Scan 20
Musical Courier 1906-09-05: Vol 53 Iss 1380, 1906
34 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 21. See the scan on archive.org.
1"And, then, the dimple on the chin," says John Lyly in his "Cupid and Campaspe." Whether or not Dr. A. Nowacki, of Zurich, has ever read Lyly is a question; but the fact remains that he has made a scientific study of the dimple on the chin, taking as his guide the old German folk saying:
3"Grübchen im Kinn,
4Schelmchen im Sinn."
6Dr. Nowacki points out that Lessing, Schiller and Goethe were dimpled as to chin, but he believes that Cupid's trademark is much more intimately related to music than to poetry. The doctor was first impressed with this thought, he explains, when some thirty years ago he stopped before a music shop in Zurich, looked at the busts of Beethoven and Mozart displayed in the window, and noticed accidentally that the chins of both the great musicians were dimpled.
8"Has the dimple any musical significance?" was the question which Dr. Nowacki immediately put to himself, and then he answered: "Let's see." He went into the store and found two girls behind the counter. One of them had a dimple in her chin, the other had not. "I asked which one of them was a better singer," relates the doctor, "and before they could answer I turned to the owner of the dimple and said: 'According to my way of thinking, you are the better singer and have a more sympathetic voice.' My opinion proved to be the correct one, and the undimpled girl added: 'Yes, and my friend plays the piano, too.'"
10A few weeks later Dr. Nowacki had charge of a number of students who were making an excursion to the upper reaches of the Zurich See. After scanning all their faces carefully, the doctor picked out the young man with the most pronounced dimple on his chin and asked suddenly: "You are musical, are you not, Mr. Z.?" "How did you know that?" was the answer. "I play violin."
12At about that time a band of Syrian yodlers and instrumentalists were exceedingly popular in Zurich. Our investigator found that the basso and the zither player of the organization were the most musical, they being the ones who scored the tunes and selected and rehearsed the repertory. Both were dimpled!
14"I continued the experiments with my friends," writes Dr. Nowacki, "and found that a man whom I had known fourteen years without ever discovering that he was musical had at one time been studying piano as a profession, a fact which he told me after I noticed the dimple and questioned him about his musical ability. While I was talking to this man I turned to acknowledge the salute of a confrère who was passing by. As I glanced at him I noticed the particularly deep dimple on his chin. Then I remembered that he was one of the best amateur musicians in town, a splendid pianist and gifted composer. I carried my experiments into my own home also. My mother was a woman of genial disposition and lively phantasy, but she was utterly unmusical. She had no dimple! My father had the dimple and was a skillful executant on the piano, violin and horn. Music was so necessary to him that even in his eightieth year he often went to the piano and improvised for hours, simply to hear the harmonies and modulations he loved so well."
16Extending his researches into wider fields, Dr. Nowacki found that Frederick the Great, a striking example of the dimpled chin type, was not only a rabid enthusiast on the subject of music in general, but also played the flute exceptionally well and wrote concertos and sonatas for that instrument, as all the world knows. Liszt had the dimpled chin in extraordinarily strong formation, and, while some persons remember him today only as the man who lent Wagner money, he really was considered to be very musical in his day. Rubinstein was also of the dimpled variety, and Dr. Nowacki calls especial attention to the marvelous resemblance between the chins of Rubinstein and Beethoven, as also between those of Mozart and Lessing. Haydn, Schumann and Schubert were generously dimpled, while Mendelssohn and Weber possessed less of the tell-tale mark, but it was there, just the same! "And who that has ever seen a picture or bust of Wagner has not noticed the dimpled fold in his chin, next to the nose perhaps the most conspicuous feature in that marvelous face?" asks Dr. Nowacki.
18Some of the photographs of the musicians aforementioned do not show the all important depression on the chin, but the Zurich dimple expert assures us that in many cases the omission is due to defective light. He has studied the original portraits and death masks of his subjects, and has therefore the best possible authority for his statements.
20Have you a dimple?
22The Gold-Dust Twins have become familiar to our public through their ubiquitous presentment in all the underground, overground and surface 'cars of our large cities. The musical Gold Dust Twins; on the other hand, are their own best advertisement, and they have fairly earned their title by virtue of their financial conquests in South America and other exotic regions—as chronicled in these pages from time to time. Recently an effort was made to part the twins, one or both, to cut them asunder, as it were, and the story is told in a recent issue of the Paris (New York) Herald:
24"San Sebastian, Tuesday.—Herr Harold Bauer, the pianist, and Señor Pablo Casals, the violoncellist, have arrived to take part in tomorrow's concert at the Grand Casino. In addition to playing at this concert, they may also appear as duelists. one of two readings
25"San Sebastian, Tuesday.—Herr Harold Bauer, the pianist, and Señor Pablo Casals, the violoncellist, have arrived to take part in tomorrow's concert at the Grand Casino. In addition to playing at this concert, they may also appear as duellists. one of two readings
27"At Corunna, on Monday, they played at a concert, which was followed by an incident. As a result of this incident, Señor Jaime Quiroga, son of Marquesa Pardo Bazan, sent his seconds—two Spanish officers—to both Herr Bauer and Señor Casals. The musicians appointed seconds in their turn, and they are now at San Sebastian awaiting developments. It seems probable that duels will be fought."
29A private letter from The Musical Courier's correspondent at Corunna gives further details about the "incident" mentioned in the Herald account: "Casals and Bauer were playing a composition by Beethoven when they were disturbed by some people in a box, who were talking loudly. Casals made a gesture of appeal for silence, but the disturbance increased. Then the artists stopped playing until the noise ceased. The audience unanimously applauded the cellist and the pianist. During the interval two gentlemen came to the artists' waiting room and asked for an explanation or an encounter on behalf of Don Jaime Quiroga, who happened to be in the box where the loud talking had occurred. Mr. Casals asked them to postpone the discussion until the concert was over, as he had to play again during the entire third part of the program. Mr. Quiroga's seconds insisted, however, that matters should be settled without delay, when Mr. Bauer became excited and told the representatives to get out of the room. When Mr. Quiroga was informed of this detail he sent his seconds to Mr. Bauer. Later the seconds decided that no encounter was necessary. If there were other grounds for trouble between the Don and the musicians, they have not been made public."
31Another, but entirely unsubstantiated, version of the affair has it that, when the Spaniards offered to fight, Bauer turned to Casals and said: "Very well, Pab, we'll take them on, but you bring your augmented seconds with you and I'll see that I have my double thirds." The Spaniards, being unmusical, thereat retreated hurriedly and in very poor order.
33Ernesto Consolo and Max Mossel were in town last week, the latter leaving for his old home in Birmingham (England) on Thursday, and the former going to his new home in Chicago on Saturday. Mossel came to this country for a vacation in Colorado, and Consolo is here to teach piano at the Chicago Musical College. They are both shining examples of the best kind of modern musician, thoroughly trained in mind as well as music, widely read and traveled, and intensely interested in everything that goes to make up the sum total of human endeavor in this world. It was an almost indescribable treat to spend some hours in the company
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