Books › Musical Courier 1923-10-04: Vol 87 Iss 14, 1923 › scan 45
Scan 45
Musical Courier 1923-10-04: Vol 87 Iss 14, 1923
89 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 46. See the scan on archive.org.
1REVIWS AND NEW MUSIC
3[The following is a list of new music received during the week ending September 27. Detailed reviews will appear at a later date on those selections which this department deems sufficiently interesting and important musically.]
5(White-Smith Music Publishing Co., New York)
7A COURSE IN HARMONY. By John Winter Thompson.
8(Arthur P. Schmidt Co., New York)
10FOLLOW-ON STUDIES FOR THE PIANOFORTE. By G. A. Grant-Schaefer.
11MECHANISM AND EXPRESSION. By Alfred Moffat.
12A MUSICAL CALENDAR. By Ida Mae Crombie.
13LEYENDA MORISCA. By David Sequiera.
14MINUETTO. By David Sequiera.
15LA FILIGRANA. By David Sequiera.
16BUFON. By David Sequiera.
17A VIOLET IN HER HAIR. By Robert Braine.
18THE LITTLE BROOKLET. By Robert Braine.
19YOUR VOICE I HEAR. By G. A. Grant-Schaefer.
20THE HIDDEN VIOLET. By G. A. Grant-Schaefer.
22M. J.
24Books
25(George H. Doran Co., New York)
27How to Sing
28By Luisa Tetrazzini
30This is really a very valuable book; not that there is anything especially new in it, but, perhaps, for that very reason. Tetrazzini tells students all that can be told in a short volume of the simple principles of learning to sing, and of the thing to avoid. She shows what is important and what is not, and takes no stand in any matter that is at all likely to call for controversy. It is a conservative, healthy, normal work. Hence its real value for students, especially the emotional kind who are ever liable to fly off on a tangent and to embrace some new plan or system, or be taken in by the ubiquitous faker, deluded with promises of short cuts and guarantees.
32It may serve some useful purpose to outline what is in this book by listing the chapter headings—if they are to be called chapters—for many of them are only a page or two in length. They are as follows: Don't wait to be "found"; Your aim; Why singers are scarce; Period of training; Qualities needed; General culture; Study an instrument; Voice; Good and bad; "Maestri"; Compass and quality; Age to start training; Anatomy and physiology; Breathing; Vocal chords; Placing the voice; Registers; Faults; Coloratura singing; Enunciation; Language; Style and interpretation; How I sing an aria; Practising; The artist and the gramophone; Studying a role; Choice of debut work; Rehearsals; Contracts; Concert work; Health, diet, etc.
34Here are thirty headings which evidently cover the whole field. Each subject is treated briefly, but, as already said, conservatively. The most important points are given, and should aid students to avoid the pitfalls of false training and bad habits. And the work is, fortunately, intended both for amateur and professional, though naturally it will be most interesting to the latter, especially in America, where the amateur rarely takes his work seriously, a fact that Tetrazzini deplores.
36Speaking to professionals Tetrazzini says at the very outset: "Don't wait to be found." Excellent advice, as any one long connected with the business side of musical art will fully appreciate; for we business artists see year after year people waiting around, or hanging around, forlornly enough, expecting to be recognized. Pitiful, indeed! But we generally feel that they might help themselves and make opportunity. Tetrazzini gives several instances of those who have made opportunity, including herself.
38As to why singers are scarce, everybody will agree with Tetrazzini in her main contention that haste and too brief study are the chief reasons. The "impatient spirit" of these headlong days account for the many half-baked artists who court failure by starting too soon on a career, and careless study, contempt for authority, over confidence, might well be added as contributory causes. Tetrazzini also thinks that modern music may have had some influence in the matter, and writes: "Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, and the rest of the old masters have indeed been avenged in a wholly unanticipated manner. Precisely as the music of their school has fallen in favor has the power been lost of singing that of the so-called higher kind which has taken its place."
40Further on, Tetrazzini, as might be expected, enters into a formal defence of coloratura singing, which is, however, not very convincing. (Rather difficult to oppose the advance of time!) She says: "We all know the kind of way in which it is referred to. Coloratura music is false, showy, superficial, unworthy, dramatically unreal, and so on. But what nonsense this is! What is the difference in principle, I would ask, between the floriture passages of the vocalist and those introduced as a matter of course in the most serious instrumental music?… Bach, for one, had no sort of prejudice on the point."
42But that argument is quite false. Bach never wrote any real coloratura, nor did any other of the really great masters—that is, the symphonic masters. Coloratura, as the name indicates, was invented to color arias, and most of it is thoroughly unmusical, interferes with the tempo, the progress of form, the whole musical feeling of the work. Tetrazzini evidently confuses any ordinary florid passage in instrumental music with real coloratura, which it is not. Coloratura is never, for instance, contrapuntal. It is never to be regarded as anything but a cadenza; but the instrumental artist permits himself perhaps one cadenza in the entire length of a concerto movement, often highly musical, developing themes from the movement in a scholarly manner, while the singer adds trills and runs wherever she pleases, bird imitations included. Musicians, too, are generally agreed that the pyrotechnic school of virtuosity is thoroughly bad and has nothing to commend it, and the best artists do not stoop to it. Why, then, should singers feel that they are right to stoop to it? It is really up to the composers. If composers provide singers with honestly musical coloratura it will take its place with other serious music. Until then it will merely be an entertainment for the uncultured.
44Tetrazzini urges general culture and the study of an instrument, saying with truth that students of singing must have much time on their hands, since the voice can only be used a few hours a day, and that this spare time should all be used in study of allied subjects. She insists that a long course of study—four or six years or more—with the best of teachers, is essential to a professional career; and adds that even poor material can be made useful through proper perseverance and teaching. She quotes particularly the case of Caruso who, even after he made his debut, was thought to be very mediocre and to lack temperament. No one had the very faintest idea that he would become one of the world's greatest singers.
46There is also some of the best sort of advice on the subject of enunciation, which Tetrazzini considers highly important; and she seems to agree with the saying, which she attributes to Jean de Reszke, "Sing as you speak." Whether Jean de Reszke said it or not, Caruso certainly did, and Marafiotti demonstrates the truth of it in his book on Caruso's method and uses it in his teaching. Tetrazzini adds that Italian should be used in student years so as to avoid strain, though later any language may be sung. She recommends the use of the talking machine (gramophone) by the use of which the student may hear the greatest of singers not just occasionally, but at all times.
48As stated at the outset, this is a most excellent work. It should be in the hands of every serious student, and read and re-read until its principles are thoroughly grasped and digested. It will prove both a guide and a safeguard. F. P.
50Music
51(G. Schirmer, Inc., New York)
53Reminiscences (Two sketches for the piano)
54By Cecil Burleigh
56Sunlight Through Leaves. Merriment
57Sunlight Through Leaves! One of Burleigh's loveliest nature pictures! He is never more delightful than when he dreams of something out of doors. No American composer has greater power of expressing the color and the shape of things, the charm that even the most stolid must feel amid the beauty of the wild. Had Burleigh been a painter he would have done things in vivid hues, strong highlights and warm shadows. He does just that in his music. Brilliant little fantasies like this should do much to increase his already considerable reputation.
59No. 2 of this op. 35, Merriment, is a vigorous scherzo, a miniature, indeed, but not by any means a small piece. It moves at a very rapid tempo, and is rather difficult, but it is very much worth while and will repay the study necessary to its proper execution.
61Liebestraum No. 3, Liszt
62Canzonetta, Jean Pierre Duport
63Arrangements for Cello or Violin and Piano by Maurice Dambois
65Liszt's Liebestraum is too well known to require any comment. It is sufficient to say that it has received respectful treatment at the hands of Mr. Dambois, who has not remade it, but has merely set it skillfully for the cello. As it stands, it will be a welcome addition both in the studio and on the concert platform.
67Duport was the originator of modern cello technic. He was cellist at the court of Frederick the Great of Prussia and conductor of the court orchestra. He lived from 1741 to 1818. This canzonetta, which has been revised and harmonized by Mr. Dambois, shows him to have been a graceful composer. The style is that of his day, very easy and flowing, somewhat contrapuntal, and not presenting very great difficulties either to the solo instrument or the accompanist.
69Intermezzo from the Concerto Grosso in D Minor by Antonio Vivaldi
70Transcribed for Violin, Viola or Cello and Piano by Sam Franko
72In a prefatory note Mr. Franko tells the story of this concerto; how, for more than sixty years, it circulated in printed form as an organ concerto by Wilhelm Friedeman Bach, whereas, as a matter of fact, it had been arranged for organ by John Sebastian Bach. As a Bach work it was several times reprinted and rearranged. In its original form it was revived by Mr. Franko in Berlin, February 7, 1912, and his arrangement for string orchestra was published by Schirmer in 1917. The present transcription, which Mr. Franko has called Intermezzo, is really the second movement (largo) of the original concerto. The music itself is very lovely and deserves the attention of every lover of the classics.
74Organ Fugue in G Minor by Bach
75Edited by Charles Widor and Albert Schweitzer
77This is the "little" fugue, and the editors have very wisely left the tempo and phrasing as Bach indicated them, i.e., not at all. Jean Hure has made the opening motive the subject of an interesting discussion on tempo and phrasing in his monumental work, L'Esthetique de L'Orgue, and, after criticising everybody else in the matter, lays down his own law as to how it should be played "avec les nuances qui y sont contenues necessairement, et qui, pour un musicien doué, n'ont pas besoin d'etre notees."
79However that may be, his phrasing and accenting does not agree with the suggestions made by MM. Widor and Schweitzer in the introduction to this new Schirmer edition. At the head of that introduction the phrasing is given. In the introduction, which is of considerable length, suggestions as to interpretation are offered. And then follows the fugue itself, without an indication of any kind.
81This is as it should be. Bach is not made over. The player is not left in doubt as to what is Bach and what is not. It is a sensible plan of editing, and should be universally followed.
83(Breitkopf & Hartel, New York)
85Valse Triste
86By Sibelius, Arranged for Violin and Piano by Sam Franko
88This beautiful arrangement of the beautiful waltz is got up like a Broadway jazz piece. It has a startling picture on the outside of the cover, and the violin part is printed
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