Scan 7
Musical Courier 1895-11-06: Vol 31 Iss 818, 1895
68 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 8. See the scan on archive.org.
1Carmen was played at Munich, Le Prophète at Darmstadt, William Tell (the French one) at Carlsruhe, La Muette de Portici at Mannheim, Les Huguenots at Frankfort and Fra Diavolo at Augsburg. So if Germany is played in France France is played in Germany. Thank God there are no Art governments!
3In discussion of the Governmental allowance to the French Narine this week the question of allowing each admiral a special band was warmly treated. Happily the spirit of St. Cécile triumphed over that of St. Economy, and the naval musicians remain undisturbed.
5Bruneau says he has the greatest desire to inaugurate prose writing for music, and that perhaps his great luck in being collaborator with such writers as Zola and Mendès is all that prevents his making efforts in this line. Nothing, he says, is more horribly difficult than making music to poor verse. It is not only the words which annoy but the phrases which interfere with the phrasing.
7Voilà le fin de rhythm! Prose and music! Much of it is prosy enough now. A good big half of music goes out with rhythm, did musicians but know it. Moreover, the lack of rhythm in the phrases pervades composition form itself. The miserable hollows and anti-climaxes which fatigue so and let go the attention testify to this. There is the same difference between it and rhythmical music as between the jerky sentences of a reporter on a third-rate newspaper and the eloquent pulsations of an Ingersoll oration or an Emerson essay.
9By rhythmic music is not meant dance music. There is not an unrhythmic strain in Beethoven.
11At the inauguration of the Emile Augier monument on Thursday the address delivered was by Gounod. That is to say, the dead musician had prepared the discourse for this occasion before his death, and M. Gérôme, who was appointed to the unfulfilled duty, read the address.
13La Navarraise was played in three European capitals the same evening this month—at Paris by Calvé, Brussels by Leblanc, Vienna by Mme. Renard. What is more to the point, it was a success at each place. And still the feeble and disappointed take up the discussion as to whether success like that is success. They find this new school, Cavalieria-Navarraise, "unscientific," "inartistic," because of having one spirited act instead of five sleepy ones. They cannot see how anything can be different from what has been and yet be all right. Year after year, season after season, they are obliged to see that "school" is based on "success," not "success" on "school," and that the only reason why things become traditional is because they are successful. Yet every time every new success has to fight its way through their grumbling and mutterings.
15For the first time in the history of Japan women are now allowed to appear upon the stage. The Empress is at the head of the movement. Ancient and modern works are being translated and studied and great movement is going on. Wait till they commence having yum-yum prima donnas and mogul professors; they will rue the day.
17M. Eugène d'Harcourt, the young nobleman who has made such a determined stand for musical progress in Paris and has succeeded so well in the effort, announces the new series of concerts to commence November 8, Sunday, and last through March. He makes a feature this year of pure symphonic music, giving two symphonies each concert one classic, the other modern, at commencement and close. The word "eclectic" associated with his concerts, gives an idea of the rest of the work. An additional feature will be a solo, instrumental or vocal, at each concert.
19To add to the popularity of the work, M. d'Harcourt has placed the prices of seats within the reach of all. There is no reason why his "Concerts Éclectiques Populaires" should not be a means of grace in the musical world.
21Now, if somebody only would arrange a program of music that did not take place between 2 and 4 Sunday afternoon!
23A big hall has been arranged at the Opéra for the special use of choruses in rehearsals. Choral work is becoming more and more a feature of all concerts, indeed of all music.
25La Musique à Paris, by Gustave Robert, is the title of a new book published by Fischbacher, Paris. An original, rather a philosophical, discussion on the Sens de la Musique forms the preface, of which I will write more later. The book consists of the programs of the different orchestral concerts at Paris during the past season, with a résumé of the musical criticism upon them. The book is rich in thought and suggestion, a little library in itself in the line of musical progress.
27With real regret I record the death of Mr. Samuel David, director of the music of the Jewish temples in Paris. Besides being a trained and faithful musician, a composer of note, a director who was energetic, progressive and untiring, he was a sterling friend, a gentleman and a modest and searching child in the musical family. His place will not be easy to fill. Details of his life and work may be found in THE MUSICAL COURIER of January 30 this year.
29The concerts of the Chanteurs de St. Gervais will commence in December, Mr. Chas. Bordes the director and life. One of the first will doubtless present The Passion According to St. John.
31AMERICANS ABROAD.
33Mr. Kniese, the Bayreuth director, has just left Paris, where he has been putting final touches on the preparation of Nordica's Isolde.
35I only wish that the whole student world could have been mice in the walls to hear this Maine girl tell some of the things she considers necessary to artistic success, and some of the sacrifices she has been obliged to make to reach what she has of it.
37I wish this whole Paris contingent had been in the room to see her when the idea was suggested, so dear to their hearts, that acting should be left to the impulse of the moment, to "make up as they go along." So near as anything so sweet and amiable and lovable as this singer could become indignant, Nordica was indignant at the thought of this absurd theory getting possession of art students. Her eyes blazed, her cheeks flushed, her pretty hands worked nervously, and her soft voice had a thrill in it as she exclaimed:
39"The idea of painting character in personality by chance, by impulse at the moment! Why, look, there are the story, the history, the personality, language, music, words, costume, the other actors, stage business, dramatic spirit, nerve control, all claiming attention at one instant, with a formidable sea of minds, variable and sensitive, sitting before you to make or mar your artistic life according to the slightest breath of power or weakness on your part; this with four or five actor minds all depending upon you, a manager argus-eyed in the wings, and the great orchestra surging and leaping up toward you like a beast of prey to devour you if weak, to caress, befriend and sustain you if your magnetism is sufficient—impulse—think for a moment of leaving this all to chance!
41"Why, in preparing Elsa in Bayreuth, which was ultra-important, as it was not a representation but a creation of the rôle, Madame Wagner went over every single word of that poem with me. Every word, every chord, every phrase, every thought, has a gesture, a movement, an illustration accompanying it. All must be learned, remembered, reflected upon and done. That is what makes dramatic effect. That work occupied the entire forenoons for several months. The afternoons were given to the music in exactly the same manner, and evenings to the study of the new language, which was a sealed book to me at the beginning of the year.
43"For Isolde I had first the word of the director that I was about to enter upon a study just ten times as difficult as the other. One of the first difficulties was to find a place where I would be allowed to study it. I went into Switzerland, thinking to be alone with the mountains, but was literally chased from house to house. Everyone promised blandly, 'Oh, yes, certainly practice; here you are quiet, &c. But they did not know Wagner, they did not know me. After three days or less came the inevitable: 'Oh, yes, we said 'practice,' but you know, madame, six hours every day—every day!' and so I had to search anew. I would have gone up on top of one of the mountains had it been practicable. I finally found a tiny room, not much larger than the piano, and there poor Madame Wagner and her director had to seek me up several flights of tiny stairs, and there I worked six hours a day all last summer, thinking nothing of riding, driving, coaching parties, sailing excursions—nothing but Isolde. You may imagine what it cost me at times. But it is the one way, the only way. It has to be done just that way or you do not arrive, you go down with the great herd. In Italy, where I studied for a year, I went out just three evenings to see the operas I was studying—three times in one year! It has to be done that way; the way an avaricious man makes money. But art is worth it, every bit, and more."
45"How do you mean more—the love life—is it worth that—need it cost that?"
47Although the fair singer is to be married next year, and her handsome lover sat within a few feet of her at the time, she did not change a shade of expression as she asked, quietly: "Why should it? Why should art be renounced for marriage? How could it be?" adding, as doubtless she felt it more easy to ask than answer the questions, "It all depends on the contracting parties," and the handsome lover smiled reassuringly.
49It appears that study life alone is not all the occupation of the prima donna, even when it lasts six hours daily with masters like Mme. Wagner and M. Kniese. Leisure moments are filled thus:
51"The man from Worth is here with the samples for madame." "The wigs have come for madame to select." "Can madame come at 4 o'clock to try on the third costume?" "Madame's shoes have come." "The goods have come from Germany." "The Countess Telle et Telle wishes to know if madame will not kindly sing the last act of Les Huguenots for the Charity Bazar to-morrow afternoon." "Monsieur X is here with a requiem he has composed and wishes to go over the manuscript with madame, so that she may sing it for him in America and thus win him fame and fortune;" and "Madame has promised to pose for her photographs," &c.
53Meantime madame must eat, madame must sleep, and madame must guard her precious health and looks, for upon them all the rest depend.
55So, dear girls, when you go to the Metropolitan Opera House this winter and see Nordica, suave and tranquil, receiving adulation and flowers, perhaps, while you have spent the day dully, monotonously, perhaps painfully, reflect well upon all this before deciding:
57"I will be a prima donna! I will have flowers and dresses and adulation! I go abroad to-morrow!"
59That's just exactly as if a tramp passing by an elegant, brilliant home on Christmas night should decide immediately:
61"Well, now, it's settled. I will get just such a house as that! I will have just such carriages and grand friends and lights! I will give just such parties!" But he does not, poor soul!
63Mlle. Myra Heller is here in Paris; Miss Pauline Joran is in Milan; Plançon is here; Miss Lucille Hill is still here; Jean and Edouard de Reszké come to-morrow. Mme. Eames is still in Italy. Poor Tamagno sick—"cardiac affection"—whatever that is. Mlle. Richards was married yesterday with great éclat at the American Church to M. Jusserand, officer of Affaires Étrangères here.
65Mr. Sebastian Schlesinger, with his daughter, has come to settle in Paris definitely. They are beautifully established on the upper Boulevard Malesherbes. Their home is an object of art in itself. Mr. Schlesinger is busy writing music; his daughter is studying languages and song. Their successful recital concert at Dinard has been already spoken of. They give another this month in Berlin. Miss Schlesinger is studying with Marchesi.
67Madame Marchesi is hopeful and energetic as ever. Her
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