Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
J 38teW
With which is incorporated THE MUSIC TRADE JOURNAL.
VOL. V.
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 5TH, 1881.
No. 3
rees in the Colosseum grounds and along the gal-
"'I'll write you a song,' said I, 'if you'll pro-
THE JEWS' HARP.
of the great pavilion overlooking the East mise to sing it before we go home.' "
•\TOTWITHSTANDING the antiquity of the eries
"This was agreed to. On the opposite side of
_LN Jews' Harp, or Jews' trump, or Jew trump iver.
road a rail fence had been torn away and a
as it is or has been called, it appears to be gener- The exercises of the evening were begun at 6.30 he
plank fence had been erected. Where we
ally considered a mere toy, and it does not seem ''clock, a military band giving a promenade con- hite
ere sitting a party of negroes had been roasting
that any one has ever become famous as a perfor- ert while the guests of the society were entering ars
of corn over a fire, and the charred sticks lay
mer on the instrument. But, in spite of this, some :he gates and wending their way through the park.
around. I gathered up a bundle of them under
proficiency might doubtless be obtained upon it; So lager beer was sold, but there was an incessant all
arm and, followed by the girls, walked over to
although from the smallness of its compass and opping of champagne and Rhine wine corks at my
fence. With the charred sticks I wrote the
feebleness and generally unpleasing quality of its he side tables. The consumption of Rhine wine the
verse of the song on the top plank of the fence
tone, it would in all probability be debarred from must have been enormous, judging from the large irst
the notes for four verses on the four jjlanks be-
ever rising to the rank of a musical instrument. umbers of empty long-necked bottles visible on ,nd
leath, making it a quartet. Then we stood oft", and,
Pegge, in his " Anonymiana " speaks to the point. he tables at 10 o'clock.
Probably the most interesting feature of the fes- ,s all could read the music, we sang it. The girls
He says. "The Jews'trump is vulgarly believed
delighted and insisted on having a chorus, so
to be one of the instruments of music. But ival was a short concert given by the members of ere
down to the end and wrote the chorus out
upon inquiry you will not find any such mu- he society and an orchestra led by Dr. Damrosch, n went
planks. Well, we sang it over and over,
sical instrument as this described by the authors he programme of which included the following nd the
went home singing it. Next morning 'Evan-
who treat of the Jewish Music. In short, this in- ocal and instrumental selections: Overture, ;eline
down stairs humming the air, and ask-
strument is a mere boys' plaything and 'incapable 'Oberon;" "Ein Brunnen Wunderbar," (Abt), d me ' to came
write it out and finish it. I told her I
of itself being joined either with a voice or any Messrs. Graff, Torek, Remmertz, Steiner, and Arion ouldn't do
she might go down and copy it
other instrument.'" He then goes on to say that shorus ; valse caprice, (Rubinstein) ; Mainnacht, if the fence. it, but
took an umbrella and a sheet of
he considers the orthography of the word is due (Abt), Mr. Graff and Arion chorus ; "Die Jungen laper, and soon She
came back with words and music
to the French "Jeu trump"—a trump to play Musikauten," (Kaecken), Messrs. Himmer, Torek, sopied off.
with. In Belgium and the Netherlands, whence Mastorff, Steiner, and Arion chorus ; Zwei Duette
" Then she insisted on having another verse, and
we obtained numerous toys, a trump is understood Mendelssohn), Messrs. Graff and Remmertz.
to be a rattle for children. It may be added that Next were unfolded a series of tableaus under io I wrote another verse, on condition that I was
some persons consider the "instrument " to be so lie direction of Mr. J. Stollwark, who successfully o have a kiss for it, and she to have the music.
named because it is played by insertion between the grcmped a number of pretty girls in scenes repre- She went home to St. Louis, and sang ' Evangeline'
jaws. Lucinius, the Benedictine Monk, of Stras- senting " Diana's Hunt," "Lorely," " Cleopatra's about there until it attracted attention, and she
bourg, who in 1536 published his work entitled, kmrfc," "Siegfried" and "Die Rheinnixen," and ent it back to me to have it published. I sent that
" Musurgia seu praxis musica " gives some idea of the "Amazons." A grand display of fire-works song to every music publisher in America, until the
the esteem in which the Jews' harp was held. He ook place at 11.30 o'clock from the deck of a scow MS. was nearly worn out, and the best offer I re-
first classes it with the drum, the bugle, a sort of moored in the river below the pavilions. Dancing eived for it was from Brainard, of Cleveland, who
French horn, castagnets, a little bell, a pot with a and uninterrupted jollity were maintained until iffered me $10 and twenty-five copies of the music.
I declined it. Shortly after, I was in Cleveland,
stick, and a smaller machine, for a noise which we shortly before dawn.
and Campbell's Minstrels were there. I took the
do not know how to name (accepted translation^
A ^CELEBRATED SONG.
,ong to Campbell and we went to a music store and
and then remarks that they are instruments '' quae
( ORE than 145,000 copies of 'Evangeline' ried it. He said it was a great song, and sang it
strepitum ciere possunt magis quam amicum auri-
were sold in fourteen months," said Will that night five times to persistent encores. Brainard
bus sonitum reddere "—•'' which are better calcu-
lated to produce a noise than an agreeable music S. Hays, the famous song writer, yesterday to a heard of the new song, went to hear it and then
to the ear." In Hakleeyt's "Voyage,"volume iii Courier Journal reporter. The conversation was on ame to me to buy it. I was drinking in those days
folio 57G, and volume iii., folio F665, we also find the subject of his songs, their origin, number and and was a regular 'h—1 of a feller,'so I up and told
these notes of interest—"Yet if they would bring history. Of all he has published, considerably him that John Howard Payne had died in a poor-
him hatchets, knives and jewes harps, he bid them over 200, "Evangeline," "Mollie Darling "and house, that Keyes, who wrote the Star-Spangled
assure me he had a mine of gold and could refine Norah O'Neal" were probably the most popular. Banner, had died in destitution, and that the pub-
Evangeline " is one of the most beautiful popular lishers in America were determined to starve the
it and would trade with me (Sir Robert Dudley),'
and, "If we would have any we should send them compositions ever published in America, and just omposers out, but I would make him a, present of
jews-harps, for they will give for every one two before the breaking out of the war was sung in every ' Evangeline,' to show how little publishers know
hennes" (Sir Walter Raleigh). Beaumont and Flet- home and by every company of singers in the land. of the value of composition. Well, it went selling
cher apparently did not think much of the " toy,' Strange to say, the author never received one cent right along like a whirlwind. Three months after-
as will be seen by an allusion in their "Humorous for his composition, though at the usual royalty, ward he offered me $500 for another song like it,
Lieutenant," Act iv., Scene 1. Olaus Wormius three cents per copy, he would have made $4,350 but I refused it, and have never written anything
(Mon. Dan.) refers in a most curious manner to an out of it in the fourteen months. How many copies for him."
instrument which was understood by Sir Thomas in all have been sold he does not know, though it
Browne (vide Hydriotaphia) as doubtless being is still in demand, and the total number would pro
Jews' harp, found enclosed in an urn that had long bably reach 300,000. When "Evangeline" was
A NEW VERSION OP TRAVIATA.
been buried in Norway. By its side there seems to first issued it became immensely popular. The
S
certain
opera-singers have, recognizing the
have been an urn containing some ancients' ashes minstrels of antebellum days, whose specialty, nexi
of "La Traviata," declined to sing
and bones; and both the urns and the Jews' harp ap to characteristic negro delineations, was sentimen in that wickedness
opera, the difficulty will, it is believed, at
pear to have been considered splendid specimens tal ballads, sang the beautiful composition for quin last be overcome
writing a new libretto for them.
For the sake of the name given to the instrument, tet in every city in the land, and, as is usual with The scene of the by
first
act will.. I presume, be laid
we quote a few words from the original—" In Nor- popular ballads, the minstrel tenor, the famous at a Dorcas meeting, whence
comes to help
Campbell, of Campbell's Minstrels, first introduced the heroine mix the tea. The Alfredo
two become enamor-
vegia
duae effosae sunt urnae, in it.
ed of each other, but Violetta having been informed
quorum altera cineres et ossium reliquiae, in altera
" I was a wild young fellow when I wrote by the hero's father that Alfredo is a gay young
instrumentum musicum, Danis En Mundharpe' ' Evangeline,'"
continued Col. Hays, " anditgrew spark, and that he was once distinctly seen to wink
(a mouth harp).
out of a frolic. Just before the war I was visiting at a barmaid, the heroine resolves in the second act
one summer up in Oldham county, near Lagrange to tear herself from him. This scene is as heart-
THE ARION SOCIETY'S FESTIVAL.
There was a party of gay young ladies visiting th rending as it is in Signor Verdi's opera when the
is tolerably well sung. In the third act, after
VERY enjoyable summer night festival wai house also, most of whom have children now as old music
some weeks of parting, the two meet at a Sunday-
as I was then. Among them was a beautiful girl
held by the Arion Society not long ago
1
treat, Violetta hanging on the arm of the hand-
Washington Park and the adjoining pleasure who resembled the ideal pictures of Longfellow school
young curate. In vain does the hero storm
ground, Jones's Wood Colosseum, in New York • Evangeline' so closely that I called her by th some
rage ; in vain does he take her behind the trees
city, both of which were brilliantly illuminated for name, and it clung to her as a nickname. On and Hampton
Court and throw a packet of buns at
the affair. Two thousand persons, including man evening we were all invited over to a frolic at th at
her
feet.
The
young damsel, sheathed in the armor
residence
of
Hon.
Robt.
D.
Mallory,
and
all
went
well-known and influential German citizens wit
her sex, promptly shrieks and faints, while the
their families, were present. The decorations c We danced and sang, and soon discovered that foui of
and all the Sabbath-school scholars declare
the Washington Park dancing pavilion were strik- of us could sing very nicely together. We triec clergy
to be a most abandonod young man. In
ingly attractive. Tasteful folds of crimson drapery ' Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming' and othe Alfredo
final act the last scene of the tragedy is con-
interwoven with imitation lace hung in front of the popular quartets, and got along so nicely that w< the
became quite enthusiastic over our success. Abou summated. Violetta has caught violent cold from
long galleries.
or 2 o'clock in the morning we started to wal fainting on the dew-damped grass at Hampton
the 1
Court, and the doctor saya sho has acquired the
Large
trees and
of evergreens
clustered
many
pillars,
from the lofty
roof about
depended home down the road. The night was as bright as seeds of rapid consumption. She has powdered
day,
with
the
full
moon
hanging
in
the
sky,
and
a:
monster Chinese lanterns, which, contrasted with
her face and donned a dainty dressing-gown with
the electric lights in the vestibules, shed a pale we walked we sang. Finally we sat down in a nici scarlet ribbons, and as she reclines on her two lace-
nook
in
a
field
to
rest,
and
'
Evangeline'
began
yellow glare on the dancers beneath. Lanterns of
edged pillows she looks decidly interesting. The
variegated colors were hung in festoons among the suggest other songs to sing.
'M
A
A