Scan 55
Musical Courier 1895-12-25: Vol 31 Iss 825, 1895
62 lines. Read by computer on 26 September 2026. Printed page 56. See the scan on archive.org.
1hand in his education; but it is just as well, for he makes a perfect audience, being possessed of educated sympathies for art in every form, and an especially refined musical taste which has been molded by seasons in Paris, Italy and Bayreuth. This man's nature goes to show the inevitableness of inherited tastes. He is the son of London's most famous titled surgeon, who in his youth and poverty married a professional pianist. Their paltry income was eked out for some years after marriage by her earnings, but as he worked his way into professional prominence he would no longer countenance her art, and nowadays he cannot be induced to remain at home if a musical evening is in progress. Meanwhile the wife became a paralytic, but from her invalid's chair she continued to wield the beautiful influence of a great nature upon the musical world of London. For years past no celebrated musician has given a performance in London without visiting Lady Thompson and giving for her benefit of the best he thinks and feels musically. Notwithstanding the opposing influence of the father, the son of this union is a musician by nature, seeking for his closest friends the chief slaves to that art to be found in his immediate vicinity.
3To return to the Shakspeare dinner. When a number of us were assembled in the drawing room Mr. Shakspeare said, with the merry twinkle of the eye characteristic of him, "Now, I will do the German opera singers for you." He got the score of Parsifal, sat down at the piano, and began to parody the German singing, casting mischievous glances the while at his wife, a most charming lady of German birth. However, before long the artist in him began to assert its sway, and he played on page after page of that wonderful score, reading the heroic music in that dramatic, orchestral manner which caused Gounod to say, "Shakspeare is the only pianist I ever heard who can play the drums on his instrument."
5Occasionally he would sing a leading motive, turning and looking at us for sympathy in his ecstasy. One would respond merely with an assenting nod, another with "bravo," while still another would join in the theme for a bar or two.
7After an hour of this symposium the master left off to come over beside me for a farewell chat. I asked, "How do you get that drum effect out of the piano?" "Oh," he replied, "it comes because I was born a drummer boy," and not another serious word could we get out of him.
9Another centre of artistic gravity in London is the home of Mr. and Mrs. F. Korbay, the most intimate personal friends of Paderewski and John Sargent.
11Paderewski will be dining with them en famille, when suddenly he will pull out his watch, jumping to his feet, crying, "One hour late for the Duchess of——. I must go! I must go!" Mrs. Korbay will look up at him with her velvety Hungarian eyes and say, "Why not make it two?" To which the hero of the piano world replies, "Madame, you are irresistible! I will," and sits down again, in all likelihood never reaching the house of the Duchess of—— during that evening.
13The fascinations of artistic social life in London could be described indefinitely, but in our limited space they can only be touched upon as illustrations of the possible.
15My examples have been drawn from English life rather than from German or French, because America, even if unwillingly, is a close relation to Great Britain, retaining a strong family resemblance to the national parent and many similar qualities that are bound to develop with maturity, besides possessing a purely personal charm of individuality and keen artistic sympathy most interesting.
17We are living in the incipiency of an American school of art, and we must place over the doorway Socrates' injunction, "Know thyself," thus finding out early in the day our limitations and possibilities, training our creative faculty accordingly along the highest lines of beauty and truth.
19But no school of art can form itself as long as each man goes his own way regardless of his neighbor. Individuality of expression need not be suppressed, because of unity of aim and purpose. First there must come the national ideal, then a band of workers, each one building up his brother's edifice instead of tearing down from selfish motives. The influence of even one such a community would be widespread and incalculable. As it is, our art is in the condition of "a house divided against itself," and inhabited by petty jealousies, disagreeable bickerings, and a sad lack of rapport.
21But the day must come when we will work together for the purpose of expressing the great, the good and the beautiful elements dominant in the heart of every American, the highest end of art being the holding up to the vision of mankind his noblest attributes.
23ANNA FARQUHAR.
25Musin Goes to the East.—Ovide Musin, the violinist, writes to THE MUSICAL COURIER that he was to sail from San Francisco on December 12 for Honolulu and thence to Japan. His address is Grand Hotel, Yokohama, Japan.
27a number of society people, in which a ballet, The Doll Fairy, and nothing short of Cavalleria Rusticana were given. In the latter work the orchestra and artists of our opera participated. Santuzza, however, was portrayed by one of our leading society ladies (Mrs. Spencer Ervin), and is well did that lady understand her task that a casual auditor could not have detected the amateur in her. Her voice, a soprano of considerable range and exquisite method (De la Grange), filled the vast academy very satisfactorily, and her acting, barring a few symptoms of justifiable nervousness, revealed a talent of unusual strength. Alas! that she is wealthy and belongs to society! She would have made a capital artist for all the world to enjoy; now selfish society keeps her to itself.
29CONSTANTIN V. STERNBERG.
31Miss Yaw's Concert.
33ELLEN BEACH YAW, the phenomenal soprano, has not been heard in New York in concert, so the announcement that she is to appear in a grand orchestral concert in Carnegie Hall January 16, and at a matinée January 18, will cause considerable interest. Miss Yaw has had such overwhelming success wherever she sang, and her artistic improvement has been so marked, that these concerts will be very welcome.
35School of Arpeggios.
36For the Piano.
37By Henry Falcke, Paris, France.
39ANY system of instruction that makes the pupil independent of the teacher is a wise one. Such is the work of which the above is the title. Besides being an eminent concert pianist, M. Falcke is a conscientious and thoughtful professor. One of the first observations in coming in contact with talented pupils was:
41"How well they could play if they could!" meaning if execution were equal to intention, if the artistic-minded pupil had hands trained to the task, if mechanical obstacles could only be eliminated in advance of the artistic occupation, how much greater would be the pleasure for both pupil and teacher.
43Of all the fundamental difficulties of piano playing the arpeggios are, perhaps, the greatest and most inclusive. One who has mastered arpeggios has conquered a large part of piano technic. How to accomplish this mastery in the shortest possible time and in the most thorough and musicianly manner became one of the first aims of M. Falcke's life. The first step was to collect and group into types all the arpeggios found in piano composition, the second to have them studied, a task read in two lines of print, but that meant years of study, research, thought and arrangement.
45As pupil, graduate and premier prix of the Paris Conservatoire, friend of all the French masters, and many foreign ones, and having, on account of a practical command of several languages, unlimited experience with pupils of all nations, M. Falke's natural field of observation was unusually large. To this he added concentrated search among all compositions of all schools. The result of difficulties he has arranged into a tabulated system of arpeggio study, which may be said to be a manual of piano perfection.
47As this is the first time in the history of music that such a task has been accomplished, and as it has already received the official recognition of acceptance by the Paris Conservatoire, also the first masters of France and elsewhere, it is at once a unique success, and is destined to create an era in piano study.
49The work has already crossed the ocean, and is published on beautiful paper and in irreproachable text by G. Schirmer, New York, the excellent translation being by William C. Carl, the American organist. In Paris it is found at Quinzard's, 24 Rue des Capucines.
51In letters to M. Falcke, concerning his School of Arpeggios, M. Georges Mathias, his master in the Conservatoire, himself a pupil of Chopin, writes:
53"Your work is special, and complete in its specialty. It is new, because up to the present only a few ordinary chords have been treated; you have treated all possible and almost impossible arpeggios. You have filled a place heretofore vacant in piano instruction."
55De Bériot, of the Conservatoire, writes: "Your work is the most original and useful ever produced for the study of this difficult instrument."
57Delaborde says: "Your work will facilitate the thumb passage—that terrible passage beside which that of the Red Sea is a simple idyl."
59M. Louis Diemer says: "The variety of fingering and of arpeggio combination is most remarkable and interesting. I believe the Arpeggio School called to render infinite assistance to piano pupils."
61Tissot is delighted that "something has at last come to accelerate this side of piano study, heretofore the slowest and most difficult of accomplishment"; and Pugno, the
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.