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Musical Courier 1893-12-27: Vol 27 Iss 720, 1893
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1Music gave the "Messiah" in its entirety at St. James's Hall before a large audience. The soloists and orchestra were distinctively good, and the chorus was rather uneven, but sang with force and unanimity of detail. All gave evidence of improvement over their last public performance, which is due to the untiring work of the able and progressive principal Sir Joseph Barnby.
3The Royal Academy of Music gave an orchestral concert under the conductorship of the principal, Dr. A. C. MacKenzie next Tuesday night.
5Professor Bridge, organist at Westminster Abbey, has written for Novello's "Musical Primers" an interesting account of how the Abbey choir boys are taught in class by means of "musical gestures." The shapes of notes and the rests are shown by various positions of the fingers and arms, the tones and semi-tones by steps and half steps, and so on, there being twenty-three gestures in all, and each is illustrated by the picture of a choir boy performing it. For some time now the choir boys at Westminster Abbey have practiced the rudiments of music by means of this ingenious device, and Professor Bridge says the boys prefer the music game to cricket, and thinks when its principles become known it will have a wide popularity.
7Miss Kirkby Lunn, who made such a success as "Margaret" in Schumann's "Genoveva" last week, is a Lancashire girl and was born in Manchester in 1873. Three years ago she won a prize at a competition of music in her native city, which led her to take up the study in earnest, which she did, coming to London and entering the Royal College of Music, where she has studied ever since with Mr. Albert Visetti, with the result as shown in my letter of last week.
9Mr. W. S. Gilbert's sister, Miss Florence Gilbert, has composed two very pretty and melodious songs, entitled "When in Your Eyes" and "Love's Spring," which will be introduced to the public by Miss Agnes Jensen.
11The latest outcome of the Cowen-Sonzogno matter, an explanation of which appeared in THE MUSICAL COURIER of December 6, is that Sonzogno has challenged Mr. Boito, the librettist to Verdi's "Falstaff" and composer of "Mefistofele," to fight a duel. In a letter to England Mr. Boito had said of Mr. Cowen's opera, "Signa," after referring to certain circumstances: "For the rest, 'Signa' will make its way; and then 'le cigne qui signa,' 'Signa'" will be able to sing, 'There is no evil without its attendant good.'" Mr. Sonzogno took exception to this, and characterized the acts of Mr. Boito as absolutely despicable in the "Secolo." The latter read this, and through the friends of each a duel was arranged, but it will probably end like the great French duel that Mark Twain tells us about.
13The present autumn musical season ends next week, the winter season opening soon after the first of the new year. All of the concerts' enterprises have enjoyed a large patronage, and the regular lists of subscribers to the Symphony, the Popular and all other high class concerts are larger than ever before, and everything points to continued prosperity in all musical ventures for the coming year.
15FRANK VINCENT.
17Occasional London Letter.
18LONDON, December 15, 1883.
20I SPENT some days last week in the West of England, in Gloucester, at the home of Mr. Abraham Booth, whose daughter is one of the professors at the Utica Conservatory of Music. Mr. Booth has always been a supporter of musical enterprises and has done a great deal for the famous festivals of Gloucester. His one great dominating hobby, however, has been the collecting of works of art, of which he has about 4,000. It would do the heart of any lover of the beautiful good to visit his home. Many of his gems and pictures have been and now are on exhibition at different museums in England, of which the "Ashmolean" at Oxford is the oldest and one of the most prominent. Mr. Booth has 150 water color paintings now on exhibition in Nottingham and a dozen immense oil paintings lent to the Corn Exchange of Gloucester. The most fascinating to me, however, were the opals, of which Mr. Booth has twenty-five varieties and many specimens of each variety. The most interesting were the opal cameos cut by W. Schmidt, who, I believe, invented the process. I may mention the fact that these opal cameos took the first gold medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1878.
22The London "Daily Telegraph" of June 12, 1878, said of this Paris Exhibition: "Now, to appreciate the delicacy of such carving it must be remembered that the irridescence of this curious stone is due to the minute fractures by which its entire substance is traversed, just as though it had been shivered by some natural shock. As may well be imagined, the splintered formation of the opal renders it an exceedingly impracticable stone to cut; and though here and there a carved or engraved opal may be met with, this kind of workmanship is so rare that a cameo necklace, every centre gem of which is one of these lustrous minerals with rainbow shifting tints, must be accounted a wonder of wonders." And then, oh, what rubies, diamonds (one 15 carat), amethysts!
24Mr. Booth scattered a quart can of them about "just to show off the colors." "How is that for harmony?" he said. "Can you write a symphony on that?" He has 1,400 specimens of amber, clear, clouded, with moss and bark and insects imbedded therein. Some of the flies have left the marks of their struggles for life when, thousands of years ago, they had the misfortune to alight on this then sticky gum as it exuded from a now extinct tree. Poor little wretch! you had a battle for existence, too, did you?
26These words of mine are cold, I know; but if the readers of THE MUSICAL COURIER could see these gems they would believe as I do, that all this contact with such exquisite beauty cannot but leave an impression on artistic natures.
28Gloucester is an interesting old place. It is growing very fast and modern progress is encroaching more and more on the relics of the past. But there are still left many old monuments that put the imaginative mind in touch with the bygone days. There are fragments of Roman wall nearly 2,000 years old. There are ivy covered arches and walls of ruined churches. There is the cathedral which was begun in 1047. There are curiously designed houses built in the days of the Tudors. I went up in the organ loft of the cathedral and had a chat with the organist-composer, C. Lee Williams, one of the most genial and kind men I have met.
30The organ contains a diapason stop (for which English organs are renowned) that was made in 1568. The organ has since been rebuilt by Willis. The articles of agreement made between the dean and Harris, the organ builder, in 1674, are still extant. Harris does agree to "well and sufficiently keepe the organ in as good repair as now it is especially as to the musique part of it as also to keepe it from Runniges, stickinges and Cipheringes or whatever else may happen to the prejudice of the said organ, all violent mocons or accidents by ropes and prejudice by Ratts or other like vermin excepted." A little way from the cathedral is a monument erected on the spot where one of the former bishops was burned at the stake by his Christian brethren, who gave him distinctly to understand that their form of worship was the only correct one. If these accomplished man roasters were to get into power again what would become of some of us, eh?
32I took a ramble through the fields by the banks of the Severn and visited the little island on which the two kings in the olden time fought a duel. The sheep and kine were grazing the green grass on the battle ground. Here and there a hardy wild flower or December rose added a little touch of bright color to the dark green of the boxwood, laurel and evergreen pine, while the setting sun lit up the hilltops. Rural England is indeed beautiful. But it should be seen in May and June.
34On the way to the station to take the train for London I was very forcibly attracted by the excellence of a Gloucester street band. The men stood on the pavement and played for pennies as other street musicians do, but I never before heard such excellent street music. The orchestra consisted of a violin, a harp, a clarinet, a flute, a cornet and a double bass. They all had portable stands and played from notes. I know many a theatre orchestra within a thousand miles of the office of THE MUSICAL COURIER that could not in any way but noise compete with these wandering minstrels. I got back to London just in time to hear Paderewski play at the "Pops." My letter is rambling enough already without tacking on any London doings, so I will stop.
36CLARENCE LUCAS.
38Jean de Reszke in "Tristan."—Jean de Reszké, who is better in Wagnerian rôles than in any others (partly because he loves them more), is to sing the part of "Tristan" at the forthcoming production of Wagner's love tragedy in Paris next spring, and perhaps also in London. In Munich, the extraordinary success of last summer's Wagner festival has led to the plan of having a similar festival next summer, supplementary to the Bayreuth performances, "Tristan" will be sung five times, and "Die Meistersinger" and the four Nibelung dramas four times each. St. Petersburg too is to have a Wagner cycle this season, under the management of Pollini, of Hamburg. It will comprise twenty performances. During the year ending June 30, 1893, the number of performances of Wagner's operas in the German language amounted to 1,047, which is 227 beyond those of the preceding twelve months. The number of performances of the Nibelung's Ring has nearly doubled in that period. As for Paris, Zola has pointed out in a recent article that Wagner had the largest share of the receipts at the Opéra last year (the amount of taïtûmes for his operas was six times as great as that for Meyerbeer's, and thirty-three and sixty times as great respectively as those for Rossini and Verdi). Yet so far only two of Wagner's operas are included in the Paris repertory. What will it be when eight others have been added? But while Europe is thus reveling in Wagner, New York is left out in the cold, although we have here at present Mr. Seidl, Jean de Reszké, Fischer and Materna—the greatest living Wagnerian conductor and three of the greatest Wagnerian singers. For this anomalous state of affairs, the owners of the Metropolitan Opera House are alone responsible, for the New York public is the most Wagnerian public in the world.—"Evening Post."
40CORRESPONDENCE
42NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.
44All THE MUSICAL COURIER Correspondent Cards are hereby revoked. Correspondents will please apply for their cards for the year 1894, which will be mailed on or about January 1.
46Chicago Music.
47CHICAGO, December 16, 1883.
49THE Wagner Club gave its first concert Wednesday evening, December 6, in Central Music Hall, starting out with a spurge, but the outcome was by no means what would be denominated a "howling success." It was undertaken, contrary to the wish of some at least of the club's members, and was insufficiently prepared. The most enjoyable part of the entertainment was Geo. Ellsworth Holmes' singing of Wagner's "Dreams" in place of one of the artists, who was ill. The "Flower Chorus" from Scharwenka's "Mataswintha" was heard for the first time here. It is strongly reminiscent of Wagner, notably "Wotan's Farewell" and the "Spring Song." The critics hit the club hard—and rightfully too, for there was a lack of rehearsal and the painful result was what might have been expected.
51The third concert of the Chicago Orchestra, under direction of Theodore Thomas, took place Saturday evening, December 9, the program consisting of Sinding's symphony in D minor, op. 31; the aria "Pleurez, pleurez mes yeux," from Massenet's "Le Cid" and Schumann's "Widmung" and "Ich grolle nicht," sung by Mrs. Katherine van Arnhem; Beethoven's "Leonore" overture (No. 3), and three marches by Schubert, with orchestration by Theodore Thomas.
53The Sinding symphony, played for the first time in America, is a work which it would be vain to hope to understand and justly estimate from only a single hearing. It is intensely modern in design and treatment, the harmonic and melodic material being employed with the utmost freedom, yet with built upon a clearly outlined and reasonably strict form. Wagnerian it is of course in much of its general coloring, for no man can hope to be other, and at the same time take advantage of the advance in musical art due to the labors of that master mind; yet there is no servile copying of that great composer.
55The symphony as a whole is a work of great power, full of a rugged majesty which at least is highly impressive. Personally I regret that I cannot hear it at least a dozen times at short intervals, that I might be able to arrange and estimate the value of the various impressions derived from the work, which certainly appears to be one of extraordinary importance. But where there is so much that is quite new and strange, one receives general rather than specific impressions from a single hearing. The Norwegian coloring is quite marked in the second movement, as if constructed upon some old Norse subject.
57Mrs. Van Arnhem, who has not been heard here for a number of years, shows considerable artistic advance. Her singing of the Massenet aria was intensely dramatic and expressive.
59The Schubert marches were very interesting in their new dress. In scoring them for orchestra Mr. Thomas has carefully avoided these exaggerated instrumental effects of the modern school, so opposed to the spirit of Schubert's genius, and while sacrificing nothing of necessary richness, has yet clothed Schubert's thoughts in such a garment as the composer himself might have desired.
61The first Listemann String Quartet concert brought to a hearing the Beethoven quartet in C minor, op. 18. No. 4, Schubert's D minor quartet and the first movement of Tschaikowsky's violin concerto in D, the latter most brilliantly played by Mr. Listemann, whose great technical facility was well displayed in the intricacies of the work. The quartet consists of Messrs. Listemann, Bruno Kuehn, Eugene Boegner and Bruno Steindel.
63December 14 the Marum String Quartet, consisting of Ludwig Marum, Alex. Krauss, Jos. M. Laidner and Fred Hess, gave its first concert of the season. The program consisted of quartets by Mozart in C major and by Robert Kahn, op. 8, in A major; Tartine's violin sonata in G minor, and songs by Beethoven and Rubinstein, sung by Mr. George Ellsworth Holmes.
65The fourth program of the Chicago Orchestra included the following: Overture, "Flying Dutchman;" suite No. 3, op. 55, Tschaikowsky; overture, "Lustspiel," Smetana; intermezzo, "Cavalleria Rusticana," Mascagni, and Ernest Guiraud's symphonic poem, "Chasse Fantastique." The Tschaikowsky suite, which was played for the first time in Chicago, is a delightful piece of writing, full of interest from beginning to end and extremely original. One is continually treated to agreeable surprises. The last movement is powerfully conceived and scored with great brilliancy.
67The Guiraud movement, also a novelty here, is similar in general coloring to the "Ride of the Walkurie," though not an imitation of that work. Even the rhythm of the "Ritt" motive is not easy to avoid in a work dealing with such a subject, and it has not been avoided, though it is not used in a manner that would appear as copying. The whole is treated in an original manner, with plenty of brass, as might be expected.
69FREDERIC GRANT GLEASON.
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