Scan 14
Musical Courier 1897-09-15: Vol 35 Iss 915, 1897
109 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 15. See the scan on archive.org.
1sailed for home on Tuesday after a three months' sojourn in Europe. She studied during the summer with Madame Lankow, the New York voice specialist, who had a number of her other pupils at her summer residence at Bonn. Miss Berry has a sympathetic mezzo soprano voice of ample range and volume, which she uses with intelligence. She has the qualifications to make a first-class oratorio or church singer; and from what I gleaned in conversation with her she has the practical side of voice production down to such a fine point that she naturally would make a good teacher were she to turn her attention in that direction.
3THE PROMENADE CONCERTS.
5The first of these popular entertainments, on Saturday evening, drew together an audience of music lovers that filled the capacities of the Queen's Hall in all parts. It was with some regret that I left the green fields and the sweet scent of the country, doffed my cap and provincialisms and betook me to the smoke-laden air of the erstwhile deserted hall. But the freshness of the music and the authoritative voice of the orchestra soon transported me to regions more beautiful and glorious than the lanes and hedges I had quitted.
7Perhaps by the end of the season I shall be more critical. But on this occasion the roughness of finish of the orchestra, not yet quite unanimous in spirit and tempi, did not jar on my rested nerves. What if a horn note now and then wobbled, or a trumpetone split, or a violin string snapped, or a trombone tried to sound two notes at the same time? Had not they as well as I been holiday making?
9As regards Mr. Wood's work, little can be said now of a man so well known and so well criticised as he. It struck me that there was just a little of the perfunctory in his reading of some of the scores, notably the brilliant descending violin passage about the middle of the Siegfried Idyll. The prelude to Tristan was a trifle unsympathetic. I mean, of course, as far as the real meaning of the music was concerned, for it is needless to say that all the "expression marks," as the current phrase is, were carefully heeded. In the closing scene of the same work, however, one felt that the spirit of the music had touched the conductor more nearly. I was delighted at the tempo of the prelude.
11It is a pleasure to note that Mr. Wood has got over the Mottlism which used to make this same score hang fire and languish in a restless and at the same time dragging tempo. The fire and enthusiasm of youth animated his baton. In the same terms must I speak of the Tannhäuser overture on Tuesday evening. Here the modified tempi, or, to speak less technically, the give and take, the quickening and retarding of the pace in keeping with the ever-changing mood of the composition, was employed in a most legitimate and artistic manner. Of the soloists I will speak later.
13For the sake of reference I give the first three programs:
15SATURDAY.—Capriccio Italien, op. 45 (Tchaikowsky); two Hungarian Dances in G and D minor (Brahms); overture, Di Ballo (Sullivan); waltz and mazurka from Coppelia (Delibès); Norwegian Dances, op. 35 (Grieg); Ride of the Valkyries (Wagner); Rakoczy March (Liszt); Grand Fantaisie, Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni); Slavonic Dance (Dvorák). Artists—Madame Belle Cole, Mr. Herbert Grover, Mr. Arthur W. Payne, Mr. W. H. Squire, Mr. Howard Reynolds, Mr. Percy Pitt.
17MONDAY (WAGNER NIGHT)—Kaiser Marsch; Siegfried Idyll; overture, Die Meistersinger; Traume; prelude to Act III., Lohengrin; prelude to Tristan und Isolde; Grand Fantaisie, Faust (Gounod); Marche Hongroise (Berlioz). Artists—Mme. Lucile Hill, Mr. Louis Prolich, Mr. Howard Reynolds, Mr. Percy Pitt.
19TUESDAY.—Ballet music from Colomba (A. C. Mackenzie); scherzo from M dsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn); three dances from Henry VIII. (Ed. German); overture, Tannhäuser (Wagner); largo in G, from the Opera, La Gioconda (Gounod); Carmen (Bizet); Marche Rowdine (Gounod). Artists—Mme. Belle Cole, Messrs. Lloyd Chandos, B. P. Parker, Albert Fransella, Howard Reynolds, Percy Pitt. one of two readings
20TUESDAY.—Ballet music from Colomba (A. C. Mackenzie); scherzo from M. d'Amour Night's Dream (Mendelssohn); three dances from Henry VIII. (Ed. German); overture, Tannhäuser (Wagner); largo in G, from the Opera, La Gioconda (Gounod); Carmen (Bizet); Marche Rowdine (Gounod). Artists—Mme. Belle Cole, Messrs. Lloyd Chandos, B. P. Parker, Albert Fransella, Howard Reynolds, Percy Pitt. one of two readings
22F. V. ATWATER.
24WILLIAM ARMSTRONG
25LECTURES, 1897-98:
26"Unpublished Interviews with Great Musicians."
27"Contemporary Music and Musicians in England."
28Limited engagements in America until May, when return London dates will be filled. Address
29FRED PELHAM, Manager Central Lyceum Bureau, Inter-ocean Building, CHICAGO. one of two readings
30FRED PELHAM, Manager Central Lyceum Bureau. one of two readings
31Inter-ocean Building, CHICAGO. one of two readings
33AMERICAN TOUR OF THE
34BANDA: ROSSA
35EUROPE'S GREATEST MILITARY CONCERT BAND,
36Commences at the . . . one of two readings
37Commences at the … one of two readings
38METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE, . . . NEW YORK, one of two readings
39METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE, … NEW YORK, one of two readings
40Friday Evening, October 15, 1897.
41DIRECTION OF
42CARL AND THEODOR ROSENFELD.
43For dates and terms en route, address
44HENRY ROSENBERG, General Manager,
451441 Broadway, New York City.
47Some Fads and Fallacies in Voice Culture.
48PAPER READ BEFORE THE I. M. T. A. BY F. X. ARENS.
50AS the readers of our musical journals are aware, a very bitter war is just now being waged between what may be called the physiologists and psychologists in voice culture. To put the matter tersely: the former claim that, in so far as the human voice is primarily a physical instrument, subject to the laws of acoustics to the same extent as an organ, a violin or piano, the singer must first have a comprehensive knowledge of the anatomy of the vocal apparatus and then gain the fullest mechanical control of said apparatus, of each and every muscle of abdomen, diaphragm, soft palate, tongue, cheeks, lips, &c. With this end in view they prescribe minute mechanical exercises ad infinitum for all these muscles, singly and collectively, which, together, are supposed to bring about that rare phenomenon, a good, healthy, resonant voice, full of modulation and expression, equally rich in piano and forte passages—in fine, a voice at once flexible and resonant, at once brilliant and sympathetic.
52The psychologists, on the other hand, decry this method as being dry, crude, violent, unmusical and inartistic. They claim that, in so far as singing (if it is to approach, even approximately, the quintessence of musical art) is and ever must be a matter of psychic emotion, vocal art must be taught by influencing the emotions and musical imagination of the pupil; that the voice, as far as it is a physical instrument and subject to physical laws, will and must yield to the auto-suggestions of the psychic idea as to quality of tone and technic, as well as to expression and modulation. In support of this position they offer very elaborate and recondite metaphysical proofs, covering the entire ground of molecular and nerve vibration, will power, mind reading, Christian science, faith cure, second sight, and I know not what.
54It is quite obvious that here, as elsewhere, the truth lies in the golden mean. The human voice is a most complex arrangement, which, in its final results, baffles the research of the dissecting knife altogether.
56Not that there have been no attempts to lay bare the subtle working of the tone producing apparatus. We know that Garcia, the inventor of the laryngoscope; that Helmholtz, who first established the theory of tone and vowel color on a scientific basis; that Merkel, Sir Morell Mackenzie and a host of others have done much to enlighten us on the subject of physiological process during the act of singing, and valuable addition to our knowledge of the human voice they have furnished, well worthy of the careful consideration of the progressive voice teacher; but this knowledge has never yet made a voice teacher, nor has this knowledge, put into practice by means of the aforementioned physiological gymnastics, taken alone, ever made a singer of a pupil.
58Has it ever occurred to you what a marvelous process the singer undergoes when sounding any given note suggested by a piano or other instrument? How do you account for this accuracy of musical ear, as this faculty is commonly called? Certainly no physiological gymnastics, no matter how ingeniously devised, will assist you one whit in this matter of accurate ear. Of course, the healthy larynx must be presupposed to give audible utterance to this musical suggestion; but by what process is the vocal apparatus enabled to prepare itself for the sounding of the exact pitch of the tone suggested? Surely this is perhaps the most marvelous manifestation of nerve vibration translated to vocal cord vibration we know of.
60Now, that which is entirely automatic as regards height or pitch, provided the musical ear or brain has a clear pre-conception of same, ought to be and finally must be equally so as regards tone color or quality, as far as the nature and construction of the vocal apparatus will permit. And yet right here the physical asserts itself, I said, advisedly, "as far as the nature and construction of the vocal apparatus will permit." This construction refers to all the attributes of the voice: compass, timbre, power, kind of voice, &c. No imagination, however vivid, can make a tenor voice out of a baritone or a soprano out of an alto, any more than you can make a viola or 'cello sound like a violin. It is a physical impossibility, pure and simple, and there the matter ends absolutely.
62Again, you cannot force the voice to sing higher or louder than the nature of the physical apparatus readily permits without seriously impairing and even ruining the voice; not that the musical imagination of the higher or louder tone is wanting, but because of the physical impossibility of the instrument to carry out such preconceptions or auto-suggestions. I will go further and say that, while within the proper limits of a given voice as to range of registers, power, &c., this psychic tone idea will suffice in general for the manipulation of the larynx, the vocal cords, but not for the jaws, the lips or the tongue. These organs, not being directly in evidence in tone production, are influenced by the psychic tone idea, but indirectly at the most. The tongue, which insists upon curving up in front, or pulling back toward the pharynx in the rear, or wrinkling into a thousand folds, must be taught to lie easily and smoothly in the mouth-pit, gently touching the teeth at the sides and in front. And thus it is with the diaphragm, the soft palate, the lips and jaws, &c.*
64Let me illustrate the aforementioned points by referring to the violin. Why the difference in value between a coarse and imperfect $10 violin and a $5,000 Stradivarius? You can put the best Italian strings on the inferior instrument, place the latter in the hands of the finest violinist, endowed with the keenest sense of tonal beauty, let him use the best bow obtainable, and yet the tones thus produced are dull, dead, uninteresting in the piano passages and hard, piercing, in the forte passages. The phrasing, style, tempo, even the bowing, may be perfection itself, and yet the violin solo will fail to make an impression; for the first requisite to musical beauty is lacking, viz., the physical or sensuous beauty of tone.
66Again, you let the same artist take up the priceless Stradivarius, and lo! the musical composition seems transformed, the inner contents now find an adequate medium of expression, the ideas of the composer and their fine conception on part of the reproducing artist now stand forth in their glorious beauty. And how the artist is moved on to deeper, warmer emotion; how the flight of his imagination becomes loftier and loftier, until he, like unto the genius into whose soul the golden melodies were first poured by the gods, soars high, immeasurably high, above the throes and woes of creeping, crouching, cringing humanity. Ah, indeed! physical beauty of tone is well worth striving for, even by the most psychic of artists.
68Now, how do you account for this great difference of the
70* I might right here point to a fallacy or fad indulged in by our voice builders when they insist upon a flat tongue position. As'de from the act that the size, length, breadth and thickness of the different tongues vary quite as much as the size and shape of the various noses, which in itself prohibits a uniform position, the so-called flat tongue, even under the most favorable circumstances, must be modified very largely, to meet the requirements of the different registers and vowe's—all this, of course, within the smooth, quiet and easy position referred to above. What you want is an open throat; the tongue must therefore lie in such a position as to enable the tonal fluid to flow forth to placing point uninterrupted'y.
72DOERNER PIANO SCHOOL. one of two readings
73ARMIN W. DOERNER, 222 West Fourth St., Cincinnati, Ohio. one of two readings
74Regular session opens Wednesday, September 1, 1897. one of two readings
75Lessons to talented beginners, and advanced students prepared for concert appearance. Send for Catalogue. one of two readings
77OTTO LOHSE, one of two readings
78CONDUCTOR. one of two readings
79Address until September (when Mr. Lohse returns to the United States): one of two readings
80Kloster Allee 10, HAMBURG, Germany. one of two readings
82CHARLOTTE MACONDA, one of two readings
83BRILLIANT COLORATURA SOPRANO one of two readings
84Concert and Oratorio. . . . one of two readings
85For Terms, Dates, &c., address one of two readings
86Leading Musical Agents, or one of two readings
8725 West 65th Street, New York. one of two readings
89(no line here) one of two readings
90CLARENCE EDDY.
91ORGAN CONCERTS.
92BERNHARD ULRICH, Manager,
93240 ROSCOE STREET.
94CHICAGO, ILL.
96FEILDING ROSSELLE
97DRAMATIC CONTRALTO.
98Oratorio, Festivals, Concerts, Recitals.
99Address care Musical Courier, New York.
101QUINTANO,
102RENOWNED
103ITALIAN VIOLINIST.
104SEASON 1897-98.
105Address
106HENRY WOLFSON
107MUSICAL AGENCY,
108131 East 17th St., NEW YORK.
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