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Musical Courier 1896-03-04: Vol 32 Iss 835, 1896
100 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026. Printed page 5. See the scan on archive.org.
1PARIS OFFICE OF THE MUSICAL COURIER,
28 RUE CLÉMENT-MAROT, CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES,
3PARIS, February 16, 1896.
5ANOTHER SOUL GRADUATED FROM OUR CLASS.
7WHAT was it in Ambroise Thomas that made him so timid?
9He always gave the impression of not wishing to be seen or heard, of always effacing himself and looking into space instead of into people's eyes. This with his thin, sweet face, almost lost in white hair, and large head sunk into his shoulders, gave him an expression of settled pathos, inspiring chiefly in the direction of goodness.
11There is no pathos so pathetic as the pathos of goodness. The combat is so hopelessly hopeless between it and force.
13He slipped furtively along the street, hugged down into his coat and cape, like a man who was hurrying to get in out of the rain. If he spoke to anybody on the way it was because that person got directly in his path, peeped under the large soft hat, and accosted him first.
15The old-fashioned idea, fast losing hold in France, that in order to have merit one must be unnoticed and unknown seemed to find its climax in the gentle French musician on whom Fate forced her responsibilities.
17It was no "pose" with him. It was a sincere shrinking; but whether a born instinct or a sentiment born of the logic of life no one could guess. It was especially apparent this jubilee year, when as composer of international renown and head of French art institution he was obliged to pass through the taxing ordeals of four anniversary celebrations.
19It was only when face to face with a friend or in his home that this touching reserve dropped from him and he became a prince of courtly courtesy, of warm human kindliness and of appreciative enthusiasm. A tête-à-tête with M. Thomas was a régal for spirit, heart and head.
21With all his docility, our Abraham Lincoln was no more firm, once convinced in his judgment. If he did not search to travel new roads, he never traveled wrong ones, and, as a writer has expressed it, "he reached the highest official distinctions without compromising himself with intrigue, seeking success or begging glory."
23Perhaps the fact of having created so many works that were not particularly grateful to their maker was the source of his shyness. I doubt it. Everyone remembers him so. It was no doubt the self-conscious sensitiveness of a really artistic soul that, buried in his own environment, lost the vitalizing contact with the universal heart, which means courage, power, sympathy.
25Who knows, on the contrary, how much of this lack passing into his works made them "ungrateful"?
27One before whom he knew no timidity, however, was Duty. What an unflinching courage in the heart within that delicate four-score body!
29All through the trying midsummer days of Conservatoire examination, from 8 A. M. to 7 P. M., through the cruel strain of judgment, balancing almost equal superiorities, his sensitive conscience strained to the utmost tension between human sympathy and art justice, listening to pupil work, watching over jury deliberations, rejoicing with triumphant disciples—I believe it has gone on record that not once was he absent from his post during the competitions of 1895, the jubilee year!
31Speaking of that part of it which relates to the struggle between loyalty to art principles and sympathy for professors and pupils, tears came into the eyes of the Conservatoire director and his long, thin hands trembled in each other.
33These competitions were but small part, however, of the incessant duties and heavy cares attaching to the position. One has to know them all to feel it. The election of M. Raoul Pugno to the piano professorship left vacant recently by the death of M. Fissot, and of M. Leroux to the composition class, left by M. Pugno, were his last anxieties. All mindful of his great age, the question of his succession was much in his thoughts of late. He spoke of it with the anxiety of a mother for a beloved child about to be left to the hazards of fortune.
35The nation has proved a good mother to art so far. No harm can come to the Conservatoire with France to care for it. No definite opinion on the subject can be reached till after the sad ceremonies, however, although the music mind is wholly occupied with its discussion. The most serious principle involved is the retaining or losing of the musical preponderance in the institution, for, strange as it may seem, the appointment of a man of letters to the position is talked of. This naturally would have a tendency to the creation of Sara Bernhardts instead of Saint-Saënses.
37Try and realize the various rulings under which M. Thomas' life has passed. He was born the same year as Napoleon's son, and at Metz. Studying while Louis XVIII. was king, he entered the Conservatoire as pupil under Charles X., the time of the Greek sympathy, Ottoman occupation and Lord Byron's death; won the Prix de Rome under Louis Philippe, when Casimir-Perier I. was minister, and when the cholera, sweeping westward from India, reached Paris.
39He entered the Academy, replacing Spontini, under the presidency of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (cousin only of the poor, disastrous baby who was born when he was), and was made director of the Conservatoire after Auber, in the heat of the Commune, the month before M. Thiers was declared President of the Republic. There were, besides, Carnot, Casimir Perier II. and M. Faure.
41After the composition of La Double Echelle, his first work given at the Opera Comique, he wrote a work each year for six years, in one year two, after which was silence for six years. Then came one each year for three years, one alternate years for three years, then two in one year, a nine years' silence and—Mignon, the one-thousandth representation of which last year is said truly to be his apothéose before death.
43Galli Mariée was the creator of Mignon. Two years later came Hamlet with Nilsson and Faure, and three years after the Conservatoire. Three years later a work, eight years later Françoise de Rimini, and seven years later La Tempête, the last.
45Fresh in our minds is the ovation of a few Sundays ago when at the Opera Concert, surrounded by the three youngest Prix de Rome students, the President of the Republic near by, he listened to Françoise de Rimini, almost his last work.
47His last appearance, too, le cher maitre, for it was following this happy event that he caught the cold which has ended so suddenly and so sadly. It appears that he has been subject lately to slight heart trouble at times. Feeling this in the night, he arose and, partially dressed, sought air at the open window and so caught cold.
49As if through the courtesy habitual to him, the Mardi Gras festivities will not be disturbed by his cortège. The funeral is postponed till the people's holiday is at an end. A grateful nation claims the privilege of all expenses of the interment. The body at present lies in the vault of the Church of St. Cécile, whose walls adjoin almost those of the Conservatoire and which was his parish church. The first intention was that the ceremony should take place there, but friends recall an expressed wish that the services might take place where those of Auber and Rossini did, at La Trinité.
51This is said to be one of the best fitted churches in Paris as to musical possibilities. The music will be largely choral and the best. The discourses you will probably read later on.
53Mr. Thomas was an appreciative friend of THE MUSICAL COURIER. His warm welcome and kind words of sympathy and encouragement have been among the forces that have made its establishment in France one continual fête.
55He regarded with astonishment the growth of music art in America and prophesied a great future for us.
57***
59Corsica and Russia met this week, not on a field of battle, but in the Salle Bodinière, where by a curious coincidence lectures were given the same afternoon upon the music of the land of Alexander I. and of the little island in the Mediterranean where was born the one man who made Alexander afraid.
61Moussorski was the Russian composer whose works formed the burden of the conference concert.
63The lecturer, in addition to a résumé of the life and work of the composer, illuminated the selections given with anecdotes, legends, circumstances and feelings connected therewith. A young Russian girl interpreted vocally, and the instrumental illustrations were given by a pianist of the same nationality.
65Thus were represented instrumentally the Gopak, the historic chimes of Moscow, the same played at the crowning of Alexander III. and to be employed in a few weeks at the coronation of Nicholas II.; Vecchio Castello and the Limoges March; vocally, the Orphan's Plainte, the Child's Prayer, Divination by Water, a popular fairy story, a battle song and a dramatic dialogue between a mother watching over a sick child and approaching death.
67Spontaneous applause is the surest criterion of popularity and if continued of merit. The charming peeps into Russian nationality in music were greeted with spontaneous ovations. The four features, lecture, composition, singing and playing, combined to produce this, but it must be said that the exquisite French diction of the Russian girl was not the least part of the success. It was as perfect as the most perfect French linguist could have made it.
69This triumph of care over negligence formed one more proof that the correct diction of a language is possible to a foreigner if properly studied; and was one more reproach to Parisian teachers and students who have allowed the preposterous falsehood to grow that French is impossible to foreigners.
71Moreover, this young lady studied French in Russia; she did not have to come to Paris to learn it. She studied properly at home and came over to France and astonished and delighted French people by the superb rectitude of her diction, i.e., pronunciation and accent. Her manager assures me that there are scores of girls who do equally well without ever leaving their country.
73The more one hears Russian music the more one is convinced that it is not wearisome, not monotonous. Though new in style, it is not patchy. It is always colored, generally rhythmic and often melodic, and there seems to be more imagination than effort in it.
75The accompaniments on this special occasion were neither weak trimmings nor loud disturbance. They were vital and—accompaniment. This was but one of a series of similar entertainments.
77The Corsican performance was similar, also serial, with the addition of projected pictures. The history of the people and their character, laws, customs, legends, and the natural outgrowth of the music therefrom, formed the subjects of the conferences, which extend over a couple of months to come.
79Hymns of their chiefs and warriors, satiric songs of the Bonifacions, pastoral and Christmas songs, funeral music, songs of vengeance, blood and death, the cradle song, serenade, marriage and religious music, fishers' and bandits' songs, and songs of the children, were all there with their crude, romantic and often beautiful varieties.
81Among the projections showing the most picturesque features of the island, of course, was found the home of him who carried its colors into the four corners of Europe. The photographs had been lent to the management by Prince Roland Bonaparte.
83The music was wayward, wild, crude and unconventional compared with that of the empire, but much of it was very effective. It had been harmonized of course, and was sung to accompaniment of harp, Mustel harmonium, violin, violoncello and guitar, although the aboriginal instruments are few and primitive, chiefly guitar and flute. The songs were sung in costume.
85Scenes were given showing bandit or vendetta life. One very impressive one showed the bandits' interior, in which a sort of "wake" was being held over the body of one of their number who had been murdered, three black robed women singing mournful ditties. Calvé could have gained some points from the "sweet young sister," whose duty it was not to soothe the savage breast with her songs, but to incite to the most bloodthirsty vengeance the seven red-sashed, big-hatted armed relatives who stood around the bier.
87A most effective musical background was made by this wonderful instrument, the harmonium celesta of Mustel, which seems limitless in its resources artistically and infinite in the tenderness, beauty and suppleness of its astonishing sonority. It is an orchestra in itself, and is coming to be invaluable here.
89This was a week of Russian musical fête indeed. Great interest and enthusiasm were added to the Lamoureux supplementary concert by the appearance of the young Russian M. Lhévinne, the winner of the Rubinstein international prize in Berlin a few months ago.
91Accompanied by his master, M. Safonoff, the director of the Imperial Conservatoire at Moscow, invited by M. Lamoureux to conduct the Russian portion of the performance, their coming on the stage was the signal for a long and warm welcome.
93Symbol of faith in talent and national courtesy at first, the feeling intensified as the merits in the case disclosed themselves. The exquisite technic, spirituality and warmth of the young man's playing was electrifying, and it is quite certain that nobody in the house thought or cared whether he came from the North Pole or the Sahara Desert or Paris in the exaltation of mind that his musical insight created.
95A young, blond, boyish fellow, he seemed not to know what to do under the salvos of applause with which he was recalled several times. And the best sign of all was the manifest satisfaction of M. Lamoureux, who is not a man to mince matters if anything does not please him.
97The fifth Rubinstein concerto in E flat, an extract from a César Cui series, an original fantasy by Balakireff and three studies by Scriabine were the compositions played.
99Scriabine is a young Russian who surprised Paris conventionality recently by giving a concert solely of his own works, a series of tiny musical cameos, which were declared a valuable addition to concert literature. The three played were among the most charming. The Oriental fantasy, colored, exciting, subtle and well planned, was the best calculated to show off the player's authority; the concerto was not a powerful work, although possessing many fine
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