Scan 24
Musical Courier 1895-12-25: Vol 31 Iss 825, 1895
58 lines. Read by computer on 26 September 2026. Printed page 25. See the scan on archive.org.
1day, Tristan and Isolde, with the star cast, with the exception of Jean de Reszké, who is sick. His place will be taken by Herr Walnoefer. Tuesday evening (at the Brooklyn Academy of Music), Tannhäuser; Wednesday, Aida, with the same cast as that of last Monday night, except that Signor Russitano will sing Rhadames; Thursday night, Fidelio, Mme. Januschowsky, Miss Traubmann, Herr Walnoefer, Herr Bucha, Herr Livermann, Herr Mirsalis, and M. de Vries; Friday, Roméo et Juliette; Mme. Melba as Juliette and the rest of the cast the same as heretofore. It is also announced that on Monday, December 30, Boito's Mefistofele will be produced, with Mme. Calvé as Margherita and Edouard de Reszké as Mefistofele.
3At the Saturday matinée Carmen, and Tannhäuser for the evening. The regular concert will take place Sunday evening.
5Sunday Evening Concert.
7The Sunday evening concert at the Metropolitan Opera House was rather a dispiriting affair. The Messiah was sung, the solo singers being Frances Saville, Marie Brema and Messrs. Walnoefer and Galloway. Mr. Seidl conducted the solo numbers and Mr. Mortimer Wiské the choral, which were indifferently sung by the Euterpe chorus of Brooklyn. The success of the evening was Brema's singing of He was Despised.
9Correct French Pronunciation.
11THE YERSIN SISTERS' PHONO-RHYTHMIC METHOD.
13UP to our day almost everything necessary to correct education had been discovered. To teach people to speak a foreign language with native pronunciation and without accent has been sought for many years by the best elocution teachers without success.
15It is needless to assert that even with foreigners who speak a language correctly and fluently, the pronunciation and accent remain false to the ears of the natives, even after a residence of ten or fifteen years in a country. In the case of singers it is still more apparent, as they appear before the public, and Americans have such really beautiful voices that the pity of their failure is all the greater.
17The difficulty is made all the worse for them that they all imagine their French perfect, because they have not learned what perfection is.
19The difficulty with the French language is that there are in it some twenty sounds which we never hear as they do not exist in our language. They are not big, broad, strong sounds which one may catch in hearing a conversation; they are like the tints in the morning glory flower, and people who attempt to use them without having just learned them precisely and exactly are forever speaking and singing out of tune to those whose ears are sharpened by birth or training.
21A chord struck harshly on a piano out of tune is the nearest approach to that which strikes a French person's ear when forced to listen to what they call the "atrocious French" of negligent foreigners. It is not so much the grammar which shocks them; many people learn to speak fluent and grammatical French. It is the way they pronounce the words and the foreign sound in their voices while doing so.
23From lack of a method to overcome this, and because so-called French teachers did not come to find out just what their pupils really needed, the habit of negligence became chronic, and people believed that correct French pronunciation and accent were impossible to foreigners.
25Our public and normal schools have a phonic system by which foreigners of any nationality may learn English without a brogue. A phono-rhythmic system on the same principle, but more inclusive, has recently been invented in Paris by the Yersin sisters.
27The Yersin sisters are two charming French women who by reason of their rare gifts for imparting what they knew of language and elocution became the chosen teachers of French provincials who came to Paris to appear before the public as artists, and must become polished to Parisian taste before doing so. Their sufferings from the dreadful accents made them decide either to change their profession or invent a method for changing the accents. They chose the latter, and after research, study, practice and experience they succeeded in so arranging or classifying the original sounds that in three or four weeks' consecutive study, uninterrupted by English speaking or faulty singing, bad pronunciation is made an impossibility.
29Of course it requires a shorter time for one who has not acquired bad habits to unlearn, and for singing the preparation is more simple than for speaking. An American who could properly make these twenty sounds without speaking a sentence of the French language would be better prepared for vocal study in Paris than those who come here speaking and reading in the wholly false manner that is their habit.
31This is not all. The sounds are but the basis of the method phono-rhythmic. After that comes the art of the speech, or the musical passage from one sound to another—the rhythm, the accent, the inflexions, the music and poetry of the language. It requires but a very short time to accomplish, and when done is done correctly, and the pupil is on her own feet to sing or speak agreeably, and so correctly that a perfectly cured foreigner and a French person speaking together in a room could not be distinguished by a French person in an adjoining chamber. This effect is guaranteed by the Yersin sisters to any foreigner who will follow their instructions.
33As to the expense, it is no more than the average French diction lesson, which has been fully tested to the end of its inability. Besides, inasmuch as it does in four or five weeks what the usual processes do not in four or five years, it is evidently the better bargain. Sample lessons in the method are given free of charge.
35Among recent good pupils of the Yersin system are: The Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava's daughter; Mrs. Austin Lee, the American society leader in Paris, whose diction is pronounced the best of any foreigner; Mr. Morse, the Consul-General of the United States in Paris; Mlle. Lola Beeth, the prima donna with the Abbey & Grau Opera Company; Mr. Byard, a favorite baritone of Paris and London drawing rooms and concerts; Miss Grace Gregory, an American vocal teacher, whose diction is so good that though American, she could correct the French of not only American but French pupils; Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Eddy, the Chicago musicians; Miss Louise Gerard, of New York; Mrs. Wheaton, of Narragansett; Miss Clara Munger, of Boston, and Miss Nora M. Green, the New York teacher, who has engaged the sisters to train all her pupils when they arrive as a school in Paris next summer.
37The method is also recommended by the first artists of the Opéra, Opéra Comique and Théâtre Français, and by the Conservatoire of Paris.
39The card of the Yersin sisters, with their address, may always be found on page 3 of this paper.
41Hirsch and Mannes Concert.
43THE first of a series of three subscription concerts by Miss Fannie Hirsch, soprano, and Mr. David Mannes, violin, took place on Tuesday evening, December 15, in Carnegie Chamber Music Hall and attracted an audience of good size and flavor. Miss Laura Danziger, pianist, assisted, and Isidore Luckstone was the accompanist.
45Miss Hirsch is a soprano of pure and refined calibre and uses her voice with discretion and good taste. She has quiet, contained feeling, but lacks fervor and abandon in her style. She sang a pretty program of Gomez, Cornelius, Luckstone, Chaminate and Gounod and was enthusiastically greeted and applauded. Indeed, applause and a general exhibition of enjoyment and good feeling were features at this concert of which the program was genial in character and just arranged to escape the sin of over length.
47Gounod's Ave Maria, with obligato by Mr. Mannes, was sung with feeling and a pure flowing breadth, and Luckstone's pretty characteristic lullaby was also clearly and expressively sung, with a nice regard for rhythm. Recalls of four and five met Miss Hirsch, and she carried away from her smiling house a perfect wagon load of flowers. Mr. Mannes played firmly and tunefully and with much sympathy numbers of Bach, Vieuxtemps and Pierre, and with Miss Danziger the Beethoven sonata for violin and piano, op. 30, No. 2. In purity of intonation and smoothness of delivery Mr. Mannes is a satisfactory artist, and has mellowed and ripened a good deal in his style since last season when he was occasionally harsh. His tone is more pure and full and his phrasing smooth and finished.
49Miss Danziger in numbers of Chopin, Schubert-Tausig and Liszt, had a glowing reception and encores enough to encourage any pianist. She played with technical finish and tasteful expression. The accompaniments of Mr. Luckstone were delightful.
51Dr. Carl Martin in Erie.—Dr. Carl Martin, the basso, sang with great success in the performance of Haydn's Creation given by the Erie Vocal Society on December 16.
53Jessie Shay's Engagements.—Miss Jessie Shay, pianist, the clever pupil of Alex. Lambert, is engaged for a series of piano recitals in New York, Boston and Troy during the month of January. In Boston she will have the assistance of Adamowski, the violinist.
55Antonia H. Sawyer.—Mrs. Antonia H. Sawyer, who is off to Boston for the Christmas holidays, has been engaged to sing in The Messiah in Cleveland, Ohio, on January 1. She will sing also at a concert in Newark with the La Salle Society on January 9, and has been engaged as solo contralto for the last Sunday of each month for the church in Newark, N. J., of which Mr. H. H. Duncklee is organist. The singer is very busy and in excellent vocal condition.
57Kate Ockleston-Lippa.—In the article recently printed in these columns on this gifted woman mention was omitted of the prominent fact that she was the recipient of the Pittsburgh Art Society's medal for song and of honorary mention for piano composition. Twenty-one compositions were sent in on this occasion, and from five awards made Mme. Ockleston-Lippa obtained two. The other three were awarded to men. The omission of this important matter of detail in this talented woman's history occurred through the pressure of haste.
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