Scan 44
Musical Courier 1899-11-29: Vol 39 Iss 1028, 1899
52 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 45. See the scan on archive.org.
1Titles for Music.
3EVEN the great composers of music have learned the value of an attractive title, though they have not always been responsible for the names by which some of their works are known to the world. Enterprising publishers have supplied this aid to popularity sometimes after the composers had passed into a world in which they are not likely to be interested in what their work is called by the public.
5One of the most characteristic cases of such nomenclature is the composition known as "Rousseau's Dream," by Beethoven. The German composer never called his music by that name, and the circumstances under which the title was acquired have recently been discovered by an English investigator. It seems that a no less eminent man than W. M. Thackeray suggested it. Some time between 1840 and 1850 one of Thackeray's novels was appearing in monthly parts. Incidentally, the author refers to one of his characters as playing "that exquisite melody, 'Rousseau's Dream,' by Beethoven." This was an absolute invention on Thackeray's part. On the very morning that this part appeared, Messrs. Cramer & Beale, of Regent street, the foremost music publishers of that day, began to be besieged with inquiries for the piece in question. Frederick Beale, the then head of the firm, was at his wit's end about the piece, of which he had never heard before, and which, as a matter of fact, did not exist. At last he said to his managing clerk:
7"If the public really want the piece so badly, they've got to have it. Go and get one of Beethoven's least known pieces, have it turned out with the title of 'Rousseau's Dream,' and sell it as fast as you can."
9It was in this way that the composition came to be known by a title which appealed to the public, and it is still known and sold under the same name in England.
11Mendelssohn, always beloved in England, was treated in a somewhat similar fashion by the music publishers. His "Songs Without Words" were originally published with only numbers to designate them. Some of them have acquired, however, more definite titles of which the composer never dreamed. One is known as the "Funeral March," because it was scored for a brass band after the composer's death, by Ignace Moscheles, and played at Mendelssohn's funeral. Naturally its composer could not foresee that incident. Once, while visiting in Wales, he composed three pieces, which he grouped as "Trois Fantaisies ou Caprices, op. 16." After his death the third of these, the Andante in E, was published by a firm as "The Rivulet." Other publishers put it forward as the "Streamlet," "The Brooklet," and other similar titles which happened to strike their fancy.
13Händel, another composer very popular with the English, suffered in the same way, most strikingly in the case of the piece known as "The Harmonious Blacksmith." He called these variations during his lifetime "Suite de Pieces," but that name was too dry and technical to suit the publishers. So the name commonly used was not applied to the composition until the composer could no longer protest. The public desire for the personal element in such matters even devised anecdotes to explain the title. One of these, without foundation of any kind, related how the composer took refuge from a storm in a smithy, and hearing the men at work on the anvils got his inspiration for the piece. Another story had some ground, in fact, but no connection with Händel, as he died before the incidents with which it is concerned took place. A blacksmith at Bath who played the violin gave up his work at the forge and opened a small music shop. He published his own versions of popular music, and his trade mark was "The Harmonious Blacksmith." This is said to have been the suggestion for the name for Händel's piece.
15It was an English publisher who gave to Beethoven's
17Sonata the name "Moonlight," by which the composer never called it, and also attributed for years in England to him the waltz written by Franz Schubert and called "Le Desir." What is known as "Carl Weber's Last Waltz," and is in the opinion of most persons the work of that composer, was, as a matter of fact, written by a composer named Reissiger and Von Weber's name was attached to it, presumably for the purpose of improving its sale. Anecdote has not been lacking in other cases than Händel's to prove the appropriateness of names. A long rigmarole is told, for instance, about the moonlight which fell over Beethoven's piano as he was composing the sonata which is now described by that word; but it is without any more foundation in fact than the stories of "The Harmonious Blacksmith."—Sun.
19"ROUSSEAU'S DREAM."
21To the Editor of the Sun:
23SIR—In an article on "Titles for Music," which appears in your paper of this morning, you speak of "Rousseau's Dream" as a composition by Beethoven, published under that name to meet a demand caused by a novel of Thackeray's which appeared between 1840 and 1850. "Rousseau's Dream" has a different and much earlier origin. It was first heard in 1788, in an opera called "Melissa," and was published as "Rousseau's Dream" in 1812. The title to which you probably refer is "The Dream of St. Jerome," mentioned in Chapter XIII. of Thackeray's "Philip," published in 1862. No piece under that title was ever written by Beethoven, but so many readers of "Philip" asked for it that Cramer & Beale, the London music publishers, took a song of Beethoven and republished it as "The Dream of St. Jerome."
25NEW YORK, October 15.
27MUSICUS.
29The Cult of the Orchestra.
31A WRITER in the London Spectator sets forth in an article upon the cult of the orchestra certain facts in the development of music which may not be generally known. One of these is the rapid manner in which women are coming to the front as instrumental performers. Female violinists and even female orchestras were known a hundred years ago, and even then instrumental music was sometimes cultivated at the expense of vocal music, but this was the exception rather than the rule.
33The writer in question has examined the figures of the entries at the Royal Academy of Music for 1884 and 1890 and finds some curious results. In the former year out of a total of 173 entries (131 female and forty-two male) eighty-three chose the piano as their first study, seventy-two singing, and ten the violin. This year the figures up to October show that out of 220 entries (182 female and thirty-eight male) ninety-four chose singing, seventy-three the piano, and forty-five the violin. The remainder of the aggregate each year is made up of pupils who study the 'cello, organ, harp, flute or composition. These figures bring out two facts in a significant light. Fifteen years ago the piano was the first study of nearly half the students at the academy, now it is the first study of only one-third, while the number of those studying the violin has increased more than fourfold. The other fact is that fifteen years ago the male students numbered nearly a quarter of the total, while today they have decreased to little more than a sixth. It is not uncommon, indeed, to find women nowadays studying not only the violin and 'cello, but the double bass, clarinet, cornet, horn and other wind instruments. At present, professional orchestras contain no women players except harpists, though women soloists, like Lady Hallé, play with them, but how soon will it be before the "eternal feminine" will manifest itself in orchestral organizations?
35While woman up to the present has not shown the capacity to create the highest and most enduring forms of music, which are destined to become classical, there can be no question of her great ability as a performer in the instrumental department, and it is grateful to note that she is beginning to abandon the everlasting piano, where she has been more or less a successful competitor with man, and to take up other instruments of which man has had the virtual monopoly. It is also grateful to note that the number of those interested in orchestral instruments and orchestral music is rapidly increasing. The orchestra must always be the dominant factor in popular education as well as in the evolution of musical art, and it shows a healthy growth of music among the people that the orchestra more and more engages their attention not only in its relations to the conservatory, but in its use for public entertainment. The piano, of course, will never go out of use as a solo instrument, and especially for accompaniments. The singing teacher will never be out of a job so long as men and women have voices to cultivate, but it is a sign of better times coming for music that the piano is not to be allowed to monopolize the field and that instrumental music is enlarging its sphere of usefulness.—Chicago Tribune.
37Ethel Inman's London Success.
39A late issue of the London Musical News contains the following item about Miss Ethel Inman, the young New York pianist who is now giving a series of recitals throughout the United Kingdom: "At Steinway Hall, on the 7th inst., a considerable number of amateurs greeted Miss Ethel Inman, youngest daughter of the late William Inman, founder of the well-known line of ocean steamers, on the occasion of her first piano recital. The young lady, who has studied some time with Rafael Joseffy in New York, has a fluent and brilliant technic and crisp, almost staccato, touch, a good quality in moderation, which enhanced with sparkling brilliancy Joseffy's transcription of a winsome Arietta by Gluck. Liszt's arrangement of Schubert's 'Widmung' was played with taste."
41Löwe.
43An edition of Löwe's works in ten volumes, published by Breitkopf & Härtel, contains all the ballads, legends, melodies and songs of Löwe. Many of these have never been published before, and his early works are almost unknown. This edition comprises over 400 Lieder; one volume is dedicated to melodies written on poems by Goethe, and exhibits four unpublished fragments for the second part of "Faust." In addition to the Napoleonic "The Night Review," and "St. Helena," there is an unpublished piece, "The Fifth of May."
45Trebelli.
47Mlle. Antoinette Trebelli sailed November 27 from Auckland on the Mariposa for San Francisco. She will give several concerts in Honolulu en route and then sing on the Pacific Coast prior to her appearances in the Eastern States and Canada.
49Bevignani.
51Signor Bevignani, the opera conductor, arrived here on the Campania, in answer to a cable from Mr. Grau. Bevignani is a very useful conductor.
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