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Musical Courier 1894-06-20: Vol 28 Iss 745, 1894
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1most agreeable. Mr. Rockwell gave "The Forest Song," by Kreutzer, for his first selection, and later "The Monk." This young man has a full, deep voice of good range, and will undoubtedly be a singer of quality with practice.
3It was a rare treat the concert of Tuesday evening, and the Troostwyck-Dessauer Trio, of this city, covered themselves with glory. These musicians—Mr. Isadore Troostwyck, violin; Mr. Max Dessauer, flute, and Mrs. Troostwyck, piano—played as they always do in a thorough musical style, their instruments blending well. One of the charms of their playing is the entire absence of any forcing or straining for effects, giving the audience a feeling that there is always plenty of latent power in reserve. The dainty "Fackeltanz," by Meyerbeer, was played in a masterly manner, and at the close the house rang with applause, to which the artists responded, playing Langer's exquisite little gem, "Grossmutterchen." The Arion Singing Society, under the direction of Mr. Louis Kroemenich, sang well chosen selections, displaying to excellent advantage the training of their able leader. Miss Florence Klein, of Bridgeport, a soprano with a sweet voice of satisfactory range and compass, gave Cantor's "As the Dawn," "I Promise Thee" and "The Merry Brown Thrush" satisfactorily, and Mrs. Alice Fechter-Gilbert, of this city, sang the difficult scene from Handel's "L'Allegro," with flute obligato by Mr. Max Dessauer, who introduced an original cadenza with good effect. The gem of the program was the violin solo by Mr. Isadore Troostwyck, who played for the first time in this city Saint-Saëns' "Introduction and Rondo." Mr. Troostwyck played this selection, with its difficult technic, remarkably well, his double stopping, harmonics and chromatics calling for the most spontaneous and hearty applause of the evening. The pièce de résistance was "Columbus Last Night," by the Harugari Liedertafel, under the direction of Mr. Max Dessauer. The full Philharmonic Orchestra accompanied, and Mr. Ferdinand Woehler sang the baritone solos most effectively. A number that gave genuine and unexpected pleasure was the baritone solo, "The Two Grenadiers," by Mr. William Howland, late of the Bostonians. Mr. Howland sang with true dramatic fire, firmness and grace, completely charming his audience. To a well merited encore he sang Hatton's "Bid Me to Live."
5Wednesday was a day of musical surprises and each and every concert was interesting. The morning program at 9 called out a large assemblage and the singing of the Apollo Quintet, Mrs. Imogen Ross, of Norwalk, and Miss Louise Daniker was exceptionally enjoyable. Mrs. Rosabelle Frushour-Lines, the pianist and pupil of Mr. Homer Bartlett, of New York, was well received and her rendering of Chopin's "Barcarolle" and a ballad written by Mr. Bartlett were decidedly agreeable features of the morning. Mrs. Lines has loose, flexible fingers, of more than ordinary agility. She phrases with good taste and judgment. Her touch is warm and sympathetic and her execution of a high order. Mr. William Davol Saunders, the Bridgeport violinist, and Miss Carrie Allen Baker helped to round out a program that delighted all.
7It was at the concert down for 2 p. m. that the seating capacity of the Hyperion was taxed to the utmost and the musical treat of the season enjoyed. Arthur Friedheim, the pianist, was the magnet and this masterly interpreter of Liszt was certainly wonderful. Mr. Friedheim has been called a player of moods, an artist, who, when he is good, is very, very good, and when not, very dry. This may be true, but if so he was able to summon his very best mood yesterday and succeeded in captivating the large audience of musicians, who listened to his superb playing most attentively, breaking out every now and then into appreciative applause. Rugged, strong and handsome is Friedheim, full of passion, which he throws into the instrument before him. His opening number was Beethoven's sonata, op. 3, and he interpreted it exquisitely, but as it was as an interpreter of Chopin and Liszt that Mr. Friedheim was at his best, and his marvelously brilliant rendering of the etude in G flat, the mazurka in B minor, the dainty waltz in C sharp minor, and the barcarolle will always be remembered. In all of these Chopin numbers Mr. Friedheim showed himself a richly gifted pianist, full of manifold intellectual and technical gifts. The Liszt numbers were the gems, and I doubt if any other living pianist could interpret Liszt better. Mr. Friedheim reproduced with noble passion and delicate poetic feeling, the great composer's "Harmonies du Soir," and Rhapsodie No. 2. He seemed inspired, his vivid imagination conceiving and interpreting the master clearly. He is a true artist and the greatest pianist that has appeared in New Haven, with the exception of Paderewski.
9As an encore Mr. Friedheim played a fascinating Polish song, written by Chopin and arranged by Liszt. Mrs. Lillian Patchen sang the Bohemian song from "Carmen" and two little gems, "Thou Art So Like a Flower" and "Summer." She has a finely cultivated voice, rich, clear and full, her upper and lower register being equally pleasing, and she sings with warmth, color and splendid dramatic effect.
11There was a sense of ennui after the Friedheim concert, a feeling that one would like to dream over the piano recital, when Chopin and Liszt had been so understandingly interpreted, and so perhaps I did not fully appreciate the opening passages of the 4 o'clock program, so admirably sung by the Park Church Quartet, of Hartford; but before the second number I was wide awake, and in touch with the excellent quartet work and solo singing of this well balanced band of musicians. The work was highly satisfactory, and I think it would be difficult to find a better quartet in the State. Mr. Barrington sang the "Torreador's Song" from "Carmen," with a dash that won for him warm praise, while Mrs. Smith's soprano selections were equally satisfactory. Miss Woodruff demonstrated that she was a violinist of promise, and the piano duet by Mr. and Mrs. Albert Woeltge gave much pleasure. Mrs. Marwick, the contralto, rendered Rossini's "Ah! Rendimi" beautifully, her full, rich sonorous voice calling for the highest praise. Mr. Maercklein, the tenor, was heard to advantage in a recitative from "Regin," and the concert closed with three pretty songs well sung by the quartet.
13The close of the convention was the presentation at the Hyperion Thursday of Haydn's oratorio, "The Creation." The soloists of the evening were Mrs. S. S. Thompson, soprano, who sang the part of "Gabriel;" George DeVoll, tenor, who sang "Uriel," and Ericsson F. Bushnell, bass, who sang "Raphael." The chorus which consisted of nearly 200 voices, was selected from local talent and the orchestra was taken from the New York Symphony Society. The whole was under the direction of Frank Damrosch, to whom great praise is due for the successful performance of last night. To select, drill, train and direct a body of singers of this size is a most difficult task, with unlimited time; but Mr. Damrosch undertook this work at a late day and the results shown last night from but four rehearsals were phenomenal. The chorus sang with excellent precision and never failed at critical moments. The shadings and observation of the nuances were always carefully considered and rendered with commendable effects. The parts blended excellently and were well balanced, with the exception that perhaps the altos were a trifle weak. The instrumentation is to me one of the greatest charms, and the orchestra played with finish and much enthusiasm. The able director kept the members constantly up to their work and the whole thing went with clear, crisp, young tempo that is too rare not to be appreciated.
15Among the soloists I was especially pleased with Mrs. Thompson's singing. She has a natural voice of good pitch, elastic and full, which she uses with ease and skill. Her runs and trills were smooth and even, her phrasing clear and distinct, and her tone color of exquisite quality. Her rendering of "With Verdure Clad" and "On Mighty Pens" was especially good, and won hearty and deserved applause.
17George De Voll lives in New York and is not well known here. He is looked upon as a young tenor of considerable promise, and his singing last night fully sustained this opinion. His voice is a trifle peculiar in quality, and seems to have more of baritone resonance and less of the tenor beauty than might be desired. He used his voice with discrimination, and his enunciation was good. Taken as a whole his work was quite satisfactory, and his "In Native Worth" was excellently given and heartily applauded.
19Ericsson Bushnell is probably better known than any singer in New England. He has naturally a grand voice of prodigious volume and sonority. Uniting with this a virile beauty and superb presence he has often been called the best oratorio singer of the East—a title that he has well earned. Last night he at first appeared to be not in his best voice, although his "Rolling in Foaming Billows" was loudly encored, but later as he worked his voice up he sang with more of his old time confidence and power, and his "Straight Opening her Fertile Womb" was given with the old time vitality and energy. Its dashing rendition made a decided hit.
21JANE MARLIN.
23Sacred Music. Is There Any?
25THE recent edict of Pope Leo XIII., directed against the performance in church of certain masses, motets and Te Deums, leads naturally to the inquiry, What constitutes sacred music? Perhaps every one will answer this question in his own way, or at least to his own satisfaction. But still the subject is worthy of discussion.
27We begin with the premise of His Holiness, that the masses of Leo, Cherubini, Hayden, Mozart, Beethoven, Von Weber, Schubert, Rossini and Verdi are inappropriate and incongruous as religious music. This prohibition applies also to the "Stabat Mater" of Dvorák, as well as to the one by Rossini. Palestrina's and, perhaps, the one by Pergolese may be accepted by the elect.
29There can be no reasonable doubt as to the fact that before Palestrina composed his Marcellus Mass the music of the church was of an unworthy character, and brought great scandal upon many things which are held to be sacred. The so called ecclesiastic composers were, almost without exception, pedantic manufacturers of antiphony and polophony, who considered the puzzles of canonic imitation to be more important than musical expressiveness. If they were in need of a motive to work out they did not scruple to select the tune of a Troubadore's love ditty, and upon this foundation they build up their masses and motets! The miracle plays, and even the first oratorios, were equally objectionable and often ludicrous.
31But the Council of Trent succeeded in banishing such works from the sacred precincts of cloisters and cathedrals, and a precedent was thus established. Since then the art of music has made immense progress toward perfection of method and means, and, as its higher expression is admitted to be of a psychologic nature, it seems more than strange that such works as the Mass in C, by Beethoven, should be denied their sacred character. Beethoven intended his work for the service of the church and he was not a hypocrite. But if it is not religious music, pray, what kind may it be? Dramatic, perhaps! Ah! the text is dramatic. The Kyrie Eleison and Qui Tollis are forms of prayer, but what is a composer to do with such portentous sentences as are contained in the Credo? Et incarnatus est, de spirito sancto, et Maria Virgine, et homo factus est. Then the Crucifixus etiam, pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato, passus et sepultus est, and the following et resurrexit. Since miracles cannot be told in tones, and rhythms the musician must be something more than lyric and polyphonic in composing these words. So with the Tuba miram, confutatis maledictis, and innumerable other passages in the Latin hymns and masses.
33We read about people being carried insensible out of the Sistine Chapel during the performance of Allegri's famous "Miserere." The means employed to produce such effects are highly dramatic, however else they may be considered in the Eternal City.
35An eminent cardinal, after listening to Rossini's "Messe Solennelle," congratulated the jolly composer upon his work. "If thou wilt but knock at the gates of Heaven with this mass," said his eminence, "St. Peter will admit thee with all the sins upon thy head." Yet it cannot be claimed that Rossini was a serious composer. He was sent into the world to cheer and beguile us with his sparkling melodies, not to preach the story of the cross.
37Haydn and Mozart also expressed a good deal of the incarnate in their masses and motets.
39Even in Haydn's so called Imperial Mass (in D) the Kyrie begins with a noisy trumpet fanfare, and though there are some serious touches in the opening chorus, the soprano solo would better illustrate a merry May song than the burden of the words, "Christ, have mercy upon us." The Gloria is positively trifling, with its common, potpourri cadences, which may mean almost anything except Gloria in Excelsis Deo. The Quoniam is in the same style. A more serious vein may be observed in the Resurrexit, yet the work as a whole is disappointing, even as concert music.
41Since, however, there is a disposition to be captious and hypercritical, with regard to religious music that is superior to the Imperial Mass, it becomes a question whether the composer may use the artistic material and technic of musical composition in church works, or whether he must confine his inspiration to the tonality of the ecclesiastic modes, and employ none but the most austere and penitential style, à la Palestrina.
43If it be necessary to pursue the latter course, then the laws of evolution and the important results of art progress count as nothing; the dials of time must be turned backward 300 years, and we shall again live in an age of bigotry and barbarism. Every belief and rule of ethics will be provided in printed formula, and a simple expression of the heaven bestowed gift of independent thought will insure for the daring "heretic" a bed of burning fagots! What, then, have we as a result? Asceticism, pure and simple, set in a casket of crude and unyielding form; canonic polyphony, skeletons and darkness, but never a scintillating ray of eternal sunshine nor a spark of joyous vitality. The grace and charm of beautiful melodies (these are earthy and "sensuous") are proscribed. But we would have the Ambrosian and Gregorian scales, and hundreds of well defined rules for such emergencies as might arise. What more shall be demanded? The artistic means of musical expression
45Heine was nearer the right when he said of Rossini's "Stabat Mater" that it is better religious music than is the "Miserere" by Allegri. However, as the "Stabat Mater" is not necessarily a part of the Catholic Church service, we may very well leave Rossini's work, with its symmetrical forms, artistic finish and fascinating cantileni, to charm the worldly patrons of the concert room.
47But shall we renounce such works as Beethoven's mass in C because they are not wholly in the ecclesiastical style? Here, as everywhere in high class, modern music, we find suggestive attempts at tone-painting. While composing his excellent C minor "Requiem," Cherubini did not hesitate, during a momentary pause in the orchestral prelude to "Dies irae," to introduce a fortissimo "Schlag" on the tamtam. Is it incongruous or theatrical? The composer did not so consider it.
49The oratorio is still more inclined toward dramatic representation, and Rubinstein persists in calling this form "Sacred Opera." The text of nearly every oratorio is a record of strange and exciting events, of personal characterization and connecting incidents. Over these is spread the mantle of Holy Writ, with moments of prayer, penitence and thanksgiving.
51The "Mount of Olives," "St. Paul," "Elijah," "Naaman," "The Tower of Babel," "St. Ludmila," all are, in a greater or a lesser degree, dramatic.
53Even the St. Matthew Passion Music by Bach is not altogether ecclesiastical nor lyrical, but contains considerable of the epic and the tragic. An eminent critic has said of this oratorio, "It far excels all previous works of this nature in dramatic power, and it would be perhaps impossible for anything to be acted with more effect, if the solemn nature of the subject admitted of such a mode of performance." And, as already intimated, it is well that the human element has entered into our standard church music, since the divine is not to us attainable.
55A glad and joyous Chrisfan is a more potential exemplifier of the faith than is the penitential ascetic who dubs us "miserable worms of the earth," and who describes the charms of nature as a "howling wilderness." Give us the sunshine and flowers, bird songs and laughing waters, and the spirit of piety will not be wanting.
57It is not the purpose of this dissertation to deny the peculiarly impressive nature of certain church services. The acoustic properties of the interior arrangement, the hallowed associations, quiet decorum and mystic blending of lights, together with the sombre and suasive tones of the organ, all afford something of an antithesis to everyday life and common surroundings where "the world, the flesh and the devil" hold their carnival.
59That the effect is influenced by music, and that the musical impression owes some of its charm to the churchly
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