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Musical Courier 1928-08-09: Vol 97 Iss 6, 1928
52 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1ERNEST SCHELLING, NOTED CONDUCTOR
3Explains the What, Why, and Wherefore of Children's Concerts
5ERNEST SCHELLING became known first as a pianist. He started his career as virtuoso when he was five years old at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, of which city he is a native, and was internationally famous before he reached his majority, since which time his fame has steadily increased until he now stands among the few great masters of the piano.
7It was after his fame began to spread that he performed in public his first compositions, and it very soon became evident that Schelling was gifted beyond piano virtuosity and was a musician possessing a thorough ground-work in composition and a genuine creative gift. It was still later that Schelling became known as a conductor and lecturer and an enthusiast for the musical development and education of children.
9An interviewer had the good fortune to be permitted to climb up into Mr. Schelling's "Lighthouse" by the winding iron stair that leads to it, and where the pianist-composer-conductor keeps the outward and visible signs of his enthusiasm for the latest development of his musical career.
11Probably Mr. Schelling had not the faintest idea when he undertook the conducting of children's concerts for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra to what it would lead. It seems to have grown almost out of hand, and the lecturer has found it difficult to keep pace with the quick grasp and avid interest of his young charges. He told the interviewer that he has been amazed ever since he began giving children's concerts at how quick they are to understand everything that is told them, and how equally quick they are to answer questions, or otherwise to indicate vocally that they have caught the point of his remarks.
13"Giving a children's concert," says Mr. Schelling, "is not at all like giving a concert for adults. In the first place, the children must be kept at attention every minute, from the beginning to the end of the performance, which lasts about an hour and a quarter. There is no intermission and there are scarcely any pauses. The affair must be what the children would call 'snappy,' or the children are likely to get restless and unruly."
15"Also, the affair must be full of interest, with the proper balance between lecture and music, and everything in neat and carefully considered proportion."
17To accomplish this Mr. Schelling decided that it would be necessary to have lantern slides by way of illustration, and to get the proper lantern slides he discovered that he would have to have them made especially for him, as there were none to be bought, or, at least, none sufficient for his needs. This proved to be a vast undertaking, as Mr. Schelling first had to acquire the pictures from which the slides were to be made, then to have them photographed on glass, and finally to have the glass hand-colored.
19Mr. Schelling has collected the pictures in all sorts of places and has wandered all over Europe in his search for such as might meet his requirements. Many of the illustrations have been taken from ancient books which he has secured from antiquarian dealers.
21This, of course, meant that he must examine hundreds, if not thousands, of books and pictures, for there was no way of knowing in advance what might or might not contain useful material. The work is still continuing, and how many slides the lecturer will ultimately have is problematical, the number at present being something like four thousand. Some of them, at least, he carries around New York to Brooklyn, the Bronx, Newark, Philadelphia and Boston, with his projector and his operator, and during his lectures they are cast on a screen back of the orchestra in such large form that everything on them can be seen by any member of the audience.
23The total of these audiences has amounted to 73,000, and it has been estimated that at least two-thirds of this number have been steady in their attendance and have been at all of the concerts.
25By way of making the children's interest personal, Mr. Schelling not only gets them to answer questions during the lecture, but also questions printed on the program, and awards several silver medals and honorable mention to those who write the best descriptions of the concert and of the music played, and who answer most of these questions correctly. After this written work is done and the apparent winners selected, they are examined orally and the prizes are then given. Every winner gets a silver medal, and a winner of a silver medal three years in succession gets a gold medal.
27Mr. Schelling also has invented The Thermometer, which is an important feature of the lectures. The Thermometer is a huge affair with a sliding pointer which is moved up and down by Mr. Schelling himself. The Thermometer is provided with such indications as "better," "bad," "awful!" and Mr. Schelling points the needle to one or another of these indications of the way the children are following his directions in whatever part it is they take in his lectures. He says that a lecture is the most exciting thing possible, and that he has to be careful to get them all written out in advance and to read them just as they are written, as the enthusiasm of the children is likely to carry the lecturer off his feet. He says that from the beginning to the end of one of the children's concerts it is one fever of delight, both for the children and for himself, and he finds his task more difficult than either an ordinary piano recital or solo appearance with orchestra, or conducting a concert for the ordinary adult audience.
29Once, for the League of Political Education, he tried the same system of arousing interest that he has developed with the children. There was an audience of adults, and, at first, says Mr. Schelling, they were shy, but after he had "spoken roughly" to them they woke up and gave him as lively a time as he had ever had at a children's concert. And they all had such a good time, said Mr. Schelling, that he believes that more adult audiences would enjoy such things if they were only offered the chance.
31"And why," asked the interviewer, "do you give concerts and lectures to children? Do you expect them to learn music from them? Or if not, what is your object?"
33To this question Mr. Schelling replied that his one object was to inculcate into these children (who will soon be adults) a love for symphonic music.
35"There is no use," said Mr. Schelling, "of having a series of great symphonic orchestras all over our country giving season after season of symphonic concerts if we are to be forever fighting for audiences. The real lover of symphonic music in most cases will not be the person who has gained his first acquaintance with such music in adult years. The time to begin is with children, and the interest must be aroused not by the mere dragging of children to concerts, but by other more active and more direct means. The greatest possible danger is that a child should be bored. If that takes place a few times that child is sure to grow up with a distaste for symphonic music and he will become one of those who has to be dragged to concerts, or has to be brought there by propaganda, civic pride, or some other form of persuasion which must not be permitted to be permanently necessary.
37"You may be sure that these children who are having their interest actively aroused by concerts and lectures especially prepared for them will develop such a genuine love for symphonic music that they will always be patrons of symphony concerts, and, of course, other concerts as well."
39Oton Schéda, Autodidact Violinist, Wins Press Tributes in Sixty-Six Languages
41Has Had a Dozen Tours in America and Has Made Trips to Europe Thirty-one Times for Appearances Abroad—Now Booking for a Transcontinental Tour, Following Which He Will Devote His Time to Teaching in New York
43"His soulful playing, his true interpretation, powerful tone and masterly bowing, the faultless accuracy with which he performs great difficulties, leave a lasting impression on the auditor." Thus wrote Dr. Eduard Hanslick, the celebrated Vienna critic, of Oton Schéda, a violinist who is entirely self taught, never having had a single lesson. On his mother's side Schéda came of musical stock, but his father, General Joseph Ritter von Schéda, commander of the Imperial Geographical Institute in Vienna, was unalterably opposed to any but a military career for his son, and, although the child showed unusual musical talent when but three years old, he was denied instruction in the art. As a lad he managed to procure a violin, and set about learning to play without the aid of a teacher. At twelve he prevailed upon his uncle, Moritz Kassmeier, director of the Imperial opera in Vienna, to arrange a public appearance for him, hoping thus to gain his father's consent to a musical career for him. He made his debut at Harmonie Saal, in Vienna, and created a furore. It was at that time that Hanslick wrote the above lines.
45Although a brilliant career was predicted for him his father remained unbending and put him in a military training school, with instructions to the head master to kill his musical ambitions. But the young violinist managed to get himself expelled by committing all the irregularities he could think of; only to be placed by his irate father in the forestry service. That was not so distasteful to him, as he had the artists' love of nature, and he knew that he would have more freedom than at the military academy. He managed to smuggle his violin to his mountain quarters and soon became a favorite with the foresters, who loved music. He now found frequent opportunities for practice, and made great strides in his art. At seventeen he graduated, the youngest ever to have passed the rigorous tests. He returned home triumphantly, but learned, to his dismay, that he would have to go through four more years of intensive study at the Academy in Vienna. He determined to flee, and, as a preliminary step, gained permission to visit his uncle, Adolf Grüner, Imperial Court pianist at St. Petersburg. He played at the Court of Nicholas I and created a sensation, being appointed chamber soloist.
47But he could not tarry long in St. Petersburg if he would escape a return to Vienna and academic drudgery. U. S. Ambassador Delaplaine had been a frequent visitor at his home, and had told of the wonders of the country of liberty; so he made America his goal. In order to raise funds he conceived an act in which he appeared anonymously as Paganini redivivus. He toured Europe and was everywhere acclaimed, but nobody knew his identity. His travels led him to practically every large city in the world; everywhere he triumphed, and his scrap book contains newspaper notices in sixty-six different languages. At the age of twenty-one he arrived at San Francisco, traveled east and settled in New England, where between trips he taught and devoted himself to his hobbies, drawing, painting and ivory carving, in all of which he is an artist of no mean powers. That master teacher, Henry Schradieck, was astonished, on hearing his pupils, at the perfect method taught by one who had never had lessons himself.
49TOURS EXTENSIVELY BOTH IN EUROPE AND AMERICA
51Schéda returned to Europe thirty-one times to fill concert and vaudeville engagements, and toured America a dozen times. His playing has frequently been likened in style to that of Paganini, for which there is considerable justification. His mother had often heard the great Italian in Vienna, and, being very musical herself, had given her son a very distinct idea of the characteristics of his playing, which meant much to the gifted boy. Again, in Paris, Carl Guhr, a personal friend of Paganini and Fétis, gave him
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