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Musical Courier 1895-07-17: Vol 31 Iss 802, 1895
81 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 6. See the scan on archive.org.
1chapel Winfred seated himself at the piano, and the glorious, solemn strains of that grandest of all marches, the Funeral March from Beethoven's sonata, op. 26, filled the house. The lecture in the chapel was interesting and impressive. During the singing of the hymns, which Winfred accompanied, Lilian chanced to meet his eye, and already she had learned to feel contented and at home in strange surroundings when she met that glance, and Winfred was very glad to think that he could encounter that sympathetic look in his own home, across his table. The concluding voluntary was spontaneous and buoyant, with a ring in it never noticed before, as if the subtle spirit of the organ responded to what was passing in the soul of the player, even before he was himself aware of that which stirred his soul to its depths. That sacred centre of his being, which he had always guarded so carefully, was invaded at last by a gentle spirit, which seemed to make itself at home there and henceforth must make his weal or woe.
3On the way home Winfred discussed some of the truths brought out during the service, concerning spiritual things, to which Lilian gladly responded, for her father had accustomed her to think deeply and reverently on all spiritual subjects.
5The next morning Winfred was called away on business and Lilian spent some time with Mrs. Haskell in the library, which was situated just across the hall from the drawing room; she was interested in the large collection of books, and Mrs. Haskell told her to help herself to them freely; she was attracted to a small cabinet bookcase which Mrs. Haskell informed her contained a collection of her own writings, a small volume of poems, a scrap book collection of printed poems and essays which had been contributed to literary journals, some published stories, and several volumes of authors' manuscript books in Russia leather. During the talk which followed Mrs. Haskell said, "You remind me very much of your mother when she was your age."
7"Did you know my mother?" asked Lilian. "I know papa and Mr. Haskell were great friends, but I did not know that you knew mamma."
9"Yes; your mother and I were schoolmates. While we were yet schoolgirls we met our respective husbands, who also were college chums. I corresponded with your mother for years, and we were brought very near together by a kindred sorrow in our early married life—she was bereaved of her only son, who was nearly Winfred's age, and I lost my dear daughter, who was just your age, my dear." And the kind eyes filled with tears, while Lilian drew near to her with genuine sympathy expressed in her eyes and tones, though she could say little in words to comfort, and the tried hearts of bereaved mother and orphan child were closely united from that hour.
11"And now, my child," said Mrs. Haskell, "you must feel perfectly at home and free to amuse yourself in your own way, while I busy myself with my household duties and literary obligations, for my publishers grow impatient. I want to say further that I should like to have you call me auntie, and look upon me as if I had really been your mother's sister instead of intimate friend."
13"How kind you are, auntie," said Lilian with a bright look and blush, which made Mrs. Haskell feel very happy; she gave Lilian a kiss as she left the room to roam about the great house and garden as her fancy dictated. Lilian's tour ended in the music room, and feeling fatigued with her romp in the garden with Rove, the great Newfoundland dog, she was glad to throw off her sun hat and curl up in a great easy chair with a book. She had selected from the book-case Charles Auchester, and as she turned the fly leaf she found written in a clear, bold hand: "In this work the following persons' characters are supposed to be mirrored; one or two incidents of the lives of the real characters are woven into the romantic characters; but very little resemblance can be traced between them when taken as types of character:
14"Charles Auchester, as Joachim.
15"Julia Bennett, as Jenny Lind.
16"Aronach, as Setter (Mendelssohn's teacher).
17"Starwood Burney, as Sterndale Bennett.
18"Seraphael, as Mendelssohn.
19"Charles Auchester was written by a young English woman—Elizabeth Shepherd—who desired to study music, but was prevented by her father. Berger is the French for Shepherd and her nom de plume."
20She soon became completely absorbed in her reading and perfectly oblivious to everything. Meanwhile Winfred, who was off on his business trip, was continually haunted by a vision of bright questioning eyes, seeking information, which fell like refreshing dew upon a thirsting plant. He could not shake off an absent-mindedness, and it was with a feeling of relief that he was released from his business at last.
22On reaching home he gave quick, nervous glances around the garden before entering, as if seeking some object of whose whereabouts he was painfully uncertain. After some delay he entered the music-room, and there, almost buried in the great chair, with head deep in a book, he found the unsuspecting cause of his morning's abstraction. Lilian, suddenly brought back by his entrance from the realm of the ideal to realities, jumped up with a startled and bewildered look, dropping the book as she exclaimed: "Why, are you back, and am I late for dinner? How thoughtless I have been to forget the flight of time so completely," scarcely pausing to take breath. Winfred laughed, and looking at his watch said, "You have just ten minutes to get ready." "It is enough," said Lilian, moving away, just as Winfred, who picked up the book, said, "Well, how do you like Charles Auchester?"
24"Oh, I am fascinated with it," Lilian said, looking back from the doorway; "what fine descriptions of music it contains!" so saying she hastened away. After dinner, hearing the strains of the organ, Lilian was irresistibly drawn to the music room, where she quietly seated herself, letting her soul float away on the waves of sound into a realm of spirit, whereby to commune with the self same inspiring spirit which moved the soul of the performer. She thought that she had escaped observation, but it was not long before Winfred said without turning his head, "How do you like this passage?"
26"I think it is very fine, but very mournful; what is it from?"
28"Gluck's Orpheus, I have lost my Eurydice. Now I will play an organ sonata by Merkel."
30Lilian listened with close attention, noting the masterful touch which coaxed such sweetness out of the organ and commanded such power. When he had finished he turned and said, smiling very pleasantly as he met her enraptured expression, "Well, would you like another organ talk?"
32"Oh, yes indeed, thank you; something more about the stops, please."
34"An inexhaustible subject; I scarcely know where to begin. Well, we have the classifications into foundation stops, mutation stops, compound and solo stops; after gaining a familiarity with these and their characteristics, the combining of them, so as to obtain a proper contrast and balance of tone, is a life long study. To return to our classifications, the foundation stops give the normal tones of the keys—such stops as the diapason and trumpet, you know; then the stops which give the lower or higher octaves—such as the bourdon or double diapasons, and the fifteenth—are also classed as foundation stops. Mutation stops give a fifth or a third, or their octaves above the normal pitch. The compound stops have several pipes for each key; the series are called ranks and produce the third, fifth and octave of the tone; these stops, the mixture, sesquialtera and cornet are compound stops. The solo stops are the dulciana, flute, oboe, clarinet, krum horn and vox humana, for instance. The pedal organ stops are the double diapason, violone, flute, gamba and trombone. The pipes are all metal, except the flutes, diapasons and trombone of the pedal organ, which are wood. I will play a short passage on the different manuals with different combinations, and you can gain some idea of the endless variety of effects."
36The illustrations that followed were perfect revelations to Lilian, who listened with interest and enthusiasm. A call to supper interrupted the playing.
38"You, too, paint pictures which reach the mind through the ear instead of the eye, but since you paint in tone colors, ever varying in quality and effect, such pictures possess life and feeling," said Lilian to Winfred at the supper table, still full of her lesson in registration.
40On adjourning to the drawing room Winfred proposed a "reading sociable." "The way we do," he explained to Lilian, "is to read some book, and when any special passage occurs of general interest we read it aloud. Mother generally takes the latest literary magazine and I a musical journal, and we each exchange what interests us and gain in that way an enlargement of taste."
42"How delightful!" said Lilian; "I will get my book, Charles Auchester."
44"Don't forget to be sociable with it," said Winfred smiling, and soon all were comfortably seated around a centre table, and the cheerful drop light with its orange shade threw a glamor over the peaceful scene.
46"This is fine," broke in Mrs. Haskell, after a while, and reading aloud, "Poetry will warm one's heart, science will enlarge his mind and contemplation will develop his imagination; such a student will thrive."
48"Yes," said Winfred, "all development must be many sided. Uniting the half truths alone gives us the perfect whole, and our ideal ever remains as far above us as we approach it, for while the spirit of beauty is infinite our standard is finite and ever capable of being elevated. I will read a fine passage from Carl Merz," and he read clearly in a low voice and sweetly modulated tones a fine paragraph showing that music should convey both thought and sentiment.
50"Yes," Mrs. Haskell said, "music as a means of expression goes much deeper than language, which after all is artificial and therefore very imperfect, while music is nature's own mode of expression; it is by the tones and inflections of our voice more than by the words we use that we express our real selves. It is largely owing to its rhythmic flow that poetry expresses so much more than prose."
52"There speaks the poet," laughed Winfred. "Music in disciplining our emotions fulfills after all only a part of its function, so that some musicians are offended at the comparison of music to a language, but it may be accepted as one of the half truths; and, on the other hand, it is its beauty of form, its rhythmic melody engrafted on rich harmonies, and more than all its inner ideal meaning, which words were never intended to express, that renders music immaterial and ideal. This is the reason why music is the most perfect type of art; it can never lose its wonder and its mystery because it can never reveal its ultimate secret."
54As they all returned to their books and their thoughts there was a silence "whose music hath many variations." Once more it was broken as Winfred said: "It is your turn, Lilian."
56"I was just thinking over the way Charles was made to study," reading aloud in a pretty, unaffected manner a description of how the youthful student was completely abstracted from everything that could divert his mind from his one absorbing art. "I would like to study like that; I think it grand to be so absorbed in one's life work; and Aronach was right, though he may have seemed tyrannical; it was the only way to secure the concentration that is so necessary and is such a power in itself."
58"Yes," said Winfred in a deep tone, with an intent and appreciative glance at the youthful speaker, so attractive in her earnestness. Before parting for the night Winfred seated himself at the grand piano that stood in the drawing room and played the Moonlight Sonata gloriously, in his inimitable manner, with a perfection of touch, oblivious to all else save the rich, soulful harmonies which he poured forth, wafting his listeners away with his spirit wheresoever it wended, without wish or effort.
60(To be continued.)
62Keva Stanhope
64ALTHOUGH Keva Stanhope, the American dramatic singer, has had offers from several Continental opera houses, notably one for Leipsic of six years and one for Strassburg for three years, Director Reimann, of the Würzburg Opera, having counseled her to study Wagner with Pauline Lucca, she wisely accepted this advice.
66When Pauline Lucca heard her for the first time she cried with delight: "You have everything that is a voice!" Since then Keva Stanhope has appeared with unusual success in the part of Brünhilde on the Lucca stage. Hanslick, whose unfortunate prejudice against Wagner is well known, heard by appointment Keva Stanhope sing the Todes Verkündigung, and, contrary to expectation, the severe critic rose from his chair calling out "Grossartig! Herrlich!" Hanslick also volunteered the remark that "this was the first time he had heard an American singer with a Wagner voice." Director Fuchs, who heard her at the same time, wanted to engage Miss Stanhope for the Vienna opera, but of course, flattering though this must have been to the young singer, she prepared to follow the plan she had marked out and to remain for the present with Lucca.
68For an American singer Keva Stanhope has had the rare good fortune to have the highest encomiums of renowned critics. The testimony of Hanslick cannot be underrated, and Directors Jahn and Fuchs, the critic Hartmann, of Dresden, who pronounced her "phenomenal," Marie Lehmann, sister of Lilli, who told her that she was a great Wagner singer, and Lucca's own opinions are authorities which give the right to believe in Keva Stanhope's talents.
70The New Opera Ahasver.—Maestro Vanzo, the celebrated Milan musical director, has finished a new opera, Ahasver. The words are by the Marquis of Ivrea.
72Mascagni an Editor.—Mascagni has founded a journal at Cerignola, Scienza e Diletto, in which he publishes a series of articles on libretti, librettists and music critics.
74A New Opera for Munich.—The Munich Opera management has accepted the opera Zinnober for production in 1896. The music is by a young son of the well-known musical writer, Frederic von Hausegger.
76Frankfort.—Janie, a work in three acts, by Dalcroze, was given at Frankfort on the Main, and had a cool reception. In spite of several successful musical effects, the sentimental libretto, as well as the sentimental music, offer little interest. The artists singing the principal parts did their work well.
78Saint-Saëns' Fredegonde.—Saint Saëns has finished an operatic work by his friend, Ernest Guiraud, who died before he had accomplished the task. It will receive the title Fredegonde. It has four acts and five tableaux, and has been accepted by the Grand Opéra in Paris, where it will be given in November.
80A New Star Tenor.—Werner Alberti, a tenor, is making a great success for himself in Italy. He has an engagement at the Lisbon Opera House from December this year until April, 1896, at a monthly salary of 15,000 frs. in gold. He is considering an offer to go to Buenos Ayres to sing there from August, 1896, until December, with a monthly salary of 40,000 frs. Mr. Alberti sings during this and next month the part of Lohengrin in the cities of Padua and Venice.
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