Scan 15
Musical Courier 1893-07-01: Vol 27 Iss 695, 1893
76 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 16. See the scan on archive.org.
1Grant, Byers, Dunell, and two beautiful altos, the Misses Zoël and Köhler. Of the "set" from last year Miss Lalea Wiborg excelled with the "Lucia" aria, Miss Kretschmar ("Don Pasquale"), Miss Lengnick ("Freischütz"), &c. One beautiful soprano voice, Miss Swinton, was greatly missed. Miss Swinton left Europe some time ago to marry in America. As perhaps these lines will just reach New York at the time of her marriage, they will take over to her all the united best wishes of her Dresden friends at the pleasant reunions of Miss Haenisch. A. INGMAN.
3Metropolitan College Commencement.
4THE seventh annual commencement exercises of the Metropolitan Conservatory of Music were held in the Scotch Presbyterian Church on West Fourteenth street in the presence of a large number of interested friends. This was the arrangement of events:
5Prayer by the Rev. John Balcom Shaw, D. D., of the West End Presbyterian Church.
6Chorus, "O Praise the Lord"……………………………Mendelssohn Choral class.
7Secretary's report.
8"Bella mia fiamma addio"………………………………….Mozart Miss Ethel Barrett.
9Address, by the Rev. Edward Judson, D. D., of the Memorial Baptist Church.
10Scherzo in B minor, op. 30………………………………….Chopin Miss Cornelia C. Lienau.
11Abandon et Serenade, for two violins……………………..Godard Miss Ida Branth and Miss Mary Brown.
12Remarks by the Hon. Joseph J. Little.
13Nocturne in D flat major, op. 27, No. 2……………………..Chopin
14Caprice in E major…………………………………………..Paganini-Schumann Mrs. W. J. Baer.
15"O Lord, Have Mercy"………………………………………Mendelssohn Mr. Robert C. Stanley.
16"Love's Pure Spirit" (with violin obligato, by Miss Ida Branth), Claus Miss Marion Radcliffe.
17Awarding certificates in the Synthetic department, by the vice-president.
18Awarding diplomas, certificates and Agramonte medals by the president.
19Chorus, "Upward"…………………………………………..Marschner Choral class.
21The musical part of the program was very satisfactory, the chorus of about thirty women's voices under Mr. Agramonte doing exceedingly well. Miss Branth and Miss Brown gave their violin duo in excellent style. The serenade in particular was very finely played, as were the solos of Mrs. Baer. At the conclusion of the program the prizes and diplomas were awarded as follows:
22Graduates receiving diplomas—Misses Charlotte Mason, Lizzie Raine, Mary H. Siegfried, Henrietta A. Cammeyer, May E. Hurlburt and Susie H. Dixon; Mrs. Annette Peck and John A. Germond. Teachers and performers certificates in voice—Misses Henrietta Langaa, Veretta Coleman, and Ethel Barrett. Teachers' certificates—Misses Florence Woodin, Alice Marion Roberts, Charlotte Mead and Jennie McClung. The Agramonte medals were won by Misses Rena M. Atkinson, Minnie C. Lounsbury and Mary K. Troup, and A Stewart Holt. In the competition for the Agramonte gold and silver medals the judges decided that the work of Misses Atkinson and Lounsbury was of equal merit, and an additional gold medal was awarded by the Secretary.
24Non-Union Music in Baltimore.—Several labor unions in Baltimore have been accused by the Musical Union of that city of having engaged non-union musicians for the parade on Labor Day.
26In the Realms of Sound.—Upon this cadence of speech depends the emotional effect, not of song merely, but of all intervals and progressions of artificial sounds. Many melodic devices are direct copies of human utterance; many more are indirectly suggestive of different peculiarities of intonation under special modes of emotion. A portamento ascent to a higher pitch on the violin is a direct copy of human cadence, when the passion of resistance is roused, and the speaker is compelled to assert himself.
28A chromatic progression, even on a keyed instrument, suggests to us the cadence of speech under rising intensity of excitement. A passage in syncopation affects us as an echo of human utterance struggling under contending emotions. In fact, every "voice," whether of the solo instrument or in the orchestra, is constantly employing successions of sounds, which are inseparably associated with the movement of human passions. For when the voice had once asserted itself as the means of communication between man and man, every sound, natural or artificial, came to be referred by association to the cadence of human utterance.
30Man discovered his sighing in the breeze, his laughter in the ripples, his moaning in the tempest. But it was not until the frets were removed from the old viols that an instrument was found which could really reproduce the cadence of human utterance. Thenceforward the wail of suffering, the portamento of rising emotion, the vibrato of pleading entered into the orchestra, and became the primary realities of the world of artificial sound. This is the sense, and this is the only sense in which it is allowable to say that music expresses anything.—"Macmillan's Magazine."
32Substitutes, vocal and instrumental, who are you, where are you and what are you doing? What are you aiming at? Is this summer position a make-shift or a stepping-stone for you? What do you find you lack most in filling a more competent person's place, and are you working to furnish that lack or trusting to luck? What has been your training, what are you studying and what are your difficulties? Let me hear from you anything you want to say—that is sensible.
34FANNIE EDGAR THOMAS, 304 West Fifty-seventh street, City.
36MR. KAISER, first tenor of St. Patrick's Cathedral, is writing an opera. Few of those who derive pleasure from the tones of Mr. Kaiser's powerful and appealing voice do not dream how much of a musician he is besides, and that composition is a musical passion to which tone production is a secondary art.
38His father a German, a distinguished musician, composer, operatic singer, the son's thought is stamped with strong nationality, and he has wisely concluded that here his strength lies. So in the face of success with English ballad writing, represented by the setting of Mrs. Browning's "Insufficiency," gems of George Eliot's, and others of philosophic cast, love songs, glees and some worthy orchestral scores, he has decided to abide by his heritage and remain distinctively "German."
40His opera he will have set on the German stage.
42The libretto of the opera is by a young German, Mr. Rudolph Rabe, who was accidentally caught in commercial meshes in this country, while brain and soul were teeming with art products, and who has since, impelled by artistic instinct, returned to his home in Magdeburg, where he is now forging to the front ranks as playwright, essayist and poet. The young men met accidentally and became fast friends.
44"The Ban of the Monastery" is the title of the fruitful and mystical subject of the work. It is dressed in rich and melodic harmonies, interspersed with numerous songs. It is in three acts, and covers some 1,200 music paper pages. A feature of the second act is a carousal song of the monks, in which is depicted various epochs of their unique life. In a few weeks Mr. Kaiser repairs to the mountains and woods, where he will elaborate the orchestration 'mid the echoes of Nature's own organ lofts.
46Instruments are not necessary to him in composition. He thinks the pictures all out. In effects he is sometimes surprised, but "harmonies are solid."
48Orchestration, he urges, is much more difficult in modern than it was in ancient times, partly owing to the development of instrument and effect, and partly to the one-sided musical education of the modern musical specialist. Every intention of the writer must be expressed, even to the bowing of the violins, the breathing of the wind instruments and the slightest tints and shades of phrasing.
50The old masters treated their compositions in a much more simple manner. Händel's score may sometimes be found to contain but a figured bass, which the copyist was supposed to extend. What would become of a writer's intention to-day, left to the mercy of the modern orchestra?
52Mr. Kaiser does not know when he learned notes. The first time he remembers attention being drawn to them was in school, when one day the teacher told the children to take their slates and "draw something." Instead of a picture the little boy made a staff, writing thereon a small melody which was running through his ears, which so astonished the teacher that he was bidden carry it through the several school rooms for exhibition. Regarding this as a form of punishment the young composer wept copiously. He was recompensed later by warm praise and a small coin from his father.
54His youth was passed in Baltimore, of which city his mother was a native. He studied harmony there with Professor Hammer and piano with Professor Steinmüller. At seventeen he was director of an amateur orchestra, which "made some horrible music, but was good experience."
56His first organ loft salary was $75, received at this time. Not knowing the value of his voice, he was urged by his father to take the position, and obediently took the first car heading for "church trial." In the same vehicle rode one of the first bassos of the city, of whom young Kaiser stood much in awe and to whom he would not for worlds have disclosed his audacious intention. What was his horror on reaching the church to find the "first basso" entertaining a similar one! Shrinking under the gallery he did not disclose his identity till he heard the committee man somewhat testily exclaim, "I expected a young tenor here to-night by the name of Kaiser—most astonishing he does not come!" His voice proved "perfectly satisfactory," but on account of his youth the remuneration was fixed at $75.
58He next sang at St. Paul's in that city, later at Christ's Church, and was at Grace when his organ loft savings were sufficient to induce a trip to Europe to study with Stockhausen. During a three years' stay he heard much good music, met many good musicians, and studied dramatic action with the manager of the Royal Opera in Frankfort. Here he was advised to stay by both Stockhausen and Hans Richter, and later by Mr. Henschel, of London, where he went to study traditions and sang successfully in concert. But full of the idea of big oratorio success in America, he rejected all temptations to remain in the Old World and confidently crossed to the New, and was here but two weeks when engaged for the Cathedral.
60He is director of the vocal department of the New York Conservatory, is tenor of the Temple-Bethel, Madison avenue and Seventy-fourth street, teaches, composes and belongs to singing societies. Being besides a married man with home duties and pleasures, it is safe to say that his idle moments are not many. His vocal aim is for oratorio. He has already, still in his twenties, achieved success in "Redemption," "St. Paul," "Elijah," "Messiah," the Passion Music in Germany, and a vacancy, filled by him once for Mr. Courtney in Canada, has since been filled by him with great satisfaction. His favorite masterpiece is the Liszt-Heine "Lorelei" with cello obligato. Beethoven's and Liszt's are his masses. In the fall he purposes giving a series of song recitals, one of which shall be devoted to Brahms, his favorite composer. His compass is large, tone full and round. With his excellent training and strong musical instinct, there is no reason why he should not become one of our leading oratorio tenors.
62As teacher he finds a great lack of application and earnestness among pupils. The student spirit reflects the musical feeling of the still young nation. Pupils want gay, bright things always, and to be guaranteed when they can accomplish them. Schubert's songs are not favorites with young Americans.
64He does not see how negro melodies can become the basis of national music. "There may be national art," he says, "but not national music. Music is individual. External forms are cosmopolitan. Internal sentiment only can be national. French and German types of music are not antagonistic musically, yet how distinctive the undercurrent! The musical spirit in France is more active than that of Germany, owing to the active national musical spirit which encourages the artist and rewards him for his gifts and work. Americans have but little idea of the value of 'gift.' 'To be sure, it's his business!' If I had the time to practice, or if I practiced the whole time the way he does, I could play that way, too!" are common expressions. The artistic work of an artist as such is not appreciated here as it is anywhere in Europe. The artist is expected to 'hustle' with the rest, and have as much recognition as he wins in a business like and short-haired fashion."
66One trouble with music in Germany, Mr. Kaiser thinks, is that through political movements Berlin, an essentially unmusical city, is made the nation's head centre. Its population is largely Poles and Fesians, an old German tribe, of whom it has been said: "It is a tribe without song!" Berlin is the place where agents and managers throng to meet singers and musicians. Either Frankfort or Munich would make a much richer centre musically.
68Beethoven he claims to be the most symphonic of all the tone poets. There is a development of theme by rule, and a development to meet dramatic action. Liszt's "Tasso" is one of the strongest illustrations of thematic elaboration, both triumph and lamentation being expressed by the same motive. In the latter style Wagner excels; hence one great source of appeal in his composition. He also says that there is no doubt but that much music of the masters which was intended by them as classroom study only has been placed before the public as "composition." Hence much of the honest public distaste for "classical music." Robbed of idea and sentiment, and containing but technical lessons, even musicians waste time searching for beauties never intended to exist, and which they have to persuade themselves they find.
70When young Mr. Kaiser had an excellent opportunity of studying the German classics, but rejected them all for Shakespear, his idol, till association with Mrs. Stockhausen, wife of the musician, an elocutionist and rhetorician of the best standard, friend of best German linguists, stimulated him to their study.
72* * *
74Speaking of this matter of modern orchestration Mr. Louis Lombard, of the Utica Conservatory, says:
75"The universal creative artist encounters greater obstacles than any other human creature in his endeavor to give intelligent expression to his ideas and feelings. To communicate the written notes to the audience numberless agents, good or bad, must be used. It is often thought that the most dangerous of these intermediaries is the singer, but I am convinced that there is no one whose responsibility is greater than that of the conductor. His incompetence, indifference or malevolence may destroy the whole work he conducts and turn the noblest inspirations into
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