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Musical Courier 1895-07-17: Vol 31 Iss 802, 1895
119 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026. Printed page 22. See the scan on archive.org.
1Mr. Carl's Western Tour.
3MR. WM. C. CARL, organist, left New York on Monday evening of this week on an extensive transcontinental tour, which will occupy him until the middle or end of September. Mr. Carl sets forth under the management of Mr. M. G. Palmer, and intends giving an extended series of organ recitals, taking in the largest organs in the various cities visited from Chicago to San Francisco.
5This move on the part of Mr. Carl has been rather abruptly determined upon. The organist has been accustomed to pass his summers in Europe, but after an arduous winter of teaching and recital giving had decided this season to spend a restful holiday at Sea Cliff, L. I. Finding, however, that neither the air nor the inactivity agreed with him, Mr. Carl decided on an extended trip and will combine business with recreation throughout his present tour. Beginning with Chicago, where during the Exposition he was one of the official organists, having given three brilliant and successful recitals in Festival Hall, Mr. Carl will proceed thence to St. Louis, Kansas City, Topeka, Leavenworth, Omaha, Denver, Colorado Springs, Salt Lake City, on to San Francisco and Oakland, Cal., and probably winding up with Portland, Ore.
7Preceded by his well-earned reputation in New York, Mr. Carl's recitals will no doubt arouse a large amount of musicianly as well as general musical interest. For several seasons here the artistic and educational value of Mr. Carl's scholarly and brilliant weekly recitals upon his own organ at the First Presbyterian Church, Fifth avenue, has been widely esteemed, while his concert recitals at the opening of organs and on other occasions, both in New York and various outlying cities, have always claimed the most interested attention. For his present tour the organist takes with him all the best things of his enormous répertoire, so that his programs will be of the most attractive character.
9They will include many novelties as well as several works composed for and dedicated to Mr. Carl himself. The most imposing and interesting of the novelties which will be heard on the great organs west of Chicago will be the great Guilmant sonata in C minor, which Mr. Carl played for the first time in New York on May 17 last at the First Presbyterian Church. This colossal work created an immense sensation at the time and evoked much enthusiastic criticism from the press in general, through all of which Mr. Carl's masterly handling of the composition received unqualified praise. Testimony to the distinguished power of Mr. Carl's performance traveled even over to London, and letters of congratulation poured in thickly upon him from both sides of the Atlantic.
11Among these he naturally prizes most highly one of enthusiastic appreciation from his master, Guilmant himself. As the pupil of Guilmant, Mr. Carl turned with more than ordinary zest to the study of the organist-composer's greatest work, and the results have been one of Mr. Carl's most able and finished performances.
13To make this present tour Mr. Carl has abandoned a visit to Guilmant's home at Meudon, on the banks of the Seine, near St. Cloud, where he has been thrice this summer most cordially bidden as guest. The desire for work has laid hold of Mr. Carl with a wish for complete variety and change, and reaching San Francisco being an old-time idea only held in the background, the organist has decided that the present is a pretty good time to put it into action.
15On his return Mr. Carl will make an extensive recital tour in the East before putting himself into regular harness for the prolonged activities of his annual winter campaign in New York. Large audiences will no doubt greet his transcontinental performances, and in the presence of large numbers Mr. Carl is most at home. His recent performance at the International Exposition, Edinburgh, Scotland, was in the presence of 5,000 people, and was one of the most successful ever given by him. It won him the suffrages of the British press, and in connection with his production of the Guilmant sonata here recently the London Musical Times had a very complimentary paragraph to offer Mr. Carl's abilities.
17His talent in arranging programs is well understood and appreciated in New York, and carrying the same skill in their construction and performance into effect in the Far West provinces Mr. Carl's successful foothold is assured in advance.
19The Music of Japan.
21FOR centuries back travelers and scientists have found the greatest attraction in the Eastern countries, yet music, which in Japan as well as in China is one of the most powerful factors of civilization, has been scarcely ever touched upon by them. With those nations it is the most important element in all the festivities of private life, and is always considered first and foremost in all public manifestations, whether of a social or religious character. As a Chinese writer says: "Harmony has the power to make heaven come down upon earth; it inspires men with a love for the good and a practice of their duty. Do you wish to know if a kingdom is well governed, if the customs are good or bad? Examine the kind of music that is popular."
23Possibly the lack of any information on that subject from travelers in Oriental countries may be attributed to the fact that said travelers had absolutely no idea of musical theory, and consequently, incapable of making any criticism based on theoretical knowledge, 'hey comdemned by wholesale as barbaric, &c., all harmonic combinations differing from those with which their ear was familiar.
25There are few who have written intelligently on that subject, but all we glean from them is that the great majority of Japanese musicians play entirely by ear (!), and that they do not even imagine a way of graphically reproducing sounds.
27Kaemper, in his Histoire Naturelle, Civile et Ecclesiastique de l'Empire du Japon (La Haye, 1729), says that the inhabitants of Japan ignore completely music considered from the standpoint of a science based on fixed rules of harmony; on the other hand, Dr. Giulio Ferrario writes in his work entitled Il Costume Antico e Moderno, o Storia del Governo, della Milizia, della Religione, della Arti, Scienze e usanze di tutti gli popoli antichi e moderni (Milan, 1817), that both vocal and instrumental music, as well as poetry, are cultivated to a great extent in Japan, and that according to some these arts have reached a grand and sublime style, but that Europeans have never been able to appreciate or understand the beauties of Japanese music. Aimé Humbert, in his Japon Illustré (Paris, 1870), speaks more extensively than the preceding two writers about the musical system of the Japanese, while Larousse, in the Dictionnaire Universel du 19me Siècle (Paris, 1878), concludes that the musical art of the Japanese is the result of a peculiar system of their own, free from any connection whatever with any other system of the extreme Orient.
29Fétis in his Histoire générale de la Musique depuis les temps les plus anciens jusqu'à nos jours quotes some Japanese melodies from a collection by Ph. von Siebold, but offers only speculations as to their exactness, for it is a well-known fact that Japanese melodies present something strange, unseizable to our ear, which is unacquainted with the system that forms the basis of their musical compositions; it is a system rich in half steps and even quarter steps, with a mixture of different tonalities which completely disturb our ear.
31The Chevalier Pietro Savio, of Alexandria, says in a very interesting work, Il Giappone al giorno oggi, that with the Japanese, music is the subject of a cult, since their mythology assigns to it a divine origin. Here is the story as described by Satow in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan: The goddess of the sun, Amaterasoo no Phongamee (the powerful goddess which shines in the heavens) was born—coming from the right eye of Izanagee, the first male creative divinity of Japan—at the moment when that divinity was purifying himself in the waves of the ocean after having left the couch of Izanamee, the first female divinity.
33Offended by the gods, the brilliant goddess Amaterasoo, full of just anger, withdrew into a cave, closing after herself the entrance with an enormous rock; this, of course, threw into despair the gods, who forthwith gathered to hold council, and the unanimous decision was to make all possible effort that would bring about a reconciliation. After numerous failures the god Iskeekoreedome, assisted by Amatsoome, the Japanese Vulcan, succeeded in building a perfect mirror of extraordinary size, and a supreme effort was decided upon. The wonderful mirror, emblem of purity, was suspended from the branches of a Sakakee that grew before the fatal cave, while the god Tayeekara (strong arm) was hid behind the rock ready to utilize the first favorable opportunity.
35Everything being ready the ceremony was opened with an overture for full orchestra rendered by several hundred cocks that the gods had brought together; the goddess, Ame no Udsome (who had been chosen for mistress of ceremony) gayly bedecked with moss and creeping plants, began to execute a solo on a fife made out of bamboo, another divinity accompanied her by pinching the strings of six bows united together, while the other gods struck at regular recurring intervals small wooden sticks. After the fires of joy had been kindled near the entrance to the cave, the goddess Udsome got up on a sort of platform and began dancing and singing a song, the words of which translated literally from the Japanese are:
37Gods, behold the door,
38Here is the majesty of the goddess;
39Will not joy fill our hearts?
40Are not my charms powerful?
42The last line was intended as an address to the assembled divinities, whom the singer invited most innocently to admire her own beauty. But the words made the gods laugh so that the heavens shook.
44The goddess Amaterasoo no Ohongamee, who had remained heretofore indifferent to all prayers, hearing such emphatic praise, could not resist the feminine desire of ascertaining whether the party claiming such beauty was really worthy of it; so she opened the door of her voluntary prison, and on seeing what she did she expressed her disgust in the following language:
46"I should have thought that my eclipse would have plunged into darkness and consternation not only Amo no Hara (the Heavens), but also Ashiara no Nakatsookoonie
48WALTER J. HALL,
49LESSONS IN VOICE PRODUCTION,
50ARTISTIC SINGING and
51ADVANCED PIANOFORTE PLAYING.
52Studio: Nos. 705 & 706 Carnegie Hall, New York.
54Oscar Franklin Comstock,
55Assistant Organist of St. Bartholomew's.
56LESSONS IN
57Voice Placing, Artistic Singing
58and Pianoforte Playing,
59100 ROSS STREET, BROOKLYN.
61BLUMENBERG,
62VOLONCELLO VIRTUOSO,
63112 East 18th Street, New York.
64Artists, vocal and instrumental, can be engaged through this office.
65COMPANIES BOOKED, TOURS ARRANGED.
66Conservatories and Colleges supplied with instructors in all musical branches.
67ADDRESS
68MR. LOUIS BLUMENBERG,
70H. M. HIRSCHBERG,
71MUSICAL AGENCY.
72LIST LIMITED. RECOGNIZED ARTISTS ONLY.
73Address for interview:
74Permanent office after August 1: 148 FIFTH AVE.,
75152 FIFTH AVENUE. NEW YORK CITY.
77G. Waring Stebbins,
78CONCERT ORGANIST.
79Pupil of ALEX. GUILMANT. Organist of Emmanuel Baptist Church, corner Lafayette Avenue and St. James Place, Brooklyn.
80Organ Concerts, Recitals and Openings.
81Lessons given on a large three manual organ. Address
8219 Verona Place, Brooklyn, N. Y.
84HART & SON,
85Cremona and other Instruments.
86GUARANTEED ENGLISH MADE VIOLINS. ITALIAN STRINGS
87LISTS ON APPLICATION.
8828 WARDOUR STREET, LONDON, W.
90AUGUST GEMÜNDER & SONS,
91MAKERS OF THE
92"Gemünder Art" Violins,
93"Gemünder Solo" Mandolins and Guitars.
94Rare Old Violins, Bows, Strings and Repairing.
95Send for new Catalogue. 13 East 16th St., New York
97J. H. McKINLEY,
98TENOR.
99Concert and Oratorio—Vocal Instruction.
100STUDIO:
101126 WEST 66th STREET, NEW YORK.
103An Enormous Success!
104Proghiera (Prayer). Proghiera (Prayer). Proghiera (Prayer).
105New Sacred Song by PIETRO MASCAGNI.
106Published in three keys with Violin, Organ and Harp obligato ad lib. HINTS ON SINGING by MANUAL GARCIA. The most practicable, useful and reliable singing tutor yet written.
107LONDON: E. ASCHERBERG & CO.
108NEW YORK: E. SCHUBERTH & CO.
110Fritz Spahr,
111CONCERT VIOLINIST,
112Care of HANS LICHT (Hofmusikalienhandlung),
113Leipsic (Germany), Emilienstrasse 51.
115Music Printing BY ALL PROCESSES
116F. H. GILSON COMPANY,
117Lock Box 550, Back Bay, Boston.
118The most complete and extensive Music Printing Establishment in America. Correspondence solicited.
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