Scan 15
Musical Courier 1896-07-15: Vol 33 Iss 854, 1896
70 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 16. See the scan on archive.org.
1The Musical Courier.
2PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY
3BY THE
4MUSICAL COURIER COMPANY.
5(Incorporated under the Laws of the State of New York.)
619 Union Square W., New York.
7TELEPHONE: – – 1953-18th.
8Cable Address, "Pegujar," New York.
9MARC A. BLUMENBERG. – – Editor-in-Chief.
10THE BERLIN, GERMANY, Branch Office of THE MUSICAL COURIER, 17 Link Str., W., is in charge of Mr. Otto Floersheim.
11Single copies for sale at the music store of Ed. Bote & G. Bock, Leipziger Strasse, 59 W.
12THE LONDON, ENGLAND, Branch Office of THE MUSICAL COURIER, 91 Princes St., Cavendish Square, Oxford Circus, W., is in charge of Mr. Frank Vincent Atwater.
13IN LEIPZIG, GERMANY, Single copies of THE MUSICAL COURIER are for sale at Waldstrasse 70.
14PARIS, FRANCE, THE MUSICAL COURIER, 8 Rue 'Clement Marot, Champs-Elysees, is in charge of Fannie Edgar Thomas.
15THE ROME, ITALY, branch office of THE MUSICAL COURIER, 37 Via dell'Aurora, is in charge of Theo. Tracy Owler.
16THE CHICAGO OFFICE OF THE MUSICAL COURIER is at 220 Wabash Avenue.
17THE BOSTON OFFICE of THE MUSICAL COURIER is at 17 Beacon Street.
18LONDON: Single copies, Principal London Publishers.
19PARIS: Single copies, BRENTANO'S, 37 avenue de l'Opéra, and Galigani Library, 294 rue de Rivoli.
20DRESDEN: Single copies for sale at H. Bock's, Pragerstrasse.12
21Subscription (including postage), invariably in advance:
22Yearly, $4 00; Foreign, $5.00; Single Copies, Ten Cents.
23RATES FOR ADVERTISING.
24PER INCH
25Three Months………….$25.00 Nine Months………….$75.00
26Six Months……………..50.00 Twelve Months………..100.00
27Advertisements on reading pages are charged at double the above rates.
28Special rates for preferred positions.
29One page, one insertion………………………………….$250.00
30One half page, one insertion……………………………125.00
31All remittances for subscriptions or advertising must be made by check, draft or money orders, payable to THE MUSICAL COURIER COMPANY.
32Advertisements for the current week must be handed in by 5 P. M. on Monday.
33All changes in advertisements must reach this office by Friday noon preceding the issue in which changes are to take effect.
34American News Company, New York, General Distributing Agents.
35Western News Company, Chicago, Western Distributing Agents.
36ESTABLISHED JANUARY, 1880.
37No. 854.
38NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 1896.
39NOTICE.
40"THE MUSICAL COURIER" DOES NOT CLUB WITH ANY OTHER PUBLICATION, AND ALL REPRESENTATIONS OF THAT NATURE ARE WITHOUT AUTHORITY FROM THE MUSICAL COURIER COMPANY.
41"THE MUSICAL COURIER" DOES NOT HAVE ANY FREE LIST, AND ITS COMPLEMENT OF EXCHANGES HAS ASSUMED SUCH PROPORTIONS THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE ANY ADDITIONS THERETO.
42NEW SUBSCRIBERS TO INSURE PROMPT DELIVERY OF "THE MUSICAL COURIER" SHOULD REMIT THE AMOUNT OF THEIR SUBSCRIPTION WITH THE ORDER.
43IT IS NOT ALWAYS POSSIBLE TO FILL ORDERS FOR BACK NUMBERS OF "THE MUSICAL COURIER" UPON THE DAY OF THEIR RECEIPT, BECAUSE IN MANY INSTANCES THE EDITION IS ENTIRELY OUT, AND IT IS NECESSARY TO WAIT FOR SUCH RETURNS AS MAY COME FROM THE DISTRIBUTING AGENCIES. EACH ORDER IS ENTERED IN ITS TURN AND FILLED IN ITS TURN, BUT DELAYS ARE AT TIMES UNAVOIDABLE.
44IF ANY OF OUR READERS ARE UNABLE TO PURCHASE THE CURRENT ISSUE OF "THE MUSICAL COURIER" AT THE NEWS STANDS, BOOK STORES OR AT ANY PLACE WHERE PERIODICALS ARE OFFERED FOR SALE, WE CONSIDER IT A FAVOR IF THEY WILL NOTIFY THIS OFFICE, GIVING THE ADDRESS OF THE STORE OR STAND AND THE DATE ON WHICH "THE MUSICAL COURIER" WAS ASKED FOR.
45SUBSCRIBERS VISITING EUROPE AND SENDING THEIR CHANGES OF ADDRESS FOR THE SUMMER MONTHS WILL INSURE PROMPT ATTENTION TO THEIR REQUESTS BY INCLOSING 50 CENTS IN STAMPS TO DEFRAY THE ADDITIONAL POSTAGE.
46SOME one suggests that the bicycle could readily be accompanied by a musical instrument, as the wheel affords power in itself, and all that is subsequently necessary is the instrument, which could be placed between the spokes. Each rider then could have his own musical instrument which could accompany him as he rode. During the scorching process the tempo would of course be very rapid, while the ordinary movement would make it a slow andante, which might put the rider to sleep.
47THE Monday cable announces that all the seats for the Bayreuth performances have been sold, and that those who desire to attend and who have not already purchased their seats will be obliged to pay large premiums.
48This is nearly always the case. There is such a large element of musical people that is dilatory in these actions in festival matters, and particularly with these Bayreuth festivals, which are given at such a distance, that they necessarily must suffer from crafty speculators who get their hands into the ticket sales in Europe just as readily as they do here the moment they discover that the performance will become attractive.
49We do not believe that Cosima Wagner participates in any of these transactions by means of which these tickets are forced to a premium price, but if, as the cable says, the premium must be paid, it is first-class evidence that those who purchase the tickets do not do so for the purpose of attending the festival, for if they did no tickets would be for sale at all, and naturally the premium would disappear.
50THE conference that has been engaged in Paris in revising the Copyright Convention of Berne has completed its work. Most of the changes proposed refer to authors of the countries embraced in the Copyright Union, but to outsiders the change in Article 3 of the convention of September 9, 1886, is of interest. This article will read:
51Authors not belonging to any of the countries in the union, but who have published or caused to be published for the first time their literary or artistic works in one of these countries, shall enjoy, for such works, the protection accorded by the Convention of Berne, and the present additional clause.
52The provision with regard to pirated or counterfeit works, contained in Article 12, will henceforth read:
53Every pirated work can be seized by the proper authorities of the countries of the Union where the original work has legal protection.
54In a section devoted to the interpretation of the various articles of the Convention of Berne, September 6, 1886, the second article gives the following definition of publication:
55By published works is understood works issued (édites) in one of the countries of the union. Consequently the representation of a dramatic or dramatico-musical work, the performance of a musical work, the exhibition of a work of art, do not constitute publication in the sense of the preceding articles.
56The next copyright conference will be held within the next ten years at Berlin, by which time it may be hoped that the United States may join the other great powers in giving protection to artistic and literary properties.
57THE OPERATIC SITUATION.
58IT has not yet been definitely announced whether Mr. Maurice Grau has been selected or appointed the successor of Sir Augustus Harris, and a cablegram in the Sunday papers further complicates speculations on the subject by stating that a committee of subscribers of opera at Covent Garden will assume charge of the affairs of the opera for the time being.
59As we say, all speculation on the subject is useless, but the announcement of Sunday certainly makes it appear as if opera in London will not be under single handed management. Now it appears that in New York a similar state of affairs will prevail, for under the reorganized Abbey, Schoeffel & Grau Stock Company the management of affairs will be in the hands of a board of directors—something equivalent to the London condition.
60Operating opera under such auspices would be a new experiment. There would, for instance, be sub-committees. A sub-committee of finance, a sub-committee on stage and scenery, a sub-committee on chorus and orchestra, a sub-committee on stars and artists. Of course all this is hypothetical, yet it does not appear as if under the board of directors and a committee of subscribers the conducting of the enterprise would devolve upon any one man, or any one man would be any other than a mere clerk or secretary without responsibility.
61He would be obliged to submit everything to the board of directors or to the various sub-committees, and these again would report to the general committee or board of directors. Under all conditions it would be a complicated state of affairs, but it seems as if it is now to be tested, not only here, but in London.
62This also gives Colonel Mapleson an opportunity, if he should come over, to demonstrate the advantage of single generalship, if there are any advantages.
63We hear that the colonel is representing to the artists who are to come over here that his financial basis consists of guarantees of the managers and owners of the opera houses here. So far as we can understand there is not a single manager of any opera house or theatre who made such an arrangement with Colonel Mapleson who could afford to do it, for it involves a tremendous risk, even here in New York, much less in other cities.
64There is a probability that the management of the new Cincinnati Opera House, which has been substituted for the old Music Hall, has effected some arrangement with Col. Mapleson in the shape of a guarantee, but we doubt very much whether there is any other instance to be found, and we cannot conceive of any such possibility. The artists announced by Colonel Mapleson are unknown in this country, but that is no reason for supposing that they are very well known in Europe.
65Mr. Walter Damrosch is going ahead with his opera and will begin his season in December in Philadelphia. It will last either five or seven weeks, we do not exactly know which. His New York season will, as has already been stated, take place after the Italian season at the New York Metropolitan Opera House, and Mapleson will of course hold the fort at the New York Academy of Music, and the dates have already been published in this paper.
66THE RAREE SHOW.
67THE growing habit of "all star" casts wherever an exceptional bait for financial results is designed to be put forward begins to threaten the musical atmosphere with melancholy vitiation. The most recent attempt was in the performance of Patience on Friday evening last, July 10, at the Herald Square Theatre, when Lillian Russell played the dairymaid, and a galaxy of separate prime donne and primo gentlemen consented to fill the surrounding rôles which they believe themselves to have ages ago outgrown.
68This little flight of midsummer madness is unimportant in itself beyond the fact that it is another evidence of the development of a vulgar demand generated in the public by a vulgar supply which it has unluckily been unable to resist. These star casts present a list of names which separately are associated with good art but which in such irregular combination, subordinate and ill fitting, produce infinitely less satisfactory results than would the respectable but accustomed list of mediocrity.
69To affect that these extra combinations produce anything like extra artistic results is absurd and offensive to honest intelligence. The "star" will not subordinate his light; he cannot be supposed to learn in one performance just how to feel himself a respectfully useful component part of a scheme where he has been used to have matters revolve by him and round him. All that may be urged to the contrary it will be found in 99 cases per cent. that with all a good artist's appreciation of detail, of the gravity of subdued lights in the background he considers these as apart from himself, and aut Caesar, aut nihil, finds no usefulness unless in the very front of action. As for sinking himself into the perspective of a small part, he will see the reason, the better the artist the stronger will show the reason, but he will not be able to accomplish it. The emphasis of habit and assertion will always obtrude, and despite himself a leading artist will with a small part do one of two things—either push it into undue prominence, or on the other side in the ex-
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