Books › Musical Courier 1909-06-02: Vol 58 Iss 22, 1909 › scan 28
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Musical Courier 1909-06-02: Vol 58 Iss 22, 1909
92 lines. Read by computer on 26 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 29. See the scan on archive.org.
1method gave excellent breath control, hence phrasing and tonal production.
3The production of Gounod's "Faust" by pupils of Arthur Hubbard in Jordan Hall last week was one of high character, and a full account is held in store for THE MUSICAL COURIER's readers of the next issue.
5One of the memorable events of the past week was the "Gambols of the Lambs' Club," of New York. Every seat in the Boston Theater was filled, and society was much in evidence. There was, in fact, almost a panic for seats, as there was one chief feature which everybody wished both to see and hear—and that was George Hamlin, blacked up as a "coon" end-man, and to hear his never to be forgotten singing of the always beautiful "Then You'll Remember Me." The audience howled like mad when the last tones of his exquisite voice had ended.
7Max Zach, conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, has returned to Boston for his vacation. That Mr. Zach found things musical "humming" out in what is termed by the Easterner who has not traveled "the wild and wooly" country, is assumed from his desiring to return another year.
9The New England Chapter of the American Guild of Organists held its annual meeting at the attractive rooms of the Harvard Musical Association in West End last Wednesday evening (May 26). The meeting, so far as the election of officers, was adjourned till later. Mr. MacDougall, dean of the chapter, talked most interestingly to the members about his sabbatical year spent in Europe, chiefly in England. About fifty members were present.
11The piano normal department of the New England Conservatory of Music gave a recital in Jordan Hall last week, when pieces were played, and a class drill was conducted by Nancy Campbell in notation, ear training, scales, chords and cadences. The work was most interesting, and was demonstrated in a way that held the listeners' closest attention.
13Several private musicales have claimed the attention of Katherine Hunt, the young soprano who sings children's songs in a way all her own, and she has been to quite a number of out of town places recently where clubs and recitals "featured" her and her charming repertory. Last month Miss Hunt sang in Gloucester, Mass.; East Orange, N. J., and New York, where she was successful, as usual. The Study Club recently enjoyed one of Miss Hunt's programs, and so a most busy season for her is only just ending. Miss Hunt is a pupil of Caroline Gardner Clarke Bartlett.
15At the American Unitarian Association meeting, held at Tremont Temple, there was a choir of twenty male voices trained and directed by Frank O. Nash, organist and director. The singing by this body of men is said to have been most excellent, adding much to the service which was carried out by the order.
17Oscar Hunting, bass, recently returned from an extended tour of concerts, enjoyed a series of successes which have resulted in return engagements almost everywhere he was heard. Mr. Hunting is the possessor of one of the finest bass voices in America, and, although young, he has the dignity and intelligence for all kinds of work, from oratorio down.
19The following officers and directors of the Cecilia Society have been elected for the coming year: President, Arthur Foote; vice president, Francis A. Shove; secretary, Charles S. Norris; treasurer, Henry S. Grew; librarian, George H. Rose; directors, George O. G. Coale, Russell Abbott, Reginald Robbins and Malcolm Lang. Wallace Goodrich was re-elected conductor.
21One of the pleasant visitors to the city last summer was J. Louis Shenk, of Dayton, Ohio, who was here for study with Albert Prescott, of 6 Newbury street. Mr. Shenk was a most unusual student, and both Mr. Prescott and the Boston representative of THE MUSICAL COURIER predicted many good things for this musician. News comes that Mr. and Mrs. Shenk will sail for Europe in a few days, to be absent about six months, the former studying while in London with Henry Wood for oratorio, and later in Berlin, probably with Richard Loew. Mr. Shenk is now considered as being one of the "chieftest of the chief" teachers in the Middle West.
23Prior to setting sail for Europe, Lilla Ormond, the contralto, was presented with a de luxe edition of Rossetti's poems, of which Miss Ormond is very proud. She is a special lover of good books, and owns a very select library; even in her "den," with the array of photographs sent her by all sorts of social, literary and artistic people, this young singer smuggles some of her favorite books.
25WYNA BLANCHE HUDSON.
27A Virgil Concert in Cleveland.
29Mrs. A. M. Virgil, director of the Virgil Piano School, 21 West Sixteenth street, New York, gave a recital with two of her talented pupils, Lucille Oliver and Harry Tierney Wednesday evening, May 26, under the auspices of Clara L. Whiesen, one of the prominent piano teachers of Cleveland, who during the coming year will open a Cleveland Virgil Piano School. A large and distinguished audience gathered in the audience room of the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church.
31The program was especially brilliant and interesting, comprising compositions by Beethoven, Moszkowski, MacDowell, Godard, Chopin and Liszt, together with illustrations of scale, chords, arpeggios and octave playing from the Virgil Method, prefaced by a few pointed remarks by Mrs. Virgil, in which she explained the origin of the method and its real aim.
33The object of technic, she said, was to secure accuracy, strength, freedom and velocity, together with mental poise, courage and concentration. Through the possession of these qualifications the necessary skill in mastering pieces would be found easy of acquirement.
35Lucille Oliver is a bright girl of ten years, whose surprising mastery of the keyboard greatly delighted her audience. The breadth of tone, accuracy and velocity displayed in the difficult pieces she played deserve high commendation, also the graceful hand and arm movements and the pure finger action employed in finger technic and scale playing. She deserves credit not only for surprising technical fluency, but also for her clever pedaling, intelligent phrasing, and a certain nobleness of interpretation which foreshadows great future ability.
37Harry Tierney is a gifted youth of eighteen years, who is already a phenomenally attractive pianist. He has a highly emotional nature and evidently loves brilliancy in tone color. His best efforts are in brilliant concert pieces, Liszt's rhapsodies, etc., although he is not lacking in sentiment. He has a superior technic, which enables him to undertake pieces of great difficulty with surprisingly successful results. The fact that he has had only two years of competent instruction proves without question that he will win his way to the highest artistic excellence.
39A method which can produce results such as were displayed at this recital deserves the warm recognition shown it. Following was the program:
41Sonata, op. 53. Allegro con brio…………………….Beethoven
42Moment Musical………………………………………Moszkowski
43The Nightingale………………………………………Alabieff-Liszt
44The Witches' Dance………………………………….MacDowell
45Five Minutes' Talk on Piano Playing. one of two readings
46Mrs. A. M. Virgil one of two readings
47Technical Illustrations from the Virgil Method. one of two readings
48Lucille Oliver and Harry Tierney. one of two readings
49Desire…………………………………………………Burnham one of two readings
50Spring Night…………………………………………Schumann-Liszt one of two readings
51La Campanella………………………………………Liszt one of two readings
52Song to the Evening Star……………………………Wagner-Liszt one of two readings
53Five Minutes' Talk on Piano Playing…………………Mrs. A. M. Virgil one of two readings
54Technical Illustrations from the Virgil Method……..Lucille Oliver and Harry Tierney one of two readings
55Desire…………………………………………………….Burnham one of two readings
56Spring Night…………………………………………..Schumann-Liszt one of two readings
57La Campanella……………………………………….Liszt one of two readings
58Song to the Evening Star…………………………..Wagner-Liszt one of two readings
59Valse Chromatic………………………………………Godard
60Man Lebt nur Einmal……………………………Strauss-Tausig
61Nocturne……………………………………………..Chopin one of two readings
62Nocturne……………………………………………….Chopin one of two readings
63Eleventh Rhapsodie…………………………………Liszt
64Harry Tierney.
66Foreign musicians are greatly pleased over the attitude assumed by the German opera managers toward the question of producing "Parsifal" after the year 1913. Their recent decision to allow the Bayreuth monopoly to remain unviolated has met with unanimous approval in European musical circles, and in the better part of the press also.
68"Foundation Exercises" by Eugene Gruenberg.
70Eugene Gruenberg, a man who, for seven years, was one of the violinists of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, has written a work called "Elementary Exercises," for the violin, which, according to a very truthful publisher, had exhausted its first edition in less than four months after coming from the press—showing how a good work is valued and needed. A word as to the author: Eugene Gruenberg was always a student, being at the Vienna Conservatory studying violin with Heisser, composition with Bruckner and Dessoff, and chamber and orchestral music with Hellmesberger. Then for about ten years he was a member of the Leipsic Gewandhaus Orchestra, finally coming to America as a member of its great orchestra in Boston. one of two readings
71Eugene Gruenberg, a man who, for seven years, was one of the violinists of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, has written a work called "Elementary Exercises," for the violin, which, according to a very truthful publisher, had exhausted its first edition in less than four months after coming from the press—showing how a good work is valued and needed. A word as to the author: Eugene Gruenberg was always a student, being at the Vienna Conservatory studying violin with Heisler, composition with Bruckner and Dessoff, and chamber and orchestral music with Hellmesberger. Then for about ten years he was a member of the Leipsic Gewandhaus Orchestra, finally coming to America as a member of its great orchestra in Boston. one of two readings
73For the past three seasons Mr. Gruenberg has been at the head of the Normal department in violin at the New England Conservatory of Music, enjoying great success as a teacher. This man's knowledge of the violin cannot be questioned, and the new book he has written, called "Foundation Exercises," will doubtless duplicate its predecessor tenfold in popularity, as Mr. Gruenberg himself considers it as being the result of his best concentration, and a work for practically all violinists, while the former was for only beginners in every sense. As a book of special exercises adapted for the student, this work, "Foundation Exercises," will prove an epoch in musical literature, as these preparatory exercises will lead him on and on gradually, in a solid and fundamental manner, to the solution of every problem, such as finger velocity, shifting, sliding, skipping, chromatics, including glissando, double stops, octaves, extension, contraction, trill and tremolo (single and double) staccato, and so on through all the steps of successful and artistic violin playing. Leading pedagogues acknowledge the excellence of the Gruenberg work.
75Four other fine and readily accepted books pertaining to the study of violin have been written by Mr. Gruenberg, and this fact added to that of this man having played for twenty-five years under the most noted conductors of the age certainly stands for something in the way of his being able to instruct and make practical his ideas. Mr. Gruenberg has also written several works of note. "Foundation Exercises" has been favored with a review by the violin connoisseur, Felix Winternitz, of Boston, and reads thus:
7761 Hemenway St.,
78BOSTON, MASS., March 22, 1909.
80Dear Mr. Gruenberg—Thank you for your kindness in allowing me to look through the manuscript of your "Foundation Exercises"; I was very much interested in it, indeed. It was a happy thought to combine, in one single volume, so many important subjects. The student will find succinct and useful examples of various technical difficulties that he may encounter in the course of his studies, and I congratulate you most heartily upon the completion of this valuable work.
82Sincerely yours,
83FELIX WINTERNITZ.
85Any one teaching for thirty years, as Mr. Gruenberg has, must add still another point in his favor in being able to turn out a very desirable work on how to train in violin playing. The many works published have not proven themselves to be arranged step by step, so as to meet the pupil's need, but are too often in haphazard form, so Mr. Gruenberg's admirable treatise, in its concise and systematic arrangement, is bound to fill a long felt want. The publisher, G. A. Marsh, 43 North Beacon street, Allston, Mass., will furnish this book at $1.05, prepaid.
87An Alice Garrigue Mott Pupil.
89The Maine Festival, under the direction of William R. Chapman, has become a musical event of national importance. Jessie Nash Stover, soprano, daughter of George Nash, a well known violinist and orchestral leader, has been engaged for an evening concert and a matinee at the next festival. Mrs. Stover has sung widely in church, oratorio and concert, and has received the most flattering notices. This singer is a pupil of Alice Garrigue Mott.
91The forthcoming Brahms Festival in Munich is to be held at the Odeon Hall, in that city.
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