Books › Musical Courier 1909-03-17: Vol 58 Iss 11, 1909 › scan 33
Scan 33
Musical Courier 1909-03-17: Vol 58 Iss 11, 1909
50 lines. Read by computer on 26 September 2026. Printed page 34. See the scan on archive.org.
1MUSICAL ART SOCIETY CONCERT.
3"DOCTOR" DAMROSCH'S RECOMPOSED COMPOSERS.
5The Musical Art Society, an organization conducted by "Dr." Frank Damrosch, and maintained for profit as well as for the propagation of a capella singing, offered the appended program at its second and last Carnegie Hall concert of the season, last Thursday evening:
7Adoramus Te (Motet for four voices)………………Palestrina
8Et Incarnatus und Crucifixus (Motet for four voices)….Cherubini
9Christus Resurgens (Motet for eight voices)………….Anerio
10Psalm XXIII, The Lord Is My Shepherd (For women's voices and piano)……………………………Schubert
11Adstant Angelorum Chori (Motet for double chorus; eight voices)………………………………….Parker
12Concerto Grosso, F major (For flute, trumpet, oboe, violin, string orchestra and harpsichord)…………………Bach
13Allegro, Andante, Allegro Assai.
14Deep in My Soul (Part song for four voices)…………….Elgar
15Chanson de Mal………….Set by F. A. Gevaert; Old French Songs Ronde…………………Set by F. A. Gevaert; Old French Songs Liebeslieder (Waltzes for mixed chorus and orchestra)…..Brahms
17The singing of the society revealed the fact, before all else, that it is composed inherently of excellent men's and women's voices, for when they evaded the conductor's ragged beat effectively enough to sound in proper unison and blend, the effect often was mellifluous and extremely musical. Most of the time, however, the good intentions of the singing artists came to naught, for the wrecking of the rhythm on the part of the leader, and his unexpected and unystilistic tempo aberrations and dynamic demands, seemed to discourage the ambition of the chorus and to blunt its artistic sensibilities as well as to render practically nil their efforts toward polished tone emission and niceness of intonation. The measure of difference between the ability of the singers and that of the conductor was enough to make the angels of music weep loudly, sincerely, and long. If the Musical Art Society were a Berlin organization trained for a few seasons under Ochs or Fried, it could be made into the world's finest a capella chorus, so lovely are its voices in quality, and so high is the standard of musicianship of the well known professionals who constitute its largest part. Even in America, there are a dozen choral conductors eminently able to lift the Musical Art Society to the plane it ought to occupy, and it is no stretch of the imagination to say that its members would quickly enough hand the baton to one of those other leaders, if the present one allowed his singers any voice in the selection of their directorial head.
19The Musical Art Society, like all other enterprises conducted by F. or W. Damrosch, is a model of shrewd business organization, provided with officers and a board of directors consisting of persons known to be expressed adherents of the Damrosch talents and personality. There is nothing reprehensible in this, and the "Doctor" is to be congratulated on his acumen and foresight in intrenching himself strongly wherever and whenever he finds himself concerned in a musical undertaking which offers him personal publicity and profit. However, to return to our musical mutton,
21The strictly ecclesiastical part of the program last Thursday brought forward numbers that are beautiful in themselves, but revealed little of their true nature or complexion in the Mosaic interpretation of "Doctor" Damrosch. His Hebrew origin is of course not a matter of reproach, but it stands him in poor stead when he conducts Christian sacerdotal music, as Oriental exuberance of gesture and feeling are far from being the proper concomitants to go with true churchly atmosphere and intent. Thus, the elevated purity and noble simplicity of the Palestrina motet were totally lacking in the sophisticated and artificial reading given that inspired work by the "Doctor." Apparently he had not even taken the trouble to study an English translation of the Latin text, for it was evident from the cheap nuances he employed and the dynamics he used that he did not know the meaning of such passages as "tuum redemisti mundum," and "Domine, misere nobis."
23The excerpts from Cherubini's "Credo" gave further testimony to the fact that the leader was not in spiritual accord with the foreign text of the music, for the performance came perilously close to sounding operatic, and to some of the listeners such an effect seemed little less than sacrilegious in a piece of music dealing with the words "Crucifixus etiam pro nobis: passus et sepultus est." The Pope, in issuing his famous edict prohibiting women from singing Catholic church music, should also have forbidden incompetent conductors from performing it in public. In fact, the latter is a far greater sin than the former, for some women have given notably beautiful renditions of Gregorian chants. "Doctor" Damrosch got his languages a trifle mixed on the program when he titled the Cherubini selections "Et Incarnatus und Crucifixus." Why the German "und"?
25The Anerio "Christus Resurgens" was given in the tempo and general robustious manner of a band of old style colored singers doing a rousing jubilee. Anerio meant his work to proclaim tidings of Easter gladness, but there is a vast difference between the quiet, holy joy expressed in a church motet, and the roystering levity of a student chorus singing beer music or triumphant ditties over a football victory. "Christus Resurgens." was taken at top speed and rushed headlong and hilariously to a noisy and untuneful close. Here and there the voices sounded capable of lovely tonal effects and true eloquence in interpretation, but the conductor kept blindly to his hurried beat—Henry T. Finck calls it "ethnological conducting"—and thereby extinguished all vocal endeavor except the attempt to sound a certain number of notes in a given time. Of the real uplift, and exaltation, and the divine soul story in the Anerio masterpiece, "Doctor" Damrosch revealed not an inkling in his thoroughly material conception, with its obvious striving after sensationalism in the matter of vocal speed and verbal virtuosity.
27Schubert's tender "Twenty-third Psalm" was taken in hand by the singers, who modulated their voices becomingly to the subdued pitch required, and in spite of much gesticulation and elbow and shoulder promptings of their leader, refused to be coaxed into any inappropriate tonal outbursts and violent irregularities of rhythm. The "Doctor's" stick flew ostentatiously through the air during this quiet and restful composition, which could be sung by any well trained band of vocalists without the slightest time direction except their own sense of rhythm and their own good taste. By the way, "Doctor" Damrosch beats every single count when he is leading, an amateurish device disdained by real conductors, who often mark only the beginning of each measure. As the Musical Art members are nearly all trained musicians, the good "Doctor" probably employs his painstaking beat to admonish himself unceasingly as to the time in which his chorus is singing. When, however, each quarter in the Brahms waltzes ("Liebeslieder") received its own individual stick gyration, the effect became decidedly comical to those in the audience who understood the unmusical absurdity of the proceeding.
29Parker's composition was a lugubrious affair, singularly unskillful in voice leading and monotonous in melodic and harmonic content. The same description suffices for the Elgar work; that is, if a word be added for the foolish egotism which could lead the English composer to try with his musical setting to illuminate such abstruse and vague verses as the Byron lines in question. It was a pity that Parker and Elgar were chosen to represent the Anglo-Saxon portion of the program, when so many worthier writers of choral music in the smaller forms exist both here and in England.
31The Bach concerto, as presented at the Musical Art Society, was a rank and indecent outrage against art, and a musical crime which deserves the severest condemnation of every music lover with an atom of good taste and even a mite of veneration for the great name of Bach. The second so called "Brandenburg" concerto grosso in F, was written by the immortal Johann Sebastian for violin, flute, oboe and trumpet, as the solo voices. This unusual combination of instruments was chosen deliberately by the composer in order to produce certain color effects which he had in mind when he conceived the work. As played at "Doctor" Damrosch's concert last Thursday evening, the trumpet part was "edited" out of the concerto, and a clarinet was substituted for the other and highly important instrument, because forsooth, as was privately explained, "the trumpeter could not cope with his music at rehearsal." The cool effrontery and insufferable insolence of this proceeding on the part of the conductor—if he was really the instigator of such a fraud—can hardly be characterized in measured terms, or borne with equanimity by anyone who has at heart the best interests of musical tradition and the preservation of correct ethical and artistic standards in this community. No one who realizes the enormity of the offense committed needs to be told how unpardonable it is. In Germany, such an imposition would result in the hissing off the stage, of the performers and the conductor, and in bringing down upon the culprits' heads such an eruption of press abuse that they would forever afterward lose the respect of all reputable musicians and conscientious music lovers. If Bach had wished the clarinet color in his F major concerto he would have so ordered, for the six "Brandenburg" works in that form were written in 1721, and the clarinet was known to the musical world as early as 1700. It is no wonder that at a concert where Bach is maltreated so shamefully, the spirit of Palestrina, Cherubini and Schubert is not understood by the leader in charge. The one circumstance follows logically upon the other, inevitably and inexorably. A laughable element of the affair was the attempt "to preserve one of the archaic effects by playing the part for the cembalo on a modified pianoforte with a harpsichord action and tone." Of what use was such a circus accompaniment when one of the main solo parts had been unrecognizably violated, and when the flute employed was a Böhm model (not known at Bach's time) and the oboe a "reconstructed" one, for the oboe d'amore of the days of Bach had become obsolete until it was rebuilt at Brussels under the direction of the late historian Gevaert. Perhaps it will be news to "Doctor" Damrosch and the other Bach despoilers to hear that the "flauto" included in orchestral scores before the middle of the eighteenth century was the ancient flûte à bec, played in a vertical position, with a mouthpiece, like the clarinet. The modern clarinet, too, has been vastly changed through the mechanism of Böhm.
33After the exposition just made, it will not surprise THE MUSICAL COURIER readers to be informed that another assault on art was undertaken in the last number on the program, the Brahms "Liebeslieder," written by that very capable composer for "pianoforte duet with four voices ad libitum." The "ad libitum," of course, applies to the number of voices, but certainly not to the nature of the instruments used for accompanying. In his infinite knowledge of how to make the music of Bach and Brahms sound better than those composers could do, "Doctor" Damrosch discarded the piano duo of the original "Liebeslieder" score as written by Brahms, and used instead a transcription for string orchestra! Poor old Brahms, who didn't even know how to compose his own works, and had to wait for a Musical Art Society concert in order to have his "Liebeslieder" properly "Doctored" into the shape he never realized they could have had! Brahms wrote four symphonies and handled the orchestra with masterful ease in several overtures, concertos and other compositions, and yet he suddenly fell impotent when he composed the "Liebeslieder" and was forced to use a piano duo for accompaniment! How unusual! How sad! Could it have been possible, by any stretch of the imagination, that the well posted Brahms really knew how to score for string orchestra, but had chosen the piano instead because it answered his purpose in the "Liebeslieder" and because it was exactly the thing he wished to do? Nonsense! The "Doctor" knows best how Brahms ought to have composed and the result was exhibited last Thursday evening. The "improved version" will not even be discussed here, for fear of dignifying it by any notice whatsoever.
35It is hard to keep one's patience with such doings as "Doctor" Damrosch permits at the Musical Art Society's concerts, and THE MUSICAL COURIER feels that the time has come when to remain silent any longer would put this paper in the position of aiding and abetting proceedings of the kind specified heretofore. In future, the Musical Art Society's public functions will receive the especial attention of THE MUSICAL COURIER, which will look to it that the distortions of the finest works of classical composers shall not go unknown even if in the nature of things, it may pass unavenged.
37Metropolitan's Plans.
39The Metropolitan Opera Company has announced a number of the operas that it intends to produce next season at the Metropolitan Opera House and the New Theater. It announces that it has obtained the exclusive rights to Bruneau's "L'Attaque du Moulin," Leroux's "La Reine Fiamète" and "Le Chemineau," Dukas' "Ariane et Barbe Bleu," Debussy's "Le Diable dans le Beffroi" and "La Chute de la Maison Usher," Ravel's "L'Heure Espagnole," Wolf-Ferrari's "Le Donne Curiose," Massenet's "Werther," and Laparra's "Habanera." In addition to these, the company will probably produce "Les Dragons de Villars," "Fra Diavolo," "La Dame Blanche," "Le Domino Noir," "Les Cloches de Corneville," "La Fille de Mme. Angot," "La Belle Hélène," "Orphée aux Enfers," and "La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein."
41"Pique Dame."
43Tschaikowsky's "Pique Dame," which was to have been given at the Metropolitan this season, is postponed until next season. Caruso was to have been heard in this opera, but cannot be induced to attempt a new role so late in the season, and without Caruso—why no "Pique Dame."
45Marchesi's Movements.
47Blanche Marchesi has returned to New York from her Western tour and will be heard here in the East prior to her departure for Europe, March 27.
49Berta Morena, of the Metropolitan Opera House, has renewed her contract with the Royal Opera House in Munich, although it was rumored that owing to a disagreement with Felix Mottl she would cease to sing there after May. Madame Morena's contract allows her a three months leave of absence in the winter, so her engagements at the Metropolitan will not be interfered with.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.