Scan 17
Musical Courier 1895-01-09: Vol 30 Iss 774, 1895
71 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 18. See the scan on archive.org.
1MUSIC SENT FOR CRITICISM.
3G. A. Leopoldt, Hamburg.
4JOSÉ MANUEL JIMÉNEZ, . . . Homage à Milanés.
5The Cuban poet Milanés is here kept in remembrance by means of a regularly constructed melody with arpeggio accompaniment, which from symmetrical design, unaffected harmony and ease of execution may find great favor with amateurs competent to play Mendelssohn's "Songs without Words."
6As this is only the third work of its composer, and indicates ability, schooling and absence of crudity, one may well expect some pleasant things from him in future.
8Richault et Cie., Paris.
9LOUIS DÉRIEVES, . . . . . . . Marche Hongroise.
10The setting of this celebrated march by Berlioz in his "La Damnation de Faust" is here found arranged for six hands on one piano and for players who are not capable of executing passages requiring great technical powers.
11It seems a pity that duets and trios such as these are not printed in score, like Liszt's orchestral symphonies. They would then be available for solo purposes to good musicians able to play from many staves at once, and to organists who wish to have possession of all the figurations found in complex works, in order to reproduce as much as possible when presiding at instruments that offer unusual facilities for rendering elaborate details.
13Richault et Cie., Paris.
14HECTOR BERLIOZ, . . . . . . . "Je Crois en Vous."
15Baritone singers seeking songs not greatly known and yet which are the productions of composers of world wide fame would do well to look at this lyric. The words are by Léon Guérin. All is simple technically. The six verses are set to the same melody, but are fully engraved out, so that the cost of the song is 7½ francs. Teachers with backward pupils will have but seven lines of music to impart. The range of voice required is from C to high F. The opening bar is like that of Walther's "Preis Lied" in "Die Meistersinger," transposed one semi-tone higher; or, rather, Wagner's vocal beginning closely resembles the instrumental opening of Berlioz. This is mentioned as a most singular coincidence, as the two works are not otherwise related.
17C. F. Peters, Leipsic.
18OSCAR MEYER, . . . . . . . . . . . Vier Lieder.
19Four songs with accompaniments for the piano are here set to German words by Heine, Mina Meyer, Oscar Meyer (the composer of the music) and Goethe. Perhaps the best is "Sehnsucht" ("Longing"), which rings out with great earnestness and depth of feeling Goethe's cry: "Return we pray; 'tis winter without thee, although 'tis May."
20This song has been translated into English by Lady Macfarren and is published separately.
21The melody ranges principally from F to F. There is a low D, but it occurs at a feminine termination, and therefore wants but little tone and may be merely indicated.
22A tenor singer with limited range of voice may essay this little art work, especially if he can render well delicate and tender accents, and bring himself into sympathy with the poet's feeling. These four songs form op. 2 of a writer from whom much is expected.
24Emile Renaud et Cie., Paris.
25GEORGES PAPIN, . . . . . . . Arrangements for 'Cello' and Piano.
26A collection of works by ancient and modern composers arranged for the violoncello and piano are here found which may prove useful to teachers and a welcome addition to our domestic music; for the series A (facile) and also series C (artistique) contain pieces that are so easy as to be within the powers of the majority of amateurs. The celebrated "Sicilienne" by Bach (given in G-minor), and the first "Song without Words," by Mendelssohn (transposed to G major), first of all recommend themselves, and, like many of the other pieces, present few difficulties to the arranger. The case is different with Chopin's sixth study (op. 10) in E flat minor, which is here transposed into A minor and termed "Andante Lamento." The chief melody is assigned to the stringed instrument, and the piano part takes the leavings or remainder of the composition. As the most eloquent notes of the harmony (such as thirds and discords) are commonly used in melodies because of their having deeper signification than fifths or octaves, there is always danger that this style of treatment will prove disadvantageous.
27It cannot be truly said that the resultant effect here is always good. In vocal music it is not considered proper to omit important harmonic notes in the accompaniment because they may be guaranteed by the singers; for instrumental music stands so far apart, or on a plane by itself, that harmonies must be rendered intact and quite independently of what vocalists may intone. From similar considerations, in such complex harmonic phrases as Chopin here employs, it becomes a question whether the notes played by a violoncello may be properly omitted in the piano part. It is believed that such a part can hardly prove satisfactory in itself at best, and is most disappointing when the essential notes of harmonies are absent. The only point here gained is that all is made easy to comprehend and execute; and therefore this highly artistic production is brought within the range of players hitherto unable to attempt it. Chopin, however, suffers. It may also be said that it is hardly fair to display harmonies half an octave higher than they were composed. It is evident they must appear thin and attenuated rather than full, plump, warm and glowing.
28Additional parts may be purchased for oboe, or violin and organ in anticipation of the introduction of this piece at funeral services.
29In series A, Niedermeyer's pretty song, "The Lake," appears in the original key. The barcarolle from "Oberon" is given a fourth higher.
31G. Schirmer, New York.
32C. WHITNEY COOMBS, . . . . . The Christ Child.
33Church singers choosing offertory solos will do well to look twice at this new contribution.
34It is published in A flat for tenors and sopranos, and in F for mezzo sopranos or baritones.
35There is, besides the piano accompaniment, a part for solo violin, which, however, may be omitted, as its subject matter is either unimportant or is contained in the part for clavier. With this part organists may be able to accomplish much, as it does not consist of commonplace, guitar-like accompaniments (which are most difficult to make respectable on so noble an instrument as the church organ), but, on the contrary, appears in some places to have been conceived for orchestra and in the modern spirit.
36The opening instrumental motto, which is repeated and made to appear subsequently (before the triumphal entry of the "Angelic Hymn") consists of harmonies that are most unusual in songs of this nature.
37These chords, when properly "laid out" (i.e., displayed by a master well acquainted with their roots and orchestral works of the modern school, and also in sympathy with them)—may be made to have a truly magnificent effect. The extreme brilliancy of such discords, when intelligently compounded—i.e., doubled, balanced and registrated on a truly fine organ—give at once (in the first four bars) a lofty tone to this lyric and do not interfere in any way with the singer.
38On the contrary, they prepare the mind for his utterances. Such periodic elevations even make a subsidence into softer passages for narrations, &c., a welcome relief. The monotonous dead level of ordinary semi-religious, semi-sentimental songs that come into favor with vocalists is not noted here, to the comfort of choir directors.
39With a little planning this work may be made immediately enjoyable and eventually perhaps somewhat popular. Its final phrases are capable of a high degree of exaltation by a good singer, like the analogous ones in "The Palms," but the modulations, &c., here are uniformly more novel and ambitious.
40Therefore the piece may suffer if inconsiderately treated by novices. When an organist must make his own part from the piano copy the more elaborate the music the more his skill must be taxed to realize the composer's intentions vividly. For this reason popularity here, as in Chopin's case, will have its drawbacks. Skilled artists tired of "The Palms" will find in "The Christ Child" a work on which to exercise their powers that may well reward them.
42The Boston Music Company, Boston.
43ETHELBERT NEVIN, . . . . . . . Four Songs.
44These songs may find a welcome among singers of small capacity, as regards technical matters and the deeper things of art, who wish to escape from the dreary monotony—the dead level of the ordinary drawing room ballad.
45"La Vie" ("Life") fills but two pages, yet it is a perfectly rounded little lyric, that may soon be learned and immediately enjoyed, because of the novelty of the harmonies, &c. (and consequent relief from ordinary guitar-like accompaniments), to say nothing of the beauty of the setting itself. The song with Charles Kingsley's words, "The Merry, Merry Lark Was Up," occupies no more space, and will suit a contralto singer of little skill. It may thus be useful to teachers. The composer has not been so successful here, and has apparently amused himself by risking consecutive octaves between the melody and the lowest bass several times, and fifths by contrary motion once. "Ti Saluto" ("Thine My Greeting") is longer, and it may answer as an exercise on the ascending chromatic scale, and spare a student a dreary singing tutor étude. "In Der Nacht" ("In the Night") (Graf Platen), dedicated to Max Heinrich, is an energetic song suitable for baritones.
46The printing, paper, engraving, &c., of these works is good.
48C. F. Peters, Leipsic.
49OSCAR MEYER, . . . . . . . "Willkommen und Abschied."
50A song for tenor voice is here found which is no mere amateurish effusion. It requires from the vocalist considerable power of voice and high appreciation of the aims of modern composers. The first four pages are set so low as to appear designed for a baritone; only toward the close, when the melody rises with great enthusiasm to the highly emphatic high B flat, does it exhibit the upper register of the tenor voice freely. The German words alone are given. The composer seems to have striven hard to do justice to the poetical ideas of Goethe in every respect. The figurations in the accompaniment, the startling changes of key and style, the novel modulations and splendid harmonies sufficiently indicate this. No singer should attempt such songs unless he be prepared to revel in a sort of orgie of instrumental sound, which by supplying utterances of wildly passionate enthusiasm nobly second his efforts and incite him to increase them. All is intense. Heroic tenors, having the co-operation of a good pianist, who can deliver these harmonies, &c., understandingly, may essay the work in small concert rooms. But the assistance of an orchestra seems almost as much required as for the Preislied of the Meistersinger, when the auditorium is large.
52Oliver Ditson Company, Boston and New York.
53KATE OCKLESTON-LIPPA, . When Love Was Young.
54This is a prize song of the Pittsburg Art Society for 1898, which on inspection proves to be a pretty little lyric for soprano voice (to Alfred Austin's well-known words) which is by no means commonplace or ballad-like in style. The key is that of G flat, and the compass of voice requires from D flat to F (a tenth).
55There are changes of time and key and manner sufficient to give scope to any singer who might choose to ignore the restraints of the concert platform and partly act (or even over act) in order to bring out as vividly as possible the full meaning of the words. A mere glance at this work is insufficient to give any adequate idea of what it is capable when rendered by a really clever vocalist, for it belongs to the class of songs which are said to be "made" by the singer. The vocal melody demands perfect freedom, and is not to be reinforced by any instrument at certain points, for the singer's impulses here may not be restrained. And yet some of the intervals used are so far chromatic as to seem to require instrumental definition and harmonic establishment.
56A vivacious singer playing her own accompaniment might easily overcome such difficulties, and find in "When Love Was Young" a welcome addition to her stock of favorite pieces for home use.
58Fritz Schuberth, Leipsic.
59BERN. BOEKELMANN, . . . Tête-à-Tête Valse.
60. . . Three Octave Studies.
62Theo. Presser, Philadelphia.
63BERN. BOEKELMANN, . . . Bach Fugues in Colored Notation.
64This composer proves himself to be a didactic musician of no mean order, being found striving to lighten the labors of students by well devised schemes of teaching and succeeding well. The waltz will prove a good study for the equalization of the hands. The three octave studies, entitled "Falco" (A major), "Cygnus" (in C) and "Apis" (in C sharp minor), are all for the attainment of a true legato style of performance such as an organist must acquire.
65Their use may be greatly extended for this reason.
66But Mr. Boekelmann deserves still greater praise and most hearty thanks for his labors in inventing and perfecting a method of printing music with notes of different colors and shapes (types) by which highly complex contrapuntal passages may be analyzed by players who are ignorant of the laws governing strict counterpoint—or the devices of fugal construction—and the considerations that have dominated the best writers from Palestrina down to our times. He also deserves a more substantial return for expenditures, evidently made with a sincere desire to aid students throughout Europe and America.
67Agencies are established at Amsterdam, Moscow, Milan, Paris, London and Copenhagen for the sale of these aids to the study of fugal formations. Eight fugues, forming a second series, are now put forth, which are, like those in the first, selected from Bach's forty-eight preludes and fugues. Each is accompanied with a brief explanation of the fugue form in English, German and French. A harmonic scheme or abstract of the underlying chords, which act as so many moving centres of gravity, is given to show that the structure has coherence, &c., and there are also well considered explanatory remarks. Whenever the first subject appears it is printed in one uniform color, say red; the counter subject uniformly in green, and so on.
68The difficulties to be overcome in preparing a separate plate for each color (and engraving all the plates so accurately that when all are separately passed through the press, none of the notes overlap or appear partly on lines and partly in spaces, &c.) were so great that nothing but the most indomitable will would have persisted until the desired end was gained.
69If only as a curiosity readers may wish to order the comparatively simple fugue in C minor (vol. 1, No. 2) or the more complex one in C sharp minor (first series) in the same volume, which is in five parts.
70Difficulties have not only been overcome, but the copy is really beautifully executed, perfectly clear to decipher, and is refreshing to the eye from its variegated tints.
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