Scan 9
Musical Courier 1893-06-21: Vol 26 Iss 694, 1893
66 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 10. See the scan on archive.org.
1pink, and when in repose he does not look abnormally gifted in strength. But let him shift his position, and instantly his body becomes alive with huge snake-like coils, which go shivering all over him. He is only twenty-six years old, has a good, intelligent head on his shoulders, and while his neck is powerful, even bull-like, as befits the successor to Milo of Crete, yet he does not suggest animalism in a disgusting degree. It is because the line of feature is not blurred by dissipation and the eye is alert and bright. This quickness of glance and movement gives to Sandow's personality something of an interest which most strong men with their stupid, soddish, animal visages, lack. He is business like, and is an athlete and not merely a lifter of weights. He can box, wrestle, run, row, and you all saw the ease with which he did a back somersault. He is not in the least muscle bound.
3I was noticing these details when he came toward me, quite pleasantly, shook me by the hand, but not with the fierce grip of Paderewski, and said, in a business manner: "You wish to see my muscles, gentlemen! Good; now watch me, and all take your turn in feeling them." This was a formula that rippled off his tongue like "Zwei bier" from the lips of a man of avenue B.
5I forgot to say that with me was a little knot of newspaper men.
7We all clustered about the strong man, who proceeded to show us his muscular development in a way that would have made envious a professional demonstrator of anatomy. He rattled on glibly about his biceps, triceps, trapezoid and deltoid muscles, and those four rib-like muscles at the side, whose pet name I have just now forgotten. I only know that they were so huge as to be almost a deformity and looked like a xylophone, and, for that matter, felt like one, for Sandow seized my hand and ran it over these muscles and the muscles of his stomach until I wished he hadn't.
9Then I felt his arms, his legs, his chest. I gazed open mouthed at his back, with its abysmal furrow down the centre, and the two mighty overlapping masses of muscle on either side. It was a case of "grab," "feel," "let go," for Sandow proposed to waste no time. From start to finish you were pointed out all details in a dry, slightly harsh voice, and when all had been explored, we shook hands once more, and with a "Sehr Angenehm" from the strong man we pushed our way into the street, with chest expanded and muscles taut, just from sheer association.
11I forgot to add that Sandow asked us if we would like to see his chest expansion. Of course we would; and he took a step backward, and then he took a mighty inspiration with a cyclone-like whistle. His chest inflated to the extent of 14 inches, and his stomach retired respectfully to the vicinity of his backbone. It was an awe inspiring spectacle, and for the third time I wished for the presence of the author of "The Children of Adam." Here was the human form in all its glory. Really, it made me proud to be of the sex of this lusty young fellow; and how desperately feeble and miserable appeared in my eyes the man of obesity and the man of dissipated habits!
13I asked Sandow if he ever took exercise. "Yes," said he, "every night on the Casino stage at 10:30 p. m." Everybody laughed, but unabashed I asked him if he drank beer. "Yes," he replied, with a thirsty light in his eyes. "Beer, champagne, gin, wine, brandy—anything I can get."
15This startled me. "When do you eat?" I asked. "Whenever I'm hungry, and that's very often." He looked at me foolishly as he said this, and I desisted. Sandow was hungry; Sandow was thirsty, so I left him in peace.
17I hear that he smokes ten or fifteen strong cigars a day, eats and drinks what he likes and when he likes; in fact gives a slap in the face of hygiene, for he never trained according to any rule, and he told me that if he wanted to make a man strong he would never change his diet, for it would result in sickness.
19I can give you none of his measurements beyond the chest expansion. They are probably published.
21"Charlie" Barton told me that the horse that Sandow holds in the air could not make the sea trip and had to be left on the other side. The three horses he brought with him would not do, for they might kick. It requires a trained horse. Sandow does not lift it off the floor, but the horse is suspended on a hook and Sandow lifts it, holds it a minute in midair and slowly puts it on the floor. It is a pity this feat cannot be performed here. Sandow gets $650 a week and his expenses from Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau. His contract is for thirty weeks, and he will go to Chicago after he leaves the Casino.
23I told you a good story about Oscar Wilde last week. Here is a fresh one from "Figaro." "Oscar Wilde will soon be a second Duke of Wellington if people go on fathering stories on him in the way they are now doing. Here is the latest I have heard. I need hardly say that it is probably untrue: A friend was calling his attention to the statement made by a critic that much of 'Salome' was plagiarized. 'Of course it was,' cried Oscar, with great candor. 'Plagiarism is the privilege of the appreciative man. Que voulez-vous? I never read "La Tentation de Saint Antoine" without signing my name under it. In fact, all the best hundred books bear my signature.'"
25I have quite a batch of music to talk about, although your time must be precious and the day is languid.
27That extremely clever composer Martin Roeder sent me his new song album (Ditson & Co.), and while there are some songs in it that smack of the salon too much, the volume as a whole contains some charming contributions to the literature of the lied. To set Heine's "Lehn' deine Wang" after Jensen requires courage, though I never could rave over much of the music of this gentleman with the sweetly suggestive Hebraic name. Roeder has made a very characteristic setting for Heine's perervid words. Altogether I can both congratulate the composer on his versatile collection and recommend the volume to lovers of songs that are natural and deeply felt.
29I have it in my mind to speak to you about young Goldsmith's new D minor trio and d'Albert's new piano concerto in E and piano sonata in F sharp minor; oh, and lots of other things, but you can wait; now, really, can't you wait until next week?
31A Graduation.—The graduation recital of the School of Music at Indianapolis, Ind., took place on Friday evening of last week. Misses Mueller, Schrader, Crouse, Sweeney, and Messrs. Moffitt, Sullivan, Koster, Bradford and Kahn assisted.
33American Conservatory Commencement.—The commencement exercises of the American Conservatory of Music, of Chicago, were held in Central Music Hall yesterday evening, when this program was well presented:
35"Jubelouverture"…………………………………………..v. Weber
36Concerto for piano, op. 69………………………………………Hiller
37Andante. Finale.
38Miss Maria Kadic and orchestra.
39Gavot from "Mignon"…………………………………………A. Thomas
40Mrs. Mamie Belz-Perkins.
41Violoncello—
42Adagio………………………………………………………..Popper
43Alla Polacca…………………………………………………Goltermann
44Mr. Robert Ambrosius.
45Concerto for piano, op. 11………………………………………Chopin
46Romanze. Rondo.
47Master Charles Wilbur Macdonald and orchestra.
48Aria, "Céleste Aida"…………………………………………..Verdi
49Violin, ballade and polonaise……………………………Vieuxtemps
50Miss Ethel Gamble and orchestra.
51Concerto for piano, op. 54 (first movement)………………Schumann
52Miss Nettie Durno and orchestra.
53Quartet, "Rigoletto"…………………………………………..Verdi
54Miss Harriet Aurelius, Mrs. Elizabeth Jane Watrous, Messrs. Charles D. Hoard and E. A. Emery.
55Marche Militaire……………………………………………..Schubert
56Orchestra.
57Awarding of the certificates, diplomas and gold medals by the director.
59Alexander Lambert.—Alexander Lambert, the director of the New York College of Music, sails for Europe next Saturday. The college will remain open during the summer in charge of his subordinates.
61Music in South Carolina.—Six programs of more than usual artistic value are sent from the South Carolina College for Women. The first is a piano recital given by Miss Celeste Cunningham, a pupil of W. V. Abell, the musical director, assisted by Mr. M. H. Moore. The second was a song recital by Miss Bessie Williamson, and a series of four recitals given during April by the piano pupils of Mr. Abell and the vocal pupils under Miss Eva Fulkerson. The musical department of this college is in a most flourishing condition, and the programs are extremely creditable,
63MANY people ask me how Philadelphia happens to have a Manuscript Society. I can only reply that W. W. Gilchrist and other prominent composers and musicians in the City of Brotherly Love have seen fit to originate and maintain such an organization there, conducting it on the general plan of the Manuscript Society of New York. The chief difference is that the latter, although having its headquarters here, is in reality a national organization with active members in many of the States, while the Philadelphia Society is purely local. Mr. Gilchrist is and has long been actively identified with the parent organization, and other Philadelphia composers' names, notably Thomas à Becket, Edward G. McCollin, Russell King Miller, W. H. Neidlinger and Constantin Sternberg, have become familiar on the membership lists of the public programs. So far as I know these Philadelphia brethren never asked or obtained permission from the original society to localize in their own little town under the title of the parent organization. Nor indeed was this necessary; for the society's name has never been patented or copyrighted, and is therefore free to be used by anybody under the sun outside of New York, in which State the society has been incorporated. Furthermore, had permission been sought it would undoubtedly have been granted under the circumstances, for I understand that the best possible feeling exists between the two organizations. They had just as much right to use the name as a young singing society up in Connecticut had to adopt the title of "Musurgia," which is a word coined expressly for Gotham's famous club of male voices, led by Frank Damrosch. The Philadelphians' action in breaking loose from the old hen and scratching gravel for themselves is greatly to be commended. The Manuscript Society is fast becoming too large and unwieldy: and, as the active work has always fallen upon the slender shoulders of or been voluntarily assumed by two or three members, one in particular, the burden has been much too heavy, and has at times dragged along in the dust. This is not as it should be, and there is no longer any necessity for such a slipshoddy condition of things. The society ought to be divided into a number of branches or chapters in various cities of the United States, each having its own officers and its own series of concerts, and all following the same constitution. A governing body or executive council could be permanently located in New York, if thought best, and delegates from the different chapters could meet for an annual convention, such conventions to be held with the chapters in rotation. The chairman of a convention would be the society's president. At these conventions musical programs should be performed in addition to the transaction of business, and it should be deemed a great honor to be assigned a position at such concerts, as the executive council should select only the most meritorious works by the composers connected with the respective chapters. But as I am a very modest man, as Maxwell would say, I refrain from making further suggestions; only what a glorious organization the Manuscript Society could become on some such plan, and what a power for the advancement not only of American music but of music in America.
65Speaking of American music, several of our ablest composers insist that there is no such thing. Bosh! The gentlemen are laboring under an egregious hallucination of the cerebellum. They contend that music is without nationality, and that the best music is bound to last the longest, in accordance with the good old doctrine of the revival of the sickest. I mean the survival of the fittest. Noch eens, bosh! Why, persons who do not pretend to be musicians can listen to a whole program of miscellaneous selections, and with their eyes shut tell you which piece was written by a German, which by an Italian, which by an Englishman, and so on. Each nation has its own music, and always will have; though it is unquestionably true that civilized countries appreciate and understand each other's contributions to the poor, weak, limited, human library of the divine art. In this sense music is quite cosmopolitan, and yet that of each nation retains its own salient characteristics. Of course there is such a thing as American music, and it will flourish and blossom as the rose, notwithstanding what these few un-American American cranks say; who, in asserting their narrow views as they do, neglect to realize that in so doing they are denying to themselves and their works all originality. And it will be possible to write American music without using a negro melody as a theme
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