Books › Musical Courier 1927-01-13: Vol 94 Iss 2, 1927 › scan 45
Scan 45
Musical Courier 1927-01-13: Vol 94 Iss 2, 1927
42 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1MUSICAL COURIER
2January 13, 1927
4Answers to letters received in this department are published as promptly as possible. The large number of inquiries and the limitation of space are responsible for any delay. The letters are answered seriatim.
6HOW MANY CONCERTS?
8L. K.—The number of concerts it is possible to hear during one day, that is afternoon and evening, can only be answered in a personal way. One day in London, "before the war," there were twelve musical events scheduled for one afternoon and evening. Two of these affairs occurred at private houses, one where a Duchess was hostess, the other where Lady ______ presided. It so happened that the representative of the MUSICAL COURIER in London at that time had received invitations to be sure to attend "personally" for one reason or another. This, while flattering, was rather a problem to accomplish. The first one on the list was at Aeolian Hall at the hour of twelve o'clock noon. This was easy of course. Then a cab for the afternoon made it possible to attend every one of the other "events," to obtain programs, to chat for a few moments with the person in authority, and then to go on. In this way seven concerts were cared for satisfactorily, and details were obtained that enabled one to write a proper notice. Reaching home in time to dress for the evening, dine and then start out again with a cab, completed the task with the five that remained. The schedule that had been arranged in advance was carried out so that at the end of the evening hostesses and managers had all been made happy by a personal visit that would insure their having a mention in the MUSICAL COURIER at the proper time. A rather tired, but triumphant representative reached home late in the evening, rejoicing in a well spent day, but not too anxious to have such another experience.
10CRITICS AND ETIQUETTE
12M. A. C.—Your question as to what steps you should take to get "in touch" with the critics, as you are about to give a recital, does not appear to be one to require serious consideration. If you have a manager to attend to the details of whatever recitals you expect to give, that manager will attend to all necessary details, which include, as far as the critics are concerned, sending complimentary tickets. The critics expect to judge the recitals and concerts entirely upon the merits of the artists, not from a personal point of view. What would criticism be worth if given by a "dear friend?" The dear friend usually only knows how to criticise by giving extravagant praise, no matter how mediocre the performance may be. In many cases it is the dear friend who is responsible for the launching out of an aspirant for musical honors, who is neither provided with voice, talent nor funds for an education. This has been shown in the past when every year thousands of young men and women, flattered by "dear friends," sail away for Europe, only to discover their lack of qualifications for an artistic life. Those who know the history of those years "abroad" are fully aware of the tragedies that result from the advice and flattery of friends. In the case of one aspirant for a favorable criticism by a leading critic of a not far distant city, the singer sent a personal note to the critic asking for his attendance at her recital and suggesting that he would not be "harsh" to her. The critic resented this rather impertinent request, to the extent of not attending the recital. Let your work show the critics what you are capable of, and if it does not justify good notices, take the hint that there is something lacking.
14SCHNITZER RETURNS FROM EUROPEAN TOUR
16Germaine Schnitzer, pianist, has just arrived in New York after having given twenty-one concerts during her two months' tour in Europe. In England alone there were fifteen engagements, consisting of orchestra appearances in London at Queen's Hall under the leadership of Sir Henry Wood and concerts in the British provinces. The English cities in which Miss Schnitzer was heard in November include Birmingham, Reading, Liverpool, Cheltenham, Glasgow, Bridge-of-Allan, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. So instantaneous was the pianist's success that she was immediately reengaged for another tour through England for next season. Recitals also were given in France, Belgium and Austria, and everywhere the artist was greeted by packed houses and tendered ovations. Germaine Schnitzer is giving her first recital of the season in New York at Aeolian Hall, on the afternoon of Saturday, February 20.
18GRAINGER A DEFENDER OF JAZZ
20According to an interview in the Perth Daily News, Percy Grainger is a defender of jazz. "I believe there is only one standard of music—just good music—at all times and in all places. What determines good music, I think, is a primitive sense—just as one can tell a natural athlete on sight, so anyone with a normal nature can tell the difference between good and bad music." And Grainger continues: "With regard to my own programs, I invariably go in for about half classical and half modern music. I feel that without a wide knowledge of the past, modern music would not convey its full message . . . I feel about ancient and modern music exactly as I feel about old and young people. It would be rather depressing to mix exclusively with people over thirty-five, and it would be equally depressing to mix with people under thirty-five; we must have all.
22"The origin of jazz is very little different from that of other dance music . . . What difference there is lies mainly in the fact that most dances of the popular type have originated in rural life; jazz, on the other hand, is mainly the musical expression of life in large towns. Consequently it is the product of professional rather than of amateur musicians . . .
24"Why jazz is regarded with alarm in some quarters," observed the pianist, "is that, in the past, dance music was chiefly of local origin and 'local application'; consequently, foreign nations did not trouble about it very much. Through the increased facilities of travel, however, and through gramophones, player-pianos and other universalizers of music, jazz has for some years been making a bid to become the popular music of the world. That probably is a temporary phase, for, however fine jazz may be, there is no reason why it—a purely American product and to be welcomed as such, as we welcome all healthy expressions of race in music—should elbow out all other forms of national music.
26"Now, although I am a great advocate of jazz, and consider that America has given a great gift to the world in perfecting jazz as it has," Mr. Grainger went on, "what I would like to see is the evolution by Australia of its own type of popular and dance music, and the same movement in England and other countries. I think the dislike to jazz that one encounters is really exactly the reverse to what the critics believe it to be. It is not the dislike for the vulgar and the simple; it is the dislike for the classical and complicated.
28"Jazz is much closer to classical music than to any other popular music we have yet had in the world, just as the Australian working man is very much closer to an Australian factory owner in speech, clothes, and habits than an English one, and particularly one of, say, fifty years ago. Jazz is, in other words, part of the democratisation of the world. The classical, musical elements that abound in jazz, which make it disliked by simple ears, are a sign that the masses in all modern democratic countries, through better education and higher wages, are commencing to reach out for those musical refinements which in Beethoven's or Mozart's time only the aristocracy, or the so-called upper classes, reached out for."
30MARIE SUNDLIEUS
32IN ALL THE QUALITIES WHICH MAKE A PIANO ADMIRABLE THE KRANICH & BACH, IN MY OPINION, SURPASSES ALL OTHERS.
34Marie Sundelius
35Soprano, Metropolitan Opera Co.
37KRANICH & BACH
38Grand—Reproducing—and Period Model Pianos
39237 East 23rd St. New York
4077 EAST JACKSON BLVD., CHICAGO, ILL.
41CATALOGUE AND PRICE LIST UPON REQUEST
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