Scan 11
Musical Courier 1896-07-15: Vol 33 Iss 854, 1896
77 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 12. See the scan on archive.org.
1Ponte, "whose last years were years of poverty, and no one knows the final resting place of the once brilliant and gallant abbé, whose wit had charmed court beauties," &c. After the lecture one of his hearers had the audacity to tell the highly honored professor of the adventures and the death of Da Ponte in the United States. Riehl looked at him as a Saint Bernard would look at a King Charles. At the next lecture the learned, highly honored professor made this announcement: "I am told that Da Ponte spent his last days in England, and that he died there, and that he is buried at York, a small place not far from London. But this is all largely a matter of tradition."
3As for the charm of Riehl's style. In grace and haunting suggestion Riehl does not approach Ehlert; in wit, invective, good humor and musical knowledge he is a child compared with Heinrich Dorn; and to place him in the same class with Hanslick or the late Gustav Engel would be ridiculous. Riehl is a masculine Elise Polko, süsslich—schwärmerisch.
5Nor can I agree with Mr. Dickinson in his statement: "There is no musical criticism in the English language comparable to them in literary charm." In the matter of literary charm alone the essays of Riehl are as far below the writings of H. F. Chorley, J. F. Runciman, James G. Huneker, W. J. Henderson, and H. E. Krehbiel as the essays of Triswell and the Country Parson are below the essays of Lamb, Hazlitt, Alexander Smith and Robert Louis Stevenson.
7Riehl published a volume of part songs, which bore the title Haus-musik, and he sent a copy to Immanuel Gottlob Friedrich Faisst, the contrapuntal potentate of Stuttgart. Now, Faisst could be on occasions the rudest of men. The occasions were many and they were nobly improved. (Some day ask Victor Herbert about the music festival in Stuttgart in '85, when Faisst tried to lead Händel's Samson and had a row with the first trumpeter.) Whenever Riehl's name was mentioned before Faisst, he would say in his gruffest way: "Oh, yes; he's the man that wrote Sau-musik."
9An essay by Vance Thompson in Mlle. New York—the Youth's Companion of your city—induced me to buy the works of Stanislaw Przybyszewski. I cannot pronounce the name, and I am not willing to swear that I have spelled it correctly. I am now the owner of Zur Psychologie des Individuums (I. Chopin und Nietzsche; II. Ola Hannson); Totenmesse; Das Werk des Eduard Munch, Vigilien; Unterwegs. Would you like to buy them at a reduced price?
11Now, Hanslick alludes in the book mentioned above to Przybyszewski. "The Wagnerites," he says, "as is well known, find in each opera of their master the whole of Schopenhauer; and in these latter days a geistreicher Nietzschean—geistreicher sind sie alle—discovers in Chopin the forerunner of Friedrich Nietzsche!" Mr. Przybyszewski—so runs his melodious name—assures us that "Nietzsche is the translation of Chopin's music into philosophical language; analysis and deduction form the material supplied by Chopin. Where Chopin ends Nietzsche begins."
13And so it is not surprising to find Przybyszewski taking as the motto of Totenmesse "Chopin's F sharp minor polonaise, op. 44."
15Pianists will find their labors lightened if they once grasp firmly the idea that the music of Chopin's last year is "ein ausgesprochenes Merkmal der Schreckbildpsychose." They should also notice carefully the "Känogenetische Entwicklungsstufe."
17Listen to this:
19"Horla! Horla!
20"Horla, which destroyed Edgar Poe by alcohol, Baudelaire by haschisch, Maupassant by ether; and horla in Chopin wrote the B minor scherzo." one of two readings
21"Horla, which destroyed Edgar Poe by alcohol, Baude laire by haschisch, Maupassant by ether; and horla in Chopin wrote the B minor scherzo." one of two readings
23How about this odd story in regard to Poe? As Mr. Charles Whibley says in the New Review for June: "The most that has been proved against Poe is that wine had an instant and perverse effect upon his brain. Let the dullard go home and thank God for that superior virtue which permits him to drink his muddy beer in peace; let him also reflect that no wine could purchase for him the dreams, the poems, the hopes which it purchased for Poe. That his death was tragic and premature is, alas, indisputable. And here, again, has been an occasion for much foolishness. He died, like Marlowe and many another man of genius, in the street, unheeded, almost unrecognized. But he died at his own time, when his work was done, a victim to the stolid stupidity of circumstance. He was great, not on account of his frailty, which the fool sometimes mistakes for talent, but in his frailty's despite; and he yields not in good fortune to the solemn prig whose sole congratulation is that his unremembered and useless life trickles out respectably in bed."
25As for Baudelaire, there was hereditary taint in his family that attacked the brain; and Maupassant, as De Goncourt relates, had a brother whose mind was affected.
27There are passages in this pamphlet of Przybyszewski that abound in sombre eloquence, probing analysis and high imagination. But when he talks of the "double electric molecules" and the "favorite A B C of the Bau-Wau-Theory," I look out of the window and watch the clouds.
29Such pamphlets remind one of the words of Ehlert written twenty years ago: "The men who now most interest us in music are so terribly in earnest. We must study them and after we have studied them buy a revolver." And he longed for the appearance of a composer over whom it would be no more necessary to dispute than over the spring.
31***
33Shall we really again see the gallant Colonel Mapleson? Has De Anna, who was with him here eleven or twelve years ago, forgotten the quarrel at San Francisco, described in the amusing memoirs of the colonel? By the way, where is Mlle. Dotti? And what manager has not had his Dotti, who, for some inscrutable reason, was always thrust upon a much-enduring public?
35Let us remember, however, when we are tempted to smile at the fanfare blown by the colonel's passionate press agent that Delilah is a dramatic soprano of more than ordinary reputation. She sang at La Scala in The Cid December 26, 1890; she created a part at that theatre in Gomez's Condor February 21, 1891; she sang there in Tannhäuser December 29, 1891; and she created a part in La Wally January 20, 1892.
37But the passionate press agent should not put his hand on his heart and swear that the six-foot soprano Vidal created the part of Delilah in Paris. That part was first sung in private hearings by Augusta Holmes in 1870; again in private by Pauline Viardot in 1874; when a portion of the work was given at a Chatelet concert in 1875 Miss Bruant was the Delilah; when the third act was sung at the Chatelet Good Friday, 1880, Miss Walta was the Delilah; when the opera was sung at Rouen, the Delilah was Bossi; when Samson and Delilah was first given at the Paris Opéra the Delilah was Deschamps-Jehin. Accuracy, accuracy, as good Mr. Pulitzer is never weary of saying to his young men.
39***
41The Pall Mall Gazette plaintively asks: "When does Mme. Melba purpose to fill us with joy by learning a new part? In the continent of music, where there are a thousand kingdoms to conquer, such a singer as she should not be content with a few paltry principalities."
43And in this country we might well ask: "When will the managers produce new operas?" They would probably reply: "When the audiences give us box-office-proof that they would like to hear them."
45How little is known in this country of the opera of today! As long as exorbitant salaries are paid to stars, as long as fashionable audiences regard The Huguenots "with an ideal cast" as the last word in opera, managers are not to be blamed harshly if they shrug their shoulders and obey the popular wish.
47PHILIP HALE.
49Boston Music Notes.
51BOSTON, July 10, 1896.
53Mr. Carl Sobeski is to give a series of concerts at the leading hotels of the fashionable watering places in New England during the summer. The first one takes place at Hawthorne Inn, East Gloucester, July 14. The programs are interesting ones, with careful attention paid to the style of songs best suited to a watering place audience. At the concert on Tuesday evening Mr. Sobeski will sing a new song by Nevin, Time Enough, also one of his own songs, which he will sing for the first time in public and which has not as yet been published, My Boat Lies Waiting. Miss Avis Bliven sails on La Touraine to-day for Europe, where she goes to Vienna to study with Leschetizky for a number of years. She will be accompanied by her teacher, Mrs. Anne Gilbreth Cross, who will remain abroad until October 1. Miss Bliven is so talented and such a fine artist already under the instruction of Mrs. Cross that her many friends will await with much interest the result of her further progress in her studies.
55Mr. S. Kronberg and wife are spending a week with Mr. D. L. White at East Rindge, N. H. Mr. Kronberg has been engaged to sing at Bass Point, Nahant, on Sundays during the season, afternoon and evening, with orchestral accompaniment. There will also be a double quartet, of which Mr. Kronberg will be the director.
57Mr. C. A. Eaton has re-engaged Mr. Felix Winternitz for next season and will send out the Boston Rivals, with Miss Jennie Mae Spencer, Miss Edna Louise Sutherland, Miss Maud Paradis and Mr. Felix Winternitz.
59Mr. Sanford Keith Gurney has gone to his summer home at Monument Beach for the season.
61The thirty-ninth annual Music Festival at Worcester is to be held from September 21 to 26. The principal works to be given are: The Messiah, Tuesday evening; Eve, Wednesday afternoon; Golden Legend, Wednesday evening; Tower of Babel, choruses, Thursday afternoon; Stabat Mater, Thursday evening; Arminius, Friday evening. Mr. Carl Zerrahn, assisted by Mr. Franz Kneisel, will conduct. The corps of soloists will include Mme. Lillian Nor-dica-Doehme, who will be heard on Wednesday evening, when she will sing the part of Elsie in Sullivan's Golden Legend, on Thursday evening and again on Friday afternoon, when her last number will be Isolde's Liebestod from the finale of Tristan und Isolde. one of two readings
62The thirty-ninth annual Music Festival at Worcester is to be held from September 21 to 26. The principal works to be given are: The Messiah, Tuesday evening; Eve, Wednesday afternoon; Golden Legend, Wednesday evening; Tower of Babel, choruses, Thursday afternoon; Stabat Mater, Thursday evening; Arminius, Friday evening. Mr. Carl Zerrahn, assisted by Mr. Franz Kneisel, will conduct. The corps of soloists will include Mme. Lillian Nor dica-Doehme, who will be heard on Wednesday evening, when she will sing the part of Elsie in Sullivan's Golden Legend, on Thursday evening and again on Friday afternoon, when her last number will be Isolde's Liebestod from the finale of Tristan und Isolde. one of two readings
64Mr. Edmund Schuecker, harpist of the Chicago Orchestra, and Mr. Heinrich Schuecker, his brother, who fills the same position in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, have been engaged to play in the next Worcester (Mass.) musical festival. Two original compositions by Mr. Edmund Schuecker will be brought forward—a concertstück for two harps and a solo number, Fantasie di Bravura, to be played by the composer.
66Miss Viola Campbell, soprano singer at the North Avenue Congregational Church, Cambridge, and Everett M. Waterhouse, a member of the Harvard Glee Club and tenor at the Mt. Vernon Church, Boston, were married at Lowell July 8. Mr. and Mrs. Waterhouse will spend the summer at the bridegroom's home in Maine, and he will resume his studies as a member of the class of 1898 of Harvard College in the fall.
68On Thursday, June 25, Mr. Fred Field Bullard and Miss Maud Gardner Sanderson were married at the home of the bride's mother on Walnut avenue, Roxbury. Rev. Percy Browne officiated. The bridegroom is well known as a writer of music and a teacher of harmony.
70Cincinnati Odeon.—The management of the Odeon has been intrusted to Mr. S. C. Hayslip in addition to his other work in the Cincinnati College of Music. The Odeon promises to be the most popular concert house in the city, and will book all leading musical attractions.
72Vienna.—The Imperial Opera of Vienna gave, during the last season 319 performances of sixty-one operas and twenty-one ballets. Four of the former and one of the latter were given for the first time. Frau Kaulich sang 107 times, the basso Reichenberg, 100 times, and Van Dyck and Winckelmann, 50 times. Nine Wagner operas were given at thirty-seven performances.
74A Record Breaker.—M. Luigi Novara gained a gold medal at Turin in a long distance contest of mandolinists. He played his hapless instrument for twenty-three hours and fifty-five minutes. The fourteen competitors, seven male and seven female, were allowed to eat and drink during the struggle. Three ladies held out for eighteen hours.
76Nuremberg.—The director of the Nuremberg Museum, Dr. Gustav von Bezold, produced at a late historical concert an overture in the form of a suite by Johann Christoph Bach (1648-1708), a cousin of the great Johann Sebastian, a work which exists only in manuscript in the Berlin Library. Other numbers were a Concerto Grosso, by Francesco Geminioni (1666-1762), with remarkable violin effects, and J. Sebastian's D minor piano concerto with string orchestra.
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