Books › Musical Courier 1909-05-05: Vol 58 Iss 18, 1909 › scan 25
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Musical Courier 1909-05-05: Vol 58 Iss 18, 1909
52 lines. Read by computer on 26 September 2026. Printed page 26. See the scan on archive.org.
1PROVIDENCE MUSICAL NEWS.
2PROVIDENCE, R. I., May 1, 1909.
4Monday evening the hall of the Deutsche Gesellschaft was the Mecca to which the German-American citizens of the State of Rhode Island directed their footsteps to honor the Governor of this State and other dignitaries who had been invited by the German-American Alliance of Rhode Island. Serenely marches this great society on its triumphant way, confident in its mission of bringing all societies to march in peace together.
6In sweet music is such art.
7Killing care and grief of heart.
9Truly, a delightful musical program!
11When our fellow German-American citizens do something, they do it with that thoroughness which is so peculiar to the race. The writer has heard many German singing societies, but none of them has ever sung Kreutzer's "Der Tag des Herrn" better than the singing society of the Deutsche Fenner Avenue Schulverein of Providence and the singing society, "Eintracht," of Pawtucket, both under the direction of Carl H. Droz, who is possessed of the prime requisite of a conductor, an emotional temperament. There were other numbers sung by these German singing societies, and it is useless to write about each, for in each there was a world of delight to the large audience. Rhode Island boasts of many German singing societies, and all ought to have paid tribute to the Chief Executive of the State. Despite the drawbacks which the committee on music had, two prominent societies of the State responded, and the "beautiful art of German song" had a most prominent part. It still remains true that "Little Rhody" has a large and sincere body of German singers, who are a potent factor, and must always be reckoned with in all undertakings of the German-American Alliance of Rhode Island. The solo singing of the evening was done by Addie Iola Hicks, contralto, who has a strong voice of naturally pure timbre. Indeed, she is a charming singer. It was certainly a joy to hear Miss Hicks. Friedrich Kohlhagen, who was the other soloist, is a trained vocalist and has a musical baritone voice, which he handles with skill. He also has a certain magnetism of personality, which never fails to bring his audience into sympathy with the singing. Herr Kohlhagen held the rapt attention of the audience. Bertha Antoinette Hall played the accompaniments for Miss Hicks and created a fine impression. Miss Hall has ample technique, much facility of execution and an extraordinarily charming touch. All other accompaniments were played by Florence Daesen, one of our typical young German ladies, who has a winning personality and is charming in her manner. She played in graceful and sympathetic style, and brought out all the melodic beauty and rich coloring of the compositions. The singing of the children of the German schools of Providence brought great joy. It warmed the hearts of all. How well "the child may apprehend the man" these young people demonstrated very clearly by the careful treatment of the melodic songs which they sang. Well done! The evening will long be remembered by all present.
13The concert by the Sanctuary Choir of the Blessed Sacrament Church, under the direction of Victor Hammerel, in Infantry Hall last Tuesday evening was a musical and financial success. The choir consists of sixty men and boys. The performance of the numbers, including Old English and French carols, some of them dating back to 1781, and sacred and secular music, was of unusual excellence. It would be interesting to view more critically this class of music, were space at hand. It may be said that there was utmost precision and smoothness in the choir singing, and compliments must be paid to Victor Hammerel, the choirmaster and organist of the church, who has placed this choir upon a pedestal higher than it has ever occupied before. He has demonstrated what can be done with young people of natural musical gift. Victor Hammerel's compositions—especially his church music, attain a high standard of excellence. It is characterized by melody. He never fails to be interesting, is always tuneful and never dull. Henry J. Faucher, our French violinist, was the soloist of the evening. He enjoys an enviable reputation as a soloist and teacher, and is able to give unusually clear and sound reading of the compositions he plays. It is always well worth while to hear him.
15Wednesday evening Grace Fobes-Smith, of Philadelphia, a coloratura singer of some renown, gave a song recital at Memorial Hall. Recitals of this kind have been cultivated equally strong with the unavoidable piano recital, but their pursuits are useful and necessary for a musical community. The success of such recitals has been beyond anything which one could expect in Providence, and it is interesting to note their rapid extension. A fine selection of the best German songs, together with works of the Old English and the most modern composers, were represented on the program. We understand that leading critics of Germany praise Mrs. Fobes-Smith in no uncertain tone. Her hard and intelligent study in Germany has had much to do with her present success. She is a coloratura soprano, but with that warm, mellow glow which enables her to portray deep feeling. Clarence Smith played the accompaniments. The audience was of fair proportion, and attested its sense of the merits of the singer by vigorous applause.
17The MacDowell Club elected the following officers at its annual meeting: President, Mrs. John R. Hess; vice-president, Emma M. Schott; secretary, Mrs. James W. Luther; treasurer, Bertha Buffinton. After the business meeting a delightful musical program was rendered. Following the musicale, coffee, chocolate and ice cream were served.
19HERMANN MUELLER.
21Musical at the Musin Violin School.
23The Ovide Musin Violin School, which has recently established here for permanent residence in New York, is already actively engaged in its work of instruction. Last Saturday evening Mr. and Mrs. Musin gave an informal musicale and housewarming in the parlors of the school. A Trio comprising pianist Miss Watson, violinist Miss Love and cellist Miss Severina, played a trio by Hans Sitt and a manuscript trio by Mr. Navarro, having also the unusual but interesting support of a pair of kettledrums splendidly played by Miss Driscoll. During the evening Mr. Musin delighted the company by playing his own "Lullaby in Prayer," but he had reserved the principal part of the evening for performances by young American artist students, who have been with him in Belgium for some seasons.
25For a couple of decades Mr. Musin has been at Liège Conservatory, employing the plan of actual practice in class, just as it was so successfully conducted by Leonard. Besides receiving individual instruction several times a week, the students had been assembled for daily ensemble practice of technical material, which was gauged to require an entire hour. The practice material used by Leonard is contained in a book which has recently appeared in the editing by Mr. Musin. It was from this book of material that a class of eight young artists played for twenty minutes on Saturday evening.
27After requesting the company "not to shoot the pianist, he would do the best he could," Mr. Musin went to the piano and gave the tempos and accompaniments to the work of the class. There was playing of scales in many rhythms and tempos; bowings in many variations; chromatic scales all over the violins, including a long passage in double thirds, first played by one violin, then by the entire class in a rapid finale. An etude by Fiorillo and another by Kreutzer, both taken at great velocity, concluded the twenty minutes' practice.
29The solo numbers, played by members of the same class which had participated in the practice, included the Vieuxtemps' ballade and polonaise, played by Mr. Meyer; the Bruch G minor concerto, played by Mr. Soman; the Bach chaconne, played by Miss Simpson, of Winnipeg; the little known Ries G minor suite, played by Florence Austin, of New York. The playing of the young artists showed entire uniformity of mechanism in the bowing and in the hands. Mr. Meyer is a player of great impulse, combined with finely sensitive feeling. Mr. Soman, though less advanced, is showing a most musical nature. Miss Simpson's work in the chaconne was a sanely lyric presentation of the Bach polyphony. Miss Austin, who has been active in American public work since her return from Liège some years ago, is playing very beautifully, and the value of her performance is greatly enhanced by the bodily repose and apparent sincerity that she feels in playing.
31The whole result of the evening was to receive a definite idea of what the Musin school stands for. Everything was prompt and businesslike, yet musical. It was easily seen that no member of the school's classes could fail to get what skill he would, since he had not only the usual lessons in music of the violin, but a daily lesson on the right manner of conducting his work.
33The Musin permanent school in New York must soon have a very large attendance. Mr. Musin has played to many thousands of America's citizens, and the strong work he shows as teacher will be sufficient to permanently maintain the vogue which his fame as virtuoso has created.
35The Musin School is located at 7 East Forty-fifth street.
37Dora Becker in Orange.
39Dora Becker, the violinist, played before a representative audience at the Munn Avenue Presbyterian Church, in East Orange, N. J., April 21. Reinhard Werrenrath, the baritone, was the other artist of the evening. Miss Becker was in excellent form, playing with her usual finished technic and warmth of style. Her numbers were: Ballade and polonaise, by Vieuxtemps; "Cantilena," by Goltermann; minuet, Mozart; gavot, Gossec; berceuse, by Siman, and "Moises" fantaisie, on the G string, by Paganini. In addition to her program numbers, Miss Becker added two encores.
41"Old Irish Folk Music and Songs": Dublin, Hodges, Figgis & Co., Ltd.; New York, Longmans, Green & Co. A most interesting work has been published by this house under the above title, being a collection of 842 Irish airs and songs hitherto unpublished, and that is the most remarkable part of it. They are edited, with annotations, for the Royal Society of Antiquarians of Ireland by P. N. Joyce, president of the society. Mr. Joyce is an LL. D. and a M. R. I. A. They must have required an enormous amount of research, but many of them are very interesting. The annotations are historical material. The book runs to over 400 pages, and can hardly be dispensed with in any collection of folklore.
43Choruses Rehearse for the Great Music Festival.
45Last Sunday was general rehearsal day for the chorus which will participate in the music festival to be held in Madison Square Garden, beginning Saturday evening, June 19. One thousand men and women singers, members of the New York section, gathered in the hall of the Arion Society, on Park avenue and Fifty-ninth street, at three o'clock in the afternoon, and, after a brief speech of encouragement for the work to be undertaken by the president of the festival, Theodore Henninger, the task was seriously undertaken by Julius Lorenz and Carl Hein, who are to be the musical directors of the festival. Three hours were devoted to rehearsing Max Bruch's "Fair Ellen," which a massed chorus of 6,000 voices will sing at the opening concert of the festival.
47While the New York singers were at Arion Hall, other sections of the Northeastern Federation of Singing Societies were rehearsing the same work in different cities. A telephone message from Brooklyn announced that nearly a thousand singers had gathered in Arion Hall for rehearsal under the direction of Carl Fique, while telegrams to the offices of the United Singers in Terrace Garden reported that 800 gathered in Mannerchor Hall, Philadelphia, under Hermann Kumme; 300 in Wilkesbarre, under the leadership of Adolf Haarsen; 500 in Buffalo, under the direction of Wolfgang Lange, and 250 in Atlantic City, under the direction of Albert Mauk. Rehearsals were also held in Newark and Trenton, N. J.; Troy, N. Y.; New Haven and Hartford, Conn., and in other cities as far south as Richmond, Va., and west to Cleveland, Ohio. All of these places will send clubs to participate in the festival and compete for the different prizes. The competitive singing this year will not be limited to German societies exclusively, as it has been since the inception of these song festivals or saengerfests, as they are more popularly known. The officers in charge of the New York festival have made a new departure by inviting the glee clubs of Columbia, Yale, Harvard, Cornell, Princeton and the Pennsylvania universities to compete for a special trophy, and also a number of American singing clubs, including the Mendelssohn and University glee clubs, of New York; the Apollo, of Brooklyn; the Orpheus Club, of Philadelphia; the Male Chorus, of Troy, N. Y., and the Apollo, of Boston, and clubs in Scranton, Poughkeepsie, Hartford and Pittsburgh, all organizations which the music loving people rarely have an opportunity of hearing outside of their own halls or clubhouses to join in making the coming musical festival the greatest ever held in this country.
49Ex-Senator William H. Reynolds rather startled the clerk of the Cunard Line who booked him for passage by the steamship Lusitania last week, says the New York Sun, by buying second cabin tickets for "four servants." The four, all colored men, were seen going aboard the ship carrying things that looked as if they contained banjos and guitars. A friend of Mr. Reynolds said he had developed a fit of ennui and that he wanted to relieve the monotony of the ocean trip with music of his own selection by his own band.
51Resolutions expressing sorrow on the death of Heinrich Conried, former director of the Metropolitan Opera House, were passed last week by the opera house directors during a meeting at the home of Otto H. Kahn, No. 8 East Sixty-eighth street. The resolutions will be engrossed and presented to Mrs. Conried. The directors also sent a cable message to the widow tendering sympathy to her.
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