Scan 29
Musical Courier 1899-11-29: Vol 39 Iss 1028, 1899
99 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 30. See the scan on archive.org.
A town on its own line is one of the directory's headings. That is where the town on a maker's page comes from.
1More New Books.
3Music is not suffering from the lack of comment and discussion and all of its phases are the subjects of endless publication. Here in our beloved expansion land we give the individual more attention than the concrete idea receives, but after our maturity as a nation has been reached and our functions as earth grabbers have been fulfilled we will bestow more thought upon the thought itself and then our true culture will begin to ripen.
5Miss Mabel Wagnalls, who wrote the "Miserere," has published through her related firm, Funk & Wagnalls, the literary apostles of Intemperance (for it is rather intemperate to claim that all of us must drink nothing but water when we drink), has issued a tempting volume called "Stars of the Opera," in which such strange and rarely printed names as Sembrich, Eames, Calvé, Nordica, Lehmann and Melba are finally introduced to the public under permanent auspices.
7"To those who love music but have no opportunity to familiarize themselves with grand opera this book is respectfully dedicated" is Miss Wagnalls' own dedication of the volume, but as the people who go to listen to these stars are met with Italian, French and German performances, sometimes all mixed into one, would it not be a good idea to include the majority of those who have opportunity to familiarize themselves with grand opera in the dedication, for surely they cannot understand what it means? Who understands the stars at our grand opera? How few do?
9"Grand opera in itself is a culmination and combination of the greatest efforts of the greatest minds." This sentence convicts Miss Wagnalls of being an enthusiast, and enthusiasts are admittedly unreliable critics. It is a question and a far open question whether grand opera is not a distortion of both music and drama; but whether this is so or not, surely it is not the culmination of the greatest efforts of the greatest minds. That is utilizing superlatives with a vengeance. Grand opera is a branch of musical composition; it is not a form, for various and many forms are used. It is merely one of the branches of musical activity. Palestrina and Bach did not indulge in it and Beethoven resisted it, limiting himself successfully to one opus, and Brahms managed to escape it entirely, and so did Mendelssohn and Schumann in effect. Schubert was gingerly with it and did most of his work in other fields and among the classics many can be found who never touched it. Superlatives are about becoming obsolete.
11Madame Sembrich then speaks. She told Miss Wagnalls that her father was a very gifted man. She meant Sembrich's father. She said she was always nervous. When Miss Wagnalls asked Madame Sembrich whether it was true that she walked two hours every day Madame Sembrich told her the truth by saying "Yes." She said that on that day she had started at eleven and got home at one. Eleven from one leaves two.
13It was at the Hotel Marie Antoinette where the authoress called on Emma Eames, and we are told it is very exclusive. The maid at the hotel is soft voiced and removes fur wraps. "She gives us tickets for the opera," says the maid; "we all here just love her." That accounts for some of the physiognomies we encounter at performances. How bitter must the ticket speculator feel when he sees the waiting maids, butlers, coachmen and cooks going to the opera on tickets he cannot get hold of to sell at the front door at two to five dollars profit apiece! You pay eight dollars for a seat, or fifteen dollars for two, and next to you is the elevator boy of the Marie Antoinette and the laundress, who got their seats from Emma Eames. No wonder they applaud and you don't.
15What did Emma say when the authoress found her (page 53). "I always give great thought to my costumes." Sure, sure, and then she also says: "If by any chance I forget a word on the stage I know my health is run down, and I then at once take a rest for several days." Is that all? It will interest the music people that Emma Eames thinks "the love music of Werther is beautiful." Massenet will be delighted to hear of this, for he has been in agony to get a definite opinion from Emma Eames, as she never sang it so as to induce anyone to suppose that that was her opinion of it; rather the reverse, we should say.
17"You Americans are so good," were the words of Calvé. We pass over all the other remarks, for they cover the ground of the sojourning foreign opera star completely.
19The Nordica interview was very long, but one part deserves immortalization. "I was the sixth girl, and I think my parents were rather tired out by the time I came." We see how early Nordica began. Even in those days she was aware of what her parents thought; but it is rather hard on her father.
21Madame Lehmann said she was a vegetarian.
23Melba revealed the news that she had mastered the pipe organ, "and several other instruments." That must have left her very busy. She also grappled with the concertina. Poor thing. But when anyone attempts to write a book on the opera stars it must inevitably cover the ground. Miss Wagnalls does more. She gives some readable explanations of the operas themselves, although there is no attempt made to treat the subject didactically or with the acute analysis of the critic or essayist.
25The Breitkopf & Härtel firm has issued in English Dr. S. Jadassohn's Course of Instruction in Instrumentation, Mr. Harry P. Wilkins, of Washington, D. C., being the authorized translator. This work is part of Dr. Jadassohn's Manual of Musical Composition, and for the benefit of our readers we give herewith the table of the works under that head:
27PART ONE.
28Volume I…………………….Manual of Harmony
29Volume II…………………..Manual of Counterpoint
30Volume III…A Course of Instruction in Canon and Fugue
32PART TWO.
33Volume IV…………………..Manual of Musical Form
34Volume V….A Course of Instruction in Instrumentation
36The book is a standard beyond the pedantic scope of the usual text books on the study of instrumentation, and is replete with valuable examples. It begins with studies of composition for voices without instrumental accompaniment, and then is followed with keyed instruments, organ, stringed instruments, chamber music, wood, brass and percussion, &c. It is a most valuable addition to the English books on this important subject.
38Alma Powell.
40Mme. Alma Powell has made a great success in opera in St. Louis. She has had nightly encores, and the papers have been commenting very favorably on her singing and acting.
42Exquisite Souvenirs for "Courier" Readers.
44This illustration shows the exact size of a beautiful miniature, with gilt frame, which looks exactly like a fine water color painting on porcelain.
46The pictures, of which there are six in a set, are those of immortal composers and musicians, which all of our musical friends the world over would like to own.
48They are exquisitely colored, very dainty and decorative.
50They can be washed without injury, and are not breakable.
52We will send a limited number of these pictures to our readers (securely packed and postpaid) on receipt of $2.00 for the entire set of six. The price asked simply covers the cost of importation and postage. Don't delay, as they will not last long.
54Address
55MUSICAL COURIER,
56Union Square,
57NEW YORK.
59Petschnikoff.
61Alexandre Petschnikoff has been called the "poet of the violin." He is all of that, and he is a very great deal besides that. Granted that he has the heart of a poet, so has he the head of a mathematician and a philosopher, with a rare judgment and discrimination, the soul of a genius, and the complete equipment, technically and temperamentally, of one of the greatest contemporaneous violinists.
63His every appearance has gone to confirm and deepen the profound sensation that marked his initial performance here, when with an easy mastery of the overwhelming exactions of Tschaikowsky's great Concerto he united a passion and vehemence that revealed the soul and spirit as well as the letter of the music, and on the same program, and within an hour, this pastmaster among violin virtuosi transformed himself from an impetuous, fiery Slav to the classical interpreter of the mighty fugue from Bach's C major Sonata and its extreme complexities, its almost inextricably woven themes and counter themes were segregated and presented with a most consummate power and art.
65He is complete master of a technic that knows no limitation nor recognizes any obstacle. His bowing, although quite individual in its use, is wholly adequate to all demands, either for tone or tempo. His left hand finger work is nothing less than marvelous in its agility, his accuracy of intonation, clarity and clean cut enunciation in phrasing, wonderful gradations in nuancing, boldness or delicacy of attack, rank to his credit with any of the virtuosi who have visited America, and his cantabile playing and singing tones are sui generis. Nothing has ever been heard here more exquisite in its supreme beauty, its delicacy, its refinement and grace.
67With all his impetuosity when occasion requires, with all the serenity and repose demanded by the coldly classical, Petschnikoff's sanity and moderation are always in evidence. He is fastidiously refined in his expression of every phase of emotion, and above all and at all times is he absolutely sincere. A genius endowed with the sacred fire in generous measure, a scholarly musician, with every resource of his art on his finger tips, with the sterling underlying manly qualities inherited from soldier ancestors which keep his playing definitely masculine, yet with the exquisite delicacy in perception and performance that belong to the real artiste temperament. With all these rare and wonderful qualities is Alexandre Petschnikoff richly gifted, and it is now granted the American people that they may have the privilege and benefit to be derived from hearing the greatest music in violin literature interpreted by an artist of such exceptional magnitude.
69A remarkably artistic portrait of Petschnikoff is shown on the front page of this paper to-day.
71Evta Kileski.
73Arrangements have been made by which Madame Kileski will sing at the Sunday evening concert in Carnegie Hall on December 3.
75On December 17 Madame Kileski sings at Wellesley College in Bruch's "Flight Into Egypt," and on the 24th "The Messiah," with the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston.
77Platon G. Brounoff
78Composer,
79Choral and Orchestra Conductor.
80Pupil of Rubinstein and Rimsky Korsakoff.
81Instruction—Voice, Piano, Harmony,
82Coaching for Opera,
83STUDIOS: Oratorio and Concert.
8410 East 17th St.—9 to 1.30 P. M.
85Branch: 246 East Broadway—3 to 8 P. M.
87JUST PUBLISHED
88BY
89G. SCHIRMER,
9035 Union Square, New York.
91A Systematic Course of Studies
92FOR PIANOFORTE,
93By ALEXANDER LAMBERT.
94In Seven Volumes.
95(Vols. 4, 5, 6 and 7 in Press).
96Price $1.00 Each.
97PLEAS'D TO SEND FOR EXAMINATION.
98Send for Catalogue of SCHIRMER'S LIBRARY EDITION of Musical Classics.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.