Scan 14
Musical Courier 1895-07-17: Vol 31 Iss 802, 1895
96 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026. Printed page 15. See the scan on archive.org.
A town on its own line is one of the directory's headings. That is where the town on a maker's page comes from.
1mony before the National Educational Association at Denver, Col.
3Mr. William Heinrich, the blind tenor, will spend most of the summer in Paris, but will sing once or twice in London.
5Mr. Sidney Howe, the well-known tenor, and a party of friends will pass the next three weeks at Orland, Me.
7Mr. Noratio W. Parker will spend the greater part of the summer in Berlin.
9Mr. Myron W. Whitney is spending the summer with his family at their cottage on the shore of Long Pond.
11Mr. Johannes Abolescher, of the Symphony Orchestra, is at Yarmouth, N. S., for the summer.
13Richard Hoffman, the pianist, of New York, and his family are at Little Boar's Head for the season. Mr. Hoffman will play the organ, as usual, at St. Andrews-by-the Sea.
15Mme. Edna Hall, of 200 Dartmouth street, is at the Sunset Hill House, Sugar Hill, N. H., for this month.
17Charles R. Adams, the well-known vocal teacher, and Mrs. Adams are at West Harwich for the summer.
19The fifteenth season of the Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts will begin Saturday evening, October 19.
21Several members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra are at Jackson, N. H., and their concerts are a feature of the season. A sacred concert will be given at the Casino on Sunday afternoons.
23Mr. H. Gittus Lonsdale was registered at the Rockland House, Nantasket, last week.
25Miss Hattie S. Whittier, the well-known soprano, has been at Bald Head Cliff, near York Beach, Me., during the past week.
27Miss Georgia Louise Berry, the pianist, is passing the summer at Brewster, on the Cape.
29Mr. Almer H. Manning, the tenor, has filled two concert engagements in Maine during the past week. He has been very successful during the season.
31Miss Lucie A. Tucker will sing at the South Framingham Chautauqua, as usual, this season.
33The Verdi Quartet will sing Sunday afternoon and evening at the Point of Pines. Mr. Philip Greely, the second tenor, will sing his latest composition, My Dear Arline (which appeared in last Sunday's Herald), with full band accompaniment and quartet refrain.
35Mr. John B. Schoeffel, of the Tremont Theatre, is so pleased with the success of the summer season of opera at the Tremont as it has progressed under the management of Harry Askin, that he has extended the time as originally contracted for to the first of September.
37The "standing room only" sign at the Castle Square Theatre drives Mr. Rose to his summer home in Marshfield Hills, where he occupies his time in a mysterious manner. The theatre folks do not know what he is doing, but they are under the impression that he is writing a play.
39Manager Askin, who already has two important comic opera productions on his hands, Kismet and The Sphinx, signed a contract with Max Freeman after he had completed his work of directing the production of Kismet, engaging him to stage a grand production of a new comic opera which will be brought out at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York next April.
41"Bob" Barnet and G. W. Chadwick are making great progress on their light opera, Aicassin and Nicolette, or The Lovers of Provence, as they will probably call it. The second of the three acts of the book is nearly done, and nearly all of the lyrics are written. This is the most serious work that Mr. Barnet has yet done, and with him at least it is a labor of love.
43Mr. George W. Chadwick is spending the summer at West Chop, Nantucket.
45Mr. Charles Ditson, of New York, Mrs. Oliver Ditson's son, is building a villa on the hill near the Towers at Jackson, N. H., which will be one of the finest private residences in the mountains.
47Violin Collecting.
49LADY HALLE said not so long ago that violins can be turned out by the "modern master maker" quite as good as those of the old Cremona school. There may be some reservation in the "can be," but at any rate Lady Hallé herself has never given much practical encouragement to the modern master maker. She plays on a Stradivarius, dated 1709, which the dealers would probably value at something like £1,000, since it, too, has a pedigree. The instrument belonged formerly to Ernst, the celebrated virtuoso, whose widow parted with it for a sum a little under £300. Ernst had it from one of our earliest English collectors, Mr. Andrew Fountain, of Narford, Norfolk, and when it came to Lady Hallé it was in the hands of Mr. David Laurie, of Glasgow.
51There are of course many other Stradivariuses with histories, which, if one were to tell them, would fill a volume and more. There is, for example, the Tuscan Stradivarius, made by the master in 1690. In 1794 this instrument was sold to an Irish amateur for £25. This gentleman's grandson sold it in 1876 for £240 to Mr. Ricardo, who in turn sold it to Messrs. Hill in 1888 for £1,000. From this firm it passed to its present owner, who is said to have refused £2,000 for it. Thus have the prices risen. Then there is the Betts Stradivarius, whose record price was broken only by Mr. Crawford's treasure. Betts was a music seller in London some sixty years ago, and he actually bought this instrument over the counter from a stranger for a guinea! He soon found out its value, and nothing would induce him to part with it, though he was more than once offered £500 for it. Ultimately, some years after the death of Betts, Mr. George Hart purchased it for 800 guineas. It was then that Charles Reade went into raptures about the instrument. "Eight hundred guineas," he said, "seems a long price for a dealer to give, but, after all, here is a violin, a picture, and a miracle all in one; and big diamonds increase in number, but these spoils of time are limited forever now."
53Mr. Hart sold the instrument in 1886, and quite recently it again changed hands at not much less than £2,000. From a guinea to £2,000 in sixty years! There is a romance of reality about that. The "Gillott" Stradivarius, now in the possession of a Leeds collector, is so named because it was once the property of the eminent pen maker. Sixty years ago it was in Mr. Fountain's collection. It is now valued by experts at £1,000, and yet when it was sold at Christie's in 1872, after Gillott's death, it brought only £290, "amid great excitement." The low price might, however, be accounted for in this case by the fact of so many instruments as Gillott possessed being thrown on the market at the same time. Still, it is a curious circumstance that the highest prices are never secured in the salesroom. At Puttick & Simpson's in 1893 a remarkable violin, known as the "Ames" Stradivarius, in a state of almost perfect preservation, produced only £860, and this was an auction room record. Again, the highest salesroom figure for a Guarnerius was the 600 guineas paid for the instrument sold in 1876 and now used by M. Ysaye, the great Belgian violinist.
55Of Stradivarius 'cellos there are only a few in existence, and, quite apart from price, they are practically unobtainable. Mr. Forster tells on very good authority that Stradivarius once sent over some instruments to England on sale, and that they were taken back because the merchant was unable to get as much as £5 for a 'cello. One is at first inclined to rate the amateurs of those days for their stupidity until he remembers that time had then done nothing for the perfection of these instruments. Nowadays, at any rate, there is no difficulty. Mr. Franchomme sold his 'cello for £1,800; and the "Batta" 'cello was bought by Hill in 1893 for the perfectly fabulous figure of £3,200! This latter instrument belonged to M. Alexandre Batta, of Paris, and both he and his 'cello were as household words in the musical world of Paris, for the last fifty years. He bought the instrument from a French dealer in 1886 for 7,500 frs., a sum which was then considered highly extravagant. Twenty years ago a collector offered him 50,000 frs. for it, and later on a French duke tempted him with just twice that amount. Now, being a man of eighty, he has parted with his treasure—not without a pang, as those who saw him kiss the instrument reverently in the train before Mr. Hill started for England with it could best realize.
57Signor Piatti has a magnificent Stradivarius 'cello, of date 1720. It is known as the "red 'cello," because of the very rich red tint of its varnish. This, too, is an instrument with a history—a history which the signor has courteously sent from the shores of the Lake of Como. The instrument was first brought to England by a Spanish wine merchant, who placed it for sale with a Regent street dealer, asking £150 for it. For a long time it failed to find a purchaser even at that low figure. When Piatti first saw it it was in the hands of a professional musician, named Pigott, in Dublin. The eminent virtuoso at once recognized in it a magnificent instrument, and accordingly he "kept his eye on it." When Pigott died he was unfortunately unable to purchase it, but he brought it to the notice of a dealer, who secured it for £300. It was shortly afterward sold to General Oliver for £350, and the general, being a friend of Piatti, ultimately presented the 'cello to him with the remark, "I always intended it for you." When Vuillaume saw it some years afterward, he offered £800 for it; and the experts now believe that if put into the market to-day it would bring nearly £2,000. Signor Piatti, it may readily be understood, takes precious care of his possession. He never runs the risk of carrying it out of London, and has it most carefully bestowed during his absence. This is probably out of sheer affection for the instrument, for nowadays the owner of a Stradivarius need not be greatly afraid of the thief. Such an instrument has a personality which nothing short of entire demolition can disguise or destroy; and there is undoubtedly something in the remark of a writer that this personality has been a powerful agent in the cause of morality.—Cornhill.
59Marie Barnard.—Marie Barnard who had such a remarkable success with Sousa's Band throughout the country on their last tournée, sang at Manhattan Beach last week, and made the hit of the season. She received three and four encores at each appearance. Mrs. Barnard has been reengaged and will very likely also sing with Mr. Seidl at the Brighton Beach concerts. The popular soprano has been reengaged by Mr. Sousa for his long tour in spring, 1896.
61PRIZES FOR MUSICIANS.
63An Opportunity for Composers.
65THE extraordinary reputation gained by the Aeolian within the last few years among the best class of professional and amateur musicians in this country and in Europe is due chiefly to the capacity of the instrument to reproduce the musical idea in its musical sense without the defects of automatism.
67The past 100 years have given us innumerable cases of musical instruments operated by mechanical devices, which in many instances gave an exact reproduction, but these instruments were all automatic in the sense that their reproductions were purely mechanical repetitions.
69The Aeolian occupies a position entirely distinct from the automatic, mechanical, reproductive machine. It is an individuality because it enables the individual musician or player in utilizing the mechanism not merely to reproduce the composition, but to perform it as he wills; that is, in accordance with his musical intellectuality or his conception of the intentions and purposes of the composer.
71In the development of the instrument its repertory has invaded the realm of all classes of classical compositions, such as the great standard symphonies, the renowned overtures and great piano compositions and arrangements of operas, including the unrepudiated works of Richard Wagner, such as the Tetralogy, the Meistersinger, Tristan, &c.
73It may be of interest to the musician to learn that the compositions played by the Aeolian are arranged for the perforated rolls used in conjunction with the mechanical devices from the scores of the works themselves, and not from any arrangement of the piano. That is to say, there is no paraphrasing.
75Up to date the manufacturers of the Aeolian have had all their adaptations and arrangements for the Aeolian made under their own auspices, but, desirous of obtaining a variety of ideas, they are now offering the following prizes to composers, who are invited at the same time to inspect the Aeolian at 18 West Twenty-third street in order first to study its capacities and resources:
77For the best arrangement of a classical overture of Beethoven, Schumann, Wagner, Rubinstein, Tschaikowsky, Saint-Saëns, Brahms or any great composer, $100.
79For the best arrangement of a classical waltz, either one of Chopin's waltzes for the piano or a great orchestral waltz of Strauss or Rubinstein or such, $100.
81For the best arrangement of any part of a great modern symphony by Tschaikowsky, Brahms, Saint-Saëns or a symphonic movement or symphonic poem, $100.
83For an arrangement of a classical march by Schubert, Raff, Rubinstein, Richard Wagner or others of standard authority, $100.
85The prizes will be awarded in the usual method by three judges, one of whom is to be selected by the Aeolian Company, another by THE MUSICAL COURIER COMPANY, and the third by these two judges.
87Their names will be announced hereafter, and in the meantime those composers who are reflecting upon a competition are invited to visit the Aeolian Company in New York city or any of its numerous branches in the large cities of the United States, where the same courtesies will be extended to them that are extended at the New York offices.
89FRANK TAFT ORGANIST
91A BOOKLET containing Hist of 70 new organs inaugurated by Mr. Taft, giving names of builders, number of manuals, etc., mailed upon application.
93ADDRESS
94Chickering Hall
95New York
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