Scan 19
Musical Courier 1898-06-15: Vol 36 Iss 954, 1898
98 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 18. See the scan on archive.org.
1the score in detail and with such dramatic and pictorial power was ever heard before in London.
3We are not surprised at this event, which is the logical outcome of the vicious and inartistic star system so decried by Richard Wagner. The fact is the manager and then the singer are the chief offenders in this matter. It was not Wagner alone who battled against the dominating and baleful influence of the singer. Even Donizetti and Bellini made efforts to write for music's sake, and not the singer. But the manager having some singer to exploit interfered and art had to suffer.
5Mr. Grau is a manager who knows little about art and cares less. Although Mr. Seidl struggled to establish the music drama in New York on lines familiar to Bayreuth and the great German cities, he, too, had to succumb to Grau and his odious star system. The music of the Wagner score had to wait upon the good graces of the singers, and cuts, mutilations, were made that were simply indefensible. Mr. Seidl knew all this and protested, but, as his estate shows, he was not in a position to take a firm stand against Grau. Jean de Reszké is too artistic a man not to know that this treatment of masterpieces was fatal to the cause of music. When he first sang Siegfried here The Musical Courier criticised the performance severely, and was itself criticised for suggesting that de Reszké stick to Wagner and not listen to Grau.
7And now the fiasco has come; London would stand the excisions, especially as the trilogy was being sung in its entirety, and Mr. Schulz-Curtius does not hesitate to lay the blame on de Reszké. Of course it is Grau; Grau who has no more notion of the dignity and grandeur of Wagner's art than a bull in the china-shop of anecdote. If London cannot stand de Reszké's Siegfried, how about New York? We have so often plumed ourselves on our superior musical tastes here that this silent rebuke from London should open our eyes. The fact is the world is moving, all except the old-fashioned opera bouffe manager of the Grau sort. A new generation has grown to the consciousness of Wagner's greatness, and will not be put upon with slipshod interpretations. Can New York ever again endure Grau and his irreverential treatment of masterpieces?
9WHEN the Paris Exposition of 1867 was opened the French piano manufacturers found a large display of varied American piano products, all built on the American overstrung system. These pianos were examined by the French experts, but there was only one intelligence that perceived the enormous acoustical progress embodied in the American theory, and that intelligence has just passed away, a reminder of the irritating conservatism of a nation that refuses to listen. We refer to M. Edouard Joseph Mangeot, a name immortal in the history of the piano and in the annals of modern French music, who died at his home in Paris, 3 Rue 29 Julliet, on May 31, at the age of 64.
11He and his brothers were piano manufacturers at Nancy and made pianos on the flat scale principle, small in outline, lightly strung, slight in tension, without the full plate and of the usual French type. The American piano at once appealed to his musical mind and his artistic ideal, and he went home from Paris, reorganized his factory, threw aside the plans and models of a half century, and adopting the sound theory of a new world constructed his pianos on the modern principle. The cost involved in such a revolution of an industrial establishment, coupled with a polite refusal of the French people to listen to a larger, firmer, fuller and more musical tone, destroyed the house of Mangeot, but it placed him in the front rank of French musical minds and created a great and sympathetic sentiment in his favor.
13Backed by this he was enabled on coming to Paris to establish the paper Le Monde Musicale, which soon became a recognized organ and authority in musical affairs and in matters pertaining to the musical industries, and it survives its founder as a living evidence of what can be accomplished by fidelity to trust, by faith in the justice of a pursuit, by energy and intelligence and a high devotion to duty.
15Personally M. Mangeot was a man of graceful nature, placid and yet dignified. He had a versatile education from the French point of view, more so than the average French citizen of high degree, and a deep devotion to his family, the survivors of which are the widow, four sons, daughters and sons-in-law. He was buried on June 2 in the Cemetary de Bagneux.
17The Master Violin Virtuoso.
19It is rumored that Prof. Leopold Auer, the violinist, of St. Petersburg, who created such immense furor during his visit to Berlin, has been engaged for next season in America by the Carl Loewenstein Concert Direction, and will make his first appearance with the Permanent Orchestra, Emil Paur conductor.
21The Ovide Musin Violin School.
23All arrangements are now completed for the opening of the Ovide Musin Virtuoso School of Violin on September 1. Mr. Musin is expected to arrive in New York immediately after the examinations at the Liege Conservatory, which take place late in July. His first class is now filled, and among the students are several violinists well known in concert circles in this country.
25A Brooklyn Testimonial Concert.
27The testimonial concert by the choir of the First Reformed Church of Brooklyn, tendered to their director and held on Wednesday evening, June 1, was a very interesting affair. Among those who assisted on the program were G. Ellsworth Giles, tenor, and the well-known basso cantante Joseph B. Zelman, who sang the aria "Le Tambour Major," by Thomas, with great brilliancy and beautiful phrasing. Being recalled he sang "My Guardian Angel," by C. H. H. Booth, with most artistic feeling. Mr. Giles aroused positive enthusiasm.
29Broad Street Conservatory of Music.
31There was a large audience present in Music Fund Hall, Philadelphia, last week, an audience so large that late comers found themselves excluded, the occasion being the commencement of the Broad Street Conservatory of Music, the popular institution at 1331 South Broad street, Philadelphia, of which Gilbert Raynolds Combs is the able and respected director. An excellent program had been arranged for the double purpose of entertaining the audience and enabling the graduates to display their efficiency, and in this the pianists had the very valuable assistance of the admirably trained pupils' orchestra which the establishment maintains.
33The music which the graduates played was difficult, but in every instance it was given in a manner which bespoke diligence of the student and the thoroughness of her institution. The diplomas and gold medals were presented by Dr. Hugh A. Clarke with a brief but graceful address. The names of the graduates were as follows: Miss Julia A. Carpenter, Salem, N. J.; Miss Florence Dale, Philadelphia; Miss Honore Dickson, Media, Pa.; Miss Gertrude Humphrey, Jamestown, N. Y.; Miss Annabel Wilkins, Moorestown, N. J.; Miss Bessie McConaghy, Swarthmore, Pa.; Miss Anna Williams, Philadelphia; Miss Georgianna Horning, Chester, Pa. Vocal department, Miss Carrie L. Bradley, Philadelphia; theoretical department, Miss Minnie Wright, Columbia, Pa.
35The following was the program: Overture, "Fidelio," Beethoven, Pupils' Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Mr. Combs; concerto for piano in E flat, Mozart, first movement, Miss Julia Carpenter and orchestra; vocal solo, "Hear Ye Israel" ("Elijah"), Mendelssohn, Miss Carrie Bradley and orchestra; concerto for piano, op. 15, Beethoven, allegro con brio, Miss Honore Dickson and orchestra; largo, Miss Bessie McConaghy and orchestra; rondo allegro, Miss Annabel Wilkins and orchestra; capriccio brilliant for piano, op. 22, Mendelssohn, Miss Anna Williams and orchestra; chorus, "The Heavens Are Telling" ("Creation"), Haydn, vocal ensemble class and orchestra; concerto for piano, op. 24, Mendelssohn, molto allegro con fuoco, Miss Florence Dale and orchestra; andante, Miss Georgianna Horning and orchestra; presto, molto allegro e vivace, Miss G. Humphrey and orchestra.
37TO LEANDER.
39IN SUNSET BY THE SOUTHERN SEA.
41From what diviner air hast thou
42Descended to these sombre skies?
43What mighty god enwreathed thy brow
44With flaky flame, and filled thine eyes—
45Those wells deep-set, with light too clear.
46Too ardent for our mortal sphere?
48Motionless, like a heaven-born thing,
49Which earthly vapors overwhelm,
50Still striving with the spirit's wing
51To reach thy antenatal realm,
52Thou standest on this craggy cove.
53Live image of Uranian Love.
55The limpid waters dream at ease
56Around thy billow-beaten throne,
57Pearly horizons of gray seas
58Melt into skies of amber tone,
59With rose incarnadined to warm
60The flawless pallor of thy form.
62'Tis gold, 'tis honey, faintest flush
63Of crimson playing 'round each limb,
64Bathing thy body in a blush
65So all-pervasive, lustrous, dim,
66That, gazing, we are fain to feel
67Those hues from thee their radiance steal.
69Why prate of gods and heaven-born things?
70Be thou thyself, victorious boy!
71There need no wide aerial wings,
72No immortals of joy.
73Thine is the true, the sole ideal—
74Man knows nought lovelier than the real.
75—John Addington Symonds.
77HERE are some questions sent me by a Cuban. He is in Cuba with the insurgents, but of course he will get his Musical Courier, for it is delivered as regularly as if the war were a figment of Richard Harding Davis' brain.
79What is the Bach fugue in A minor with a short prelude? I do not know except that it is a fugue in A minor, and is not in the "Well Tempered Clavichord." It has been played in concert here by Rafael Joseffy.
81What is the opus number of the Henselt Master Studies? I do not know. They may be ordered simply by their title.
83Yes, the "Rhythmical Problems" of Heinrich Germer is in English and may be ordered from any music publisher.
85How does Joseffy's edition of Chopin's study in G flat differ from the original? It is more difficult, being written for a virtuoso and in double notes, thirds, fourths and sixths. The triplet figure is maintained throughout.
87* * *
89I have been reading two books for hot weather during the past week. Percy Goetschius, an esteemed authority on musical theory, has just published through G. Schirmer, of Union square, New York, "The Homophonic Forms of Musical Composition." In it Mr. Goetschius exhausts the subject from the structure and development of musical forms; from the simple phrase to the song form with trio. In the conclusion I found these paragraphs:
91"In his judgments of his own compositions, or those of other writers, the conscientious composer or critic must reason from the following vital considerations, testing each question in turn with the utmost objectiveness and fullness.
93"Is the work sufficiently melodious; and is its melodic delineation striking, agreeable and ingenious?"
95"Is the formal design rational and clear?"
97"Is its rhythmic structure distinct and effective?"
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