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Musical Courier 1894-08-29: Vol 29 Iss 755, 1894
75 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 7. See the scan on archive.org.
1The Musical Courier.
2PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY
3—BY THE—
4MUSICAL COURIER COMPANY,
5(Incorporated under the Laws of the State of New York.)
619 Union Square W., New York.
7TELEPHONE: – – – 1253-18th.
8Cable Address, "Pegujar," New York.
9EDITORS:
10MARC A. BLUMENBERG. OTTO FLOERSHEIM.
11JAMES G. HUNEKER. HARRY O. BROWN.
12HUGH CRAIG.
13BUSINESS DEPARTMENT:
14SPENCER T. DRIGGS. FRANK M. STEVENS.
15EPES W. SARGENT. C. H. DITTMAN.
16J. E. VAN HORNE.
17EUROPEAN BRANCH OFFICES:
18OTTO FLOERSHEIM, 17 Link Str.,
19Berlin W., Germany.
20LONDON OFFICE:
2115 Argyll St., Oxford Circus, W.
22FRANK VINCENT ATWATER, Manager.
23CHICAGO OFFICE: 226 Wabash Ave.
24JOHN HALL, MANAGER.
25BOSTON OFFICE: 32 West St.
26LEIPZIG, GERMANY: GEORG HUG, Königstrasse 16.
27LONDON: J. B. CRAMER & CO., 201 Regent St.
28PARIS: BERNATONI's, 37 Avenue de l'Opera.
29Subscription (including postage), invariably in advance:
30Yearly, $4.00; Foreign, $5.00; Single Copies, Ten Cents.
31RATES FOR ADVERTISING.
32PER INCH.
33Three Months………….$20.00 Nine Months………….$60.00
34Six Months………….40.00 Twelve Months………….80.00
35Special rates for preferred positions.
36All remittances for subscriptions or advertising must be made by check, draft or money orders, payable to the MUSICAL COURIER COMPANY.
37Advertisements for the current week must be handed in by 5 P. M. on Monday.
38All changes in advertisements must reach this office by Friday noon preceding the issue in which changes are to take effect.
39American News Company, New York, General Distributing Agents.
40Western News Company, Chicago, Western Distributing Agents.
41ESTABLISHED JANUARY, 1880.
42NO. 755.
43NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1894.
44NEWSDEALERS
45Should place their orders immediately with their supply houses for the September Special Issue of THE MUSICAL COURIER, which will contain also the first European (International) Edition of The Musical Courier, making together the largest and most interesting illustrated weekly paper ever published.
46It appears from European papers that Mascagni has signed an agreement with Abbey & Grau to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera House next spring his operas, "Ratcliff" and "Cavalleria Rusticana."
47The Wagner festival last week at Brighton Beach given by Mr. Anton Seidl and his forces was a great success. Richard Wagner is a name to conjure with even in the dog-days. And westward the course of his empire has wended its way. America is just beginning to understand the true Richard Wagner, thanks to Mr. Anton Seidl, his prophet on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.
48The mythological ballet is out of fashion in France, and has been so for the past fifty years, but it seems to flourish still in Russia. They are preparing now for the immediate production in St. Petersburg a new ballet, entitled "The Awakening of Flora." The music has been written by Ricardo Drigo, who is also charged to compose a work of a similar character for the nuptials of the Czarewitch with Princess Alix of Hesse.
49ABBEY & GRAU have made a move in the right direction when they decreed to elect fresher voices as choristers for their forthcoming season of grand opera. There is no reason why our native born chorus singers should be less welcome than the dear old "marrons" of our childhood. But we will miss Messieurs et Mesdames les Autres, we will miss their ponderous grace and their aural miscarriages. An American chorus is a good idea—an idea we believe that should be credited to Mrs. Jeanette M. Thurber.
50The outrageous discourtesy shown the wealthy Miss Helen Carroll, of Baltimore, by the Bayreuth authorities is quite in consonance with the policy pursued in the home of Wagnerian music drama. In a few years the Bayreuth people will have so abused their chances that the goose that lays the golden egg will be killed or else frightened off altogether. And that suggests to us the notion that America may have its Bayreuth, its grand Wagnerian festivals, and mayhap its "Parsifal." But all this by-and-by.
51The season is dead; long live the season! Gird up your thighs, O musicians! the season has begun, and though your fingers may have lost some of their cunning your vacation on the ocean, in the woods, on the mountains, even on the roof gardens, has done you good. Another nine months of hard work, nerve-taxing perhaps, but work that should show something in the end. Man cannot live by good works alone, nor yet entirely on bread, but there are spiritual victories that are greater than money rewards. And that of course reminds one of the pecuniary side of the question. It is our belief that this season, musically, will be much brisker than its predecessor. Business and public confidence are both better than a year ago, and music, the most sensitive of the professions, is bound to gain new impetus. So to work, and let the laggards grumble!
52The idea of accompanying dinner with music is not new, says the London "Musical News," and a mechanical contrivance does not justify any artistic pride. We aim at what is luxurious and recherché, but, in spite of our glory in the advantages of the nineteenth century, it may be doubted if the rich people who lived four or five centuries ago, did not in some respects know how to enjoy life better than the rich of to-day.
53From the various pictorial representations which have come down to us it would appear to have been a common thing in the Middle Ages to accompany a dinner with music. The following passage from the "Cronica del Conde Don Pedro Niño," written in the fourteenth century, gives a delightful view of the contemporary customs: "As long as the dinner lasted he who was a good talker, and knew how to be honest and modest, spoke with all his cunning both of love and arms. And he was sure of finding a ready ear and a quick tongue to reply. Nor were there wanting jongleurs, who played on pleasing instruments. When the Benedicite had been said and the cloths removed the minstrels came, and the hostess danced with Pedro Niño, and each of the knights with a lady; this lasted about an hour."
54HAYDN IN LONDON.
55It is just a century since Haydn made his second trip to London, and his sojourn there had the greatest influence on his creative imagination and power. Among other works that he composed in the great city were the so-called "Twelve English Symphonies," the opera "Orpheus" and his last quartets. Haydn was much appreciated and received much attention in the English capital. The greatest honor, however, came to him from the Royal Court.
56At an evening concert which the Duke of York gave at his residence, where only works from Haydn's pen were performed, the Prince of Wales introduced the master to the King.
57"Dr. Haydn," said he, pleasantly, "you have written much."
58"Yes, sire, more than what is good," answered Haydn.
59"The world contradicts this," retorted the King. Haydn was then also introduced to the Queen, who asked him to sing some German songs.
60"Your Majesty," said he, "my voice is only so big," showing the point of his little finger. This created much merriment and pleasant comment, while the master sat down at the piano and sang "Ich bin der verliebteste."
61The Queen often received him at Buckingham Palace, and he was on one occasion presented with Händel's manuscript oratorio "Der Erlöser," a favor which gave him much pleasure.
62Overtures were made him repeatedly to induce him to remain permanently in England. On one occasion the Queen said to him! "I will install you at Windsor," and looking mischievously at the King, continued: "then we will have music tête-à-tête."
63"Oh, I will not be jealous of Haydn," retorted the King; "he is a good, honest German."
64"And to maintain this reputation is my greatest pride," returned Haydn.
65BEWARE OF FRAUD.
66The visit paid by our Mr. Blumenberg to Europe this year has disclosed to him the fact that a regular traffic exists in the production of fraudulent and illegitimate musical instruments supposed to be old and prepared especially for American collectors, who become the victims of systematized robbery and fraud.
67Clavichords, harpsichords, spinets, violins, 'cellos and curious instruments in imitation of mediæval types are manufactured or doctored to give them the appearance of old specimens, and they are placed in the track of American buyers, who are apparently misled chiefly because of their confidence in the parties engaged in this line of business in Europe and their agents in the United States.
68It is therefore our duty to advise all persons who propose to spend any money on such objects to investigate the party or parties offering them for sale. Europe has been scoured of nearly all perfect specimens and the pedigree of nearly every legitimate instrument is known. If this cannot be produced together with the instrument no one should be tempted to purchase, for it is almost certain that a "fake" or fraud is about to be foisted upon him, especially if he is an American—for the stuff is made particularly with an eye upon the American market.
69PIANO-TOUCH.
70The piano-touch controversy still continues, echoes of it having reached the far Pacific. Mr. Finck in the "Evening Post" of last Saturday quotes approvingly Mr. J. C. Fillmore as follows:
71Mr. Fillmore shows on scientific principles why the tone-quality depends partly on the maker of the instrument, partly on the player. The place where the hammer strikes the string, the weight and tension of the string, and the size, shape and hardness or softness of the hammer determine the number and relative prominence of the overtones, on which, as Helmholtz has shown, musical quality (color or timbre) depends. These things are for the piano maker to determine, and on the differences in these respects depend the differences in various kinds of pianos. But, given the same piano, how is it that different players can by their idiosyncrasies of touch evoke quite different qualities of tone from it? Mr. Fillmore answers this question in a paragraph which is so clear and convincing that it is worth quoting entire:
72But there is one important factor in determining the relative prominence of the overtones which is always under the control of the pianist, viz., the force and suddenness of the blow of the hammer. A sudden, violent blow of the hammer on the string will always set it vibrating in small fractions, producing a harsh quality of tone by the admixture of high, dissonant overtones; whereas a more gradual blow, approximating a push, will never evoke these dissonant elements. Tone-quality, then, depends when the piano is one scientifically built by a first-class maker, on the "touch" of the player. Let anyone strike the key of a first-class piano violently with the end of his stiff finger, with the wrist and arm rigid; then let him produce the most powerful note possible by means of the "up-arm" pressure. The result will satisfy him of the difference in tone-quality produced in the one case and in the other. The moral of which is, that tone-color is produced by touch; that, with a loose, flexible hand, wrist and arm, there may be an almost infinite number of gradations of touch, both of pressure and of modified blows; and that none of them need produce a harsh tone, while within certain limits there may be a very considerable variety of tone-quality. The subject of touch, therefore, is shown to be of fundamental and transcendent importance; while the choice of a piano is not less so.
73The San Francisco "Wasp" has this to say in regard to Mr. Lang's assertion:
74The aristocracy of pianists in the East is now agitating the question of touch in piano playing, provoked by the assertion made by Dr. Lang, tending to demonstrate that the tone of a piano cannot be altered by any pianist. With few exceptions, it seems to me that they have taken the thesis in a too material if not absolutely wrong;
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