Scan 17
Musical Courier 1893-06-07: Vol 26 Iss 692, 1893
134 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 18. See the scan on archive.org.
1when he is debarred by "Philip Fairfield" from marrying the pretty girl of the piece; first, because "Philip" wants her, and secondly, because "Robert" and the pretty girl are brother and sister. You see that there is no "Siegmond" and "Sieglinde" business in "The Golden Wedding."
3Then there is Foxey, a boat house girl, and there is Mrs. Comstock, a widow, who writes tragedies and acts in them. There are some girls who are courted by a male quartet, and, very properly, the girls flirt with other men until their faithful sweethearts promise to give up singing. (To be sure, this is not reasoned out on the stage, but it suggests itself to the experienced spectator.)
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7These are the figures; arrange them as you please; any combination you make will no doubt be more satisfactory than the result of the labor of the arrangers.
9The lines were without point. The male quartet introduced a song in which our old friends "the butcher, with his stake; the shoemaker, with his sole, and the baker kneading bread;" all, all appeared.
11But I have not the heart to dwell upon this mournful subject.
13I should not be surprised if "The Golden Wedding" filled the Park during the summer season.
15After the success of "1492" I am prepared to accept all miracles past, present and to come.
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19These men and women appeared in "The Golden Wedding" and exerted themselves to the utmost: W. F. Mach, C. A. Burke, A. Mach, Dan Daly, Barney Reynolds, Jennie Yeamans, Maude Williams, Florence Dunbar and Grace Ogden.
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23The music of this piece does not call for attention. With the exception of the introduced variety ditties the numbers are of an artless, unpretending order. The instrumentation, I am told, was given out as contract work, and it was apparently given out in sections.
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27Now, why should we not have operetta written by American librettists and composers that would furnish our theatre goers with legitimate amusement? I am not unmindful of the operettas already written by Americans, nor do I here speak of their merits or faults. But why do not our younger composers turn their attention in this direction?
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31I am afraid that some of them think such a task beneath them. That talented composer, Mr. Edgar S. Kelley, does not entertain any such opinion, and I am glad to find that Mr. Chadwick proposes to follow in his path. If there are really any that despise the making of "dance tunes," let them reflect on the words of Paul Lindau: "Only dance music! As though it were not enough, if it be masterly; as though Teniers were not a great painter, Labiche not a great dramatic artist, because the one, as the other, preferred to exhibit great talent in a little sphere; as though it were not better to be the Caesar of a village than the second in Rome."
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35Or if anyone persisted in despising operetta he should be condemned to close study of Brakl's "Moderne Spieloper," in which the author quotes indiscriminately from Schreckenberger and Plato, Ganghofer and Isaiah, Socrates, Kant, Shakespeare, Herodotus, Varro, Pausanias and Plutarch in support of his enthusiasm.
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39But Mr. MacDowell or Mr. Ethelbert Nevin or Mr. H. W. Parker might say: "Gladly would I write the music of an operetta if I could find a decent text." Thus might they all agree as they sat together, talking of things musical, as talked upon a time Vincenzo Galilei, Giovanni Bardi, Jacopo Corsi and other learned gentlemen of Florence.
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43The composers might say that well-known writers would not concern themselves with an operetta book, and the well-known writers might say that they could find no congenial subject.
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47There is a constant demand in certain quarters for an all pervading, dominating element of nationality in the music written by composers of the United States, a characteristic musical streak that would suggest this country, or even express it, with the bald headed eagle, Yosemite Valley, plantation life, smell of caraway seed in old fashioned meeting house, Dismal Swamp and Mammoth Cave. This class of enthusiasts would have an American operetta, subject, words and music all American.
49But first, where is your subject?
51Christopher Columbus has already appeared in "1492," that nightmare dreamed by Barrett and Ed Rice.
53Burlesque Red Indians of the American Forest have been introduced in American and English musical farces and operettas, and the genuine monarch of the woods has been lately treated by Americans of the East and the West.
55"Puritania" and "Priscilla" tell of the early days of New England.
57"The Knickerbockers" is a lame and impotent version of a good story which was suggested inadvertently, I am told, to its composer, as he once toyed at meat and asked languidly for a new libretto.
59Rip van Winkle has masqueraded in operetta; and various incoherent plots have been laid in American towns and villages, in the mountains or by the coast.
61What subject is left to-day that admits of character drawing, local color, pretty contrasting costumes and scenic decorations?
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65But why should the librettist be obliged to survey the United States with extended view? Why is he not allowed to invent country, characters, laws, morals, superstitions? Why should there be any attempt at realism? Is not Lorenzo XVII. the mightiest of the princes of Piombino? Is not the Princess Toto more interesting than any of Victoria's daughters? Is not Baron Grog more finely drawn and yet more familiar than Metternich with all his orders?
67And why should not poker have been the favorite amusement of the people of Milan in the fifteenth century, or why should not the Salic law have been invented by the Javanese? Menelaus with hat box is not to me an anachronistic and therefore loathsome object, provided that the operetta or musical burlesque in which he carries the box does not make claims openly for realism, truth to nature, &c. But when the genial advance man presents me with a slip from which I learn that "the refined musical comedy about to be presented is commendably free from all horse play and gags that too often disfigure," &c. one of two readings
68And why should not poker have been the favorite amusement of the people of Milan in the fifteenth century, or why should not the Salic law have been invented by the Javanese? Menelaus with hat box is not to me an anachronistic and therefore loathsome object, provided that the operetta or musical burlesque in which he carries the box does not make claims openly for realism, truth to nature, &c. But when the genial advance-man presents me with a slip from which I learn that "the refined musical comedy about to be presented is commendably free from all horse play and gags that too often disfigure," &c. one of two readings
70When I then take my seat in the pit with a certain confidence in the manager's rhetoric, and the curtain rises on a jest in which "straight" and "ace high" are heard in the common speech of the court of Louis XIV.; or when members of the present board of alderman of our town are referred to in a flippant manner by well-known characters in classical mythology—then I admit I feel rebellious.
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74I see, by the way, that Marie Tempest is to have "a splendid part" in Mr. De Koven's new operetta, and that she rejoices in the fact that she will dress it in petticoats. She might well exclaim, "Stay me with flacons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of tights." PHILIP HALE.
76New York State Music Teachers' Association.
78MR. J. F. VON DER HEIDE, the secretary-treasurer, sends us the following additional names to the official advance program of the N. Y. S. M. T. Association, published in THE MUSICAL COURIER of last week:
80Mrs. Martha L. Roulston, soprano; Mr. Purdon Robinson, baritone; Mr. John E. Gregory, basso, and the English Glee Club—Miss Hettie Bradley, soprano; Mrs. Belle Irving, contralto; Mr. Harry Fellows, tenor; Mr. Frederic Reddall, basso.
82The headquarters in Rochester will be at the Powers Hotel.
84Mr. J. F. Von der Heide, the secretary of the New York State Music Teachers' Association, in a circular, invites the attention of musicians, teachers and lovers of music to the association's remarkable record of four years.
86In 1889, the first convention, held at Hudson, was indeed a surprise in numbers and enthusiasm—a surprise even to its own members. The following meetings at Saratoga, Utica and Syracuse have served to ground and strengthen the association, to give it definite aims and an irresistible impulse. Perhaps the most gratifying thing in its short history is the willingness and even gladness of leading and representative musicians to join and take active part. Composers, concert performers and writers, not only from our own State, but from Boston and more distant places, have been glad to come as "high privates" and give us of their best.
88The future is full of promise. Our record hitherto is brilliant and spotless. The sole opponent that we have is apathy. For this the best antidote is enthusiasm.
90Fellow musicians, this is your association! The work that we are doing is your work. We are accomplishing what private teachers singly cannot do, and are kindling a musical interest throughout the State that will create additional business for the private teacher. Now for this we need the active support of all music teachers. Thus, you need us and we need you.
92The dues for the first year, including registration fee, are $2; dues for renewal year, $1, which are not at all proportioned to the benefit received.
94Please fill out the application for membership, and forward with remittance to the secretary. Every teacher of music and every professional musician should be a member and show his or her interest in the glorious cause by securing new members. The annual report for 1892 has been published, and is worth double the membership fee.
96The fifth annual meeting will be held at Rochester, N. Y., June 27, 28 and 29, and will certainly be a most brilliant gathering.
98J. F. Von der Heide, Secretary-Treasurer,
99Steinway Hall, New York.
101Pianissimos.
103SEVERAL of Gotham's leading churches omitted their second service last Sunday and will continue throughout the month of June to hold morning services only. Strange as it may seem, organists and choir singers raise no objection whatever to this plan. Walter J. Hall and his choir at the Church of the Covenant, consisting of Miss Blanche Taylor, Miss Laura H. Graves, Albert Lester King and Dr. Carl E. Dufft, finding that they would be needed at church last Sunday only in the morning, sent a letter to Peter A. Schnecker and his choir at Dr. Paxton's church, comprising Mrs. Alice Stoddard-Hollister, Mrs. Carl Alves, William H. Rieger and Ericsson F. Bushnell, stating that they would attend evening service in a body at the latter church, and requesting Mr. Schnecker and his co-adjudators to do their prettiest. They did attend, the home choir did its prettiest, and the visitors' critical analysis of the singing was of a highly favorable nature. It would be a good thing for other choirs when at liberty to follow the example set by Mr. Hall's, for much can be learned by an exchange of visits of this kind.
105Miss Ida Belle Cooley, soprano of the Madison Avenue Baptist Church, will pay a visit this summer to Mrs. Carl Strakosch, née Clara Louise Kellogg, at New Hartford, Conn. During the remainder of the heated term Miss Cooley will sojourn at Sodus, Wayne County, N. Y.
107Mr. and Mrs. Carl Alves are already out of the city for the summer, being comfortably housed with their two pretty children at City Island, in Long Island Sound.
109Homer N. Bartlett has just written three lovely Christmas carols. He evidently believes that Christmas is coming, and his belief is not erroneous. Prudent musical composers write away ahead of time.
111An enormous crowd listened to the music in Central Park last Sunday afternoon. The handsomest woman present was Miss Madge Lessing, of Koster & Bial's. W. B. Rogers, the new leader of the Seventh Regiment Band, conducts with spirit and grace, and has already made himself popular with the masses. His cornet solo and A. George's trombone solo were the most attractive features of the program.
113Julius L. Meyle, of C. H. Ditson & Co., will spend the summer with his family at Perth Amboy, N. J. Mr. Meyle has recently been chosen organist of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in that town. He was formerly organist at the Church of the Holy Communion in this city.
115Miss Laura H. Graves, the new contralto of the Church of the Covenant, will go to her old home at Hatfield, Mass., for the summer.
117The engagement is announced of Miss Pauline T. Guinsburg, solo contralto of the Broadway Tabernacle and of Temple Ahawath Chesed, to Morris Cohen. They will be married in September.
119F. Oscar Elmore, one of Baltimore's most prominent organists, is visiting Gotham for a few days. He resigned his position at Mount Calvary Episcopal Church last April, and may settle in New York in the fall.
121Miss Ruth Thompson, solo contralto of the Church of the Pilgrims, Brooklyn, is this week visiting her mother in Berwick, Pa.
123A. F. A.
125A Wagner Lecture.—Mr. Edmund von Hagen has been lecturing in Berlin on "Wagner's Philosophy and Its Importance for the Aesthetic Form of Poetry." He described "Rienzi," "The Flying Dutchman," "Lohengrin," "Tannhäuser" and "Tristan" as five stately buildings, opposite which stood the five marble halls of the "Tetralogy" and "Parsifal," while the centre is occupied by "The Meistersingers." The lecturer was often interrupted, and when he bade the audience pay attention "to the pedagogic, didactic and eminently eudemonologic character of the diction" most of them left.
127The Brahms Medal.—The medal presented by the Vienna "Society of Friends of Music" to J. Brahms on his sixtieth birthday has on the obverse a profile of the recipient, on the reverse a palm and a laurel branch surrounding a shield with a swan, and the inscription: "Sixtieth Birthday, 7th May, 1893, Society of Friends of Music in Vienna."
129Beethoven Prize at Vienna.—Thirty-three composers of all nationalities have sent in works for the Beethoven Composition Prize, 1893. Among them are 1 oratorio, 1 requiem, 1 symphonic poem, 1 piano concerto, 1 cello concerto, 1 divertissement, 1 sonata, 1 horn sonata, 1 piano quartet, 2 string quartets, 2 operas, 2 cantatas, 3 piano quartets, 4 piano sonatas and 11 symphonies. The prize will be awarded on Beethoven's birthday, December 12.
131W. H. v. Riehl.—The well-known writer, W. H. v. Riehl, celebrated on May 6 his seventieth birthday. Originally a journalist at Carlsruhe, he was a delegate to the Frankfort Parliament in 1848-9, and in 1854 became a teacher at the Munich University. He composed several charming lieder, but is best known for his "Musikalischen Charakterköpfe"
133Sbriglia and His Pupil.—A pupil of Sbriglia in Paris refused to pay for his lessons, stating that it was agreed that payment was to be made only after an engagement had been secured. The court decided in favor of the teacher.
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