty years, i.e., from their first initiation to their final withdrawal from or change of their profession. Of vocalists the sopranists and altists live longest, sopranos next, and tenors next. Bassos live the shortest time. (I hope this statement won't induce any of your bass readers to change into sopranists or altists for the sake of longevity!)
89The wood and metal wind instrumentalists may be given the first place among executing musicians, although they hold the sixth and seventh grade respectively in the above list. Most of these musicians begin to play when quite young, and keep up their work while on this terrestrial globe; for all I know they may in the hereafter become assistants of the heavenly choir or tooters of the angelic bands. To correct a deep rooted but wrong impression most people have, that the reed shortens life, it is proven that the oboe and clarinet players attain to a greater age on an average than does the flute or flageolet player. Of brass instruments record is had of but the best orchestra players, and of those the players of the French horn predominate. In spite of this being the most particular and hardest instrument of that family the votaries of it live as long as those playing less difficult instruments.
91The composers who vary their labor by creating, thus resting from the technical work of instrument players, have the advantage of the organists, who, by the very complicated instrument they play and which may at any time during the use of it before an auditorium become out of order, become very nervous and fidgety, which of course tends to shorten life.
93See that sallow, pale and narrow chested youth; he belongs to the genus pianist. By pianist I mean the student who works, studies and ponders in the cheerless and bleak attic of the much despised piano practitioner. A person who must of necessity practice indoors and in a sedentary position of the body, to whom the sun's rays are a bother, if falling on the music sheet before him; to whom the invigorating air becomes a boon if it perchance turn the pages for him before he is at the end, or which blows the music off from the stand before he has memorized his piece! How can these parties compete in longevity with the wind instrument player, who can practice his instrument in open air or in his room, who can stand up or sit down when before an audience, or march in the bracing air in a parade? And yet, there is one class of musicians who are of still shorter life by far than is the pianist—namely, the string player.
95This result is surely surprising. Among the string instrumentalists there are probably less short lived females than in any other branch above enumerated. The string player needs not study in one position of the body—he has much more opportunity for open air work or recreation—and yet he falls behind in length of life four years and a half of the next lowest and nearly sixteen years below the highest grade in the list.
97Another surprising fact is developed, that but four of the eleven classes live above the general age of musicians, which is sixty-two years five months and two days.
99IN our next issue we shall print a communication from the celebrated pianist Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler in defense of her master, Theodor Leschetizky; also from several other pupils of the Viennese teacher, all of which reached us too late for publication this week.
101EVOLUTION OF A CRITIC.
103December 3.
104MISS GLADYS BLAIR—No, I'll have to miss the reception Wednesday night. Mamma has taken seats for that pianist everybody talks of, so I suppose that I'll have to go.
105MISS CECILIA GREY (excitedly)—You don't mean Paderewski?
106MISS GLADYS BLAIR—Who?
107MISS CECILIA GREY—Paderewski.
108MISS GLADYS BLAIR—Yes, I believe that's the man. —Effsky—Padereffsky—so that's the way you pronounce it. Did you hear him when you were studying abroad?
109MISS CECILIA GREY (reverently)—Only twice.
110MISS GLADYS BLAIR—Good for anything?
111MISS CECILIA GREY—Why, Gladys, he is phenomenal!
112MISS GLADYS BLAIR—Indeed? Does he dance all over the stage and make faces? Pachmann did, you know.
113MISS CECILIA GREY—On the contrary, he is superbly poised. He effaces himself, as it were. You feel that he is but the medium through whose agency you meet the composer soul to soul. He has none of the sentimentality of De Pachmann, and yet his temperament is half—perhaps more than half emotional.
114MISS GLADYS BLAIR—Well, well, I didn't realize that he was half as great as that. I am glad now that I'm going to hear him. Besides, I am really curious to see his hair. They say it's extraordinary—is it?
116December 8.
117MR. J. WEBER BROWNE—I saw you at the recital last night. Tell me, what do you think of him?
118MISS GLADYS BLAIR (with a short gasp)—He is certainly phenomenal.
119MR. J. WEBER BROWNE—Is he not? Did you ever hear such breadth of style, such tone colors, such a supple touch? That man's technique is unparalleled. And yet people would compare him to De Pachmann, Rummel and d'Albert! Is it not preposterous?
120MISS GLADYS BLAIR—To Pachmann especially. He is so—how shall I express it?—so sentimental.
121MR. J. WEBER BROWNE—In truth, you're right. Now, Paderewski is, above all things, intellectual. Don't you find him so?
122MISS GLADYS BLAIR—I think him—superbly poised.
123MR. J. WEBER BROWNE—There, Miss Blair, there you've hit it neatly. That's just what he is—superbly poised. Therein lies the secret of his greatness. His emotions are held in rein by a controlling intellectuality. Is there anything more caressingly tender than his interpretation of Bach? Yet no one could accuse it of being mawkish. Tell me, Miss Blair—it's so delightful to find a young lady so sympathetic—tell me, how did his playing of that rhapsody of Liszt strike you?
124MISS GLADYS BLAIR (in an awe stricken whisper)—I felt—forgot everything—the theatre—the people around me. The player himself seemed to fade from my eyes. I was alone with the composer—soul to soul.
126December 11.
127MISS GLADYS BLAIR—Such breadth of style, such gorgeous coloring, such technical skill—is he not unparalleled?
128MR. JACK GOODFELLOWE (uncomfortably)—Oh, yes—yes, indeed.
129MISS GLADYS BLAIR—With what infinite tenderness he interprets Bach!
130MR. JACK GOODFELLOWE (with a visible effort)—I might just as well be quite frank, Miss Blair. You see, I don't go in much for classical music. I don't know enough to analyze and criticise, like you. If a piece pleases me, it pleases me; if it don't, it don't, and that's all I know about it. As for Paderewski, sometimes I think he's
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.