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Musical Courier 1893-06-07: Vol 26 Iss 692, 1893
38 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026. Printed page 10. See the scan on archive.org.
1wasting time in studying Beethoven, Wagner, Mozart or even Dvorák our national music should be built upon and developed from the melodies of the dusky African, who came here originally with his tom-toms from the fever stricken coast of Guinea and the Congo, but in some mysterious way won during his slavery years the original melodies of mysterious Nature from the whisperings of the cotton bale and the canebrake.
3Many great European musicians have undoubtedly built up their great reputations on worse material. Dvorák himself has dished up his own country's national dances most successfully, just as Brahms, Liszt, Moszkowski and others have done with theirs. But negro melodies, as the foundation of the American school of music of the future, pale into insignificance in the face of the possibilities now hinted at by Mr. Dvorák. The great Bohemian still intends to gather his inspiration from purely American sources, but if we are to believe current stories he has the heroic intention of making a musical pilgrimage to Minnesota for the purpose of listening to the giant melodies of the cyclone, to digest them on the spot, and finally to incorporate them into a great American national symphony poem, to which the storm in Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony and the wild rush of the Valkyries' Ride will be as gentle summer zephyrs.
5Our distinguished Bohemian maestro has undoubtedly taken upon himself a great contract. We can already hear the great symphonic poem in imagination—the quiet peacefulness of the plains, the rustle of the broad fields of ripening grain, the sharp click of the harvesting machines—the sudden silence, the gathering of the storm, the scurrying of the people to find shelter in their cyclone caves—then chaos itself, the swooping rush and roar of the elements, the crash of houses, intermingled with the cries of anguish of the farmyard animals and babies in their cradles, all whirled round and round and upward by the demoniacal powers and taken to eternity. Then silence, and, instead of the rustic dance of old-fashioned European composers, negro melodies, "Push Dem Clouds Away" and "Climbing up the Golden Stairs," wafted from the sunny South, and a gorgeous finale in which "The Star Spangled Banner," in polyphonic beauty of orchestration, shall close the great American masterpiece. What a subject for American music of the future!
7We expect grand things from Mr. Dvorák when he emerges from his cyclone cave with all these ideas ready to be put into the American musical language of the future.
9We sincerely trust that our great Bohemian maestro will be able to give the diabolical grandeur of the scene he promises musically to depict without endangering his life or depriving our younger generation of students of the benefits of European musical culture which he brought over with him. But we can hardly see how Mr. Dvorák is to get the necessary cyclonic inspiration for his symphonic poem if he hides himself away in a cyclonic cave while the terrible storm is raging without. And if our great maestro ventures to remain outside, instead of getting into the sheltering cave, we are sadly afraid that, though he may get the necessary cyclonic inspiration for his work, we shall have no grand resulting national American symphonic poem to tell us and our descendants of the splendor of the genius of Mr. Dvorák, who, brought here to impart to us the benefits of European musical culture, found, while trying to wrest the secrets of diabolical musical beauty from the aboriginal and unchained elements of our great West, a noble and heroic death.—John P. Jackson, in the "Recorder."
11The Liebling Amateurs Again.—The Liebling Amateurs, of Chicago, gave their ninety-fifth recital last Saturday afternoon. Misses Stillman, Catlin, Starr and Messrs. Mosell and Robert Law took part in the program.
13A Card from Fannie Edgar Thomas.—Dear Musicians, Vocal and Instrumental.—Please understand that I am not a musical bureau. I am not a position agent. Unless I were a first-class singer and some choirmaster should come to me and ask me to glorify his organ loft by my presence, I should not know how to go to work to secure one for myself to-morrow. I know very little about the city vacancies. Your numerous letters in this regard keep my sympathies stirred up all the time and tears in my heart for you, while powerless to help you except by general suggestion. All the wisdom which I have to offer was printed in the "Whisperings" of the Courier March 1. I wish that at least you would read that before writing me.
15Yours truly, FANNIE EDGAR THOMAS.
17The Success of Two Baltimore Girls.—Misses Rose and Ottilie Sutro, daughters of Mr. Otto Sutro, who are pursuing musical studies in Berlin, had a brilliant success at one of the important concerts of the season, on May 6, at the Royal Conservatory of Berlin. They were chosen by Mr. Joachim to play Bach's C major concerto for two pianos, with orchestra, and the famous violinist and director himself conducted the orchestra. After each movement the Baltimore girls were vigorously applauded, and at the close of the concerto they were enthusiastically recalled and Joachim personally expressed his pleasure in their fine performance.—Baltimore "Sun."
19tune and appreciation, and their loving organist is using all his influence with their parents to have them made musical artists. In a recent performance of "The Heavenly Message," in which by the way Mrs. Luther, of the Church of the Incarnation, sang delightfully, little Willie Spence played violin accompaniment, an unprecedented feat I believe.
21Twenty minutes of rehearsal are regularly devoted to vocal exercise, of which Mr. Coombs makes a strong point. He does not approve of carrying the head tone down too far, but works to obtain a mixed chest and head tone that is very effective. He dwells principally upon the octave between E above middle C, and the eighth above, finding that by strengthening this weak bridge the passage from low to high tone is safely made. He loves best of all the clear, high head tone when pure. He has a boy of ten singing C sharp beautifully. His method is very similar to that of Mr. Walter Hall, of the Church of the Heavenly Rest, treated earlier in the "Whisperings."
23A unique feature of his rehearsals is a final church rehearsal, in which acoustics, seating and accompaniment are as they will be on Sunday. As usual in our churches, organ loft architecture here is unfavorable to tone production, but a change for the better is looked for. The organ is a fine Roosevelt, presented to the church, of which she is a member, by Mrs. Hilbourne Roosevelt, in memory of her husband.
25An efficient aide-de-camp of Mr. Coombs is Sister Alethea, of the sisterhood connected with the church, who takes charge of processional formation, vestments, the books in part, the organ, and many minor details that would be burdensome to the director of so large a choir. Everything is thus brought into perfect system and order. There are two assistant organists, Mr. J. H. McGinnis, choirmaster of the Church of the Mediator, and Mr. Herman Wetzler. Mr. Robt. Blair is librarian.
27Mr. Coombs' organ loft life is as ideal as it is possible to have it. He finds the work intensely interesting, feels keenly the satisfaction of giving forth of the knowledge storehouse which his life heretofore has been spent in filling. The church is rich in recognition. No money could buy the mental and spiritual advantages that are his. Nor is this the sole recognition—his salary was doubled at the end of two months. His work is very quietly done.
29Speaking of his organist Dr. Motet says: "There are many things that go to make Mr. Coombs a unique character. He is intensely devotional. I never shall forget stepping into the choir room during the Lenten season and hearing him expounding to the boys the sentiment of the Lenten hymn they were studying. Why, it was a regular sermon, and a good one too, and I tell you the next singing of the words was a glorious response. Possessed of a temperament of ultra sensitiveness and refinement, he attracts just such spirits to him, making his choir one of exceptional character. Zealous to self-effacement, he trains men and boys day and night free, and with all his might. He seems to regard neither money nor praise, but gives of his musical services as an offering to God through the church. He is preparing to enter the order of 'deacon,' the first of the three church orders, deacon, priest, bishop."
31Speaking of choir music, Mr. Coombs says: "It is made too much a matter of business usually—indeed, all art is. Once drop the devotional spirit out of church music and nothing remains. The church that regards its singers as goods and chattels cannot have rich results. Ambition and avarice are disastrous to sacred art as to all other. The clergy first, and then the congregation, are responsible for the devotional spirit of the choir or the lack of it. When this is as it should be the choir invariably responds and gives what money cannot purchase. Every type of feeling, however flippant or indifferent, can be controlled by the seriousness of the surrounding element. An operatic or concert spirit, if truly artistic, cannot harm correct choir feeling."
33He is emphatic in his denunciation of placing sacred words to secular airs; indeed, insists further that no tune should ever be divorced from the words which were its inspiration. From his distinctive success in composition lines this idea of Mr. Coombs is entitled to more than a reading. The yearly change he regards as artistically and religiously vulgar, wholly unnecessary and the outgrowth of the commercial spirit that governs many organ lofts. He thinks committees an excrescence, of no benefit and much harm to the cause.
35Among the interested members of the congregation of Holy Communion are the Ogdens, Van Rensselaers, Dela fields, Sands, Callendars and Bacons. Mrs. Bacon is sister of Mrs. Van Rensselaer Cruger. In the choir room is a rare bas relief caste of choir boys singing, brought from a Florentine museum, and presented by Mr. Bacon, who is thus ever testifying his love and appreciation for his church and choir.
37Mr. Coomb is at present engaged upon a cantata of ambitious lines, entitled, "A vision of St John," grown out of his work in the church, and to be dedicated to it as a thank offering. It is taken from Revelations, is for soli, chorus and orchestra, a feature being a Sanctus for female quartet unaccompanied. "One's own blood goes into the writing of a composition that is the outcome of love," he says, which
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