Music Trade Review

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November, 5th 1881.
THE MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW.
87
recently heard Mile. Vachot, Mr. Mapleson's new he key rises, lifting with it a vertical or perpen-
prima donna, sing in a concert at Treport. She dicular rod, called a sticker. This sticker in turn
writes, in a letter lately published in the Signale, lifts another rod, or what is the front or first arm
that she "sang in a thin and rather trembling of horizontal roller, so called from its revolving ac-
voice, but with much charm and grace, the Page's ion. As the sticker, rising at the key pressure,
romance from ' Le Nozze di Figaro' and the air causes the roller to partly revolve, a second arm or
from 'II Barbiere di Seviglia.' "
rod at the back of the roller descends. To this is
attached the tracker made to any requisite length
London is to have an unwonted number of necessary
it to the pull-down, and so call-
orchestral concerts during the next Spring and ed because to it attach
overreaches or tracks out the distance
ABROAD.
Summer season. There will be six by the Philhar- between the mechanical
movements nearest the key
The latest work from the pen of Ambroise monic Society, five under Mr. Ganx, ten under
those closer to the sound-board and pipes. The
Thomas, the composer, "Francesca da Rimini," Herr Richter, six under Mr. Charles Halle, and and
of the motion is thus transmitted, the back-
will be given at the Royal Italian Opera, Oovent five under Mr. Lamoureux, the late conductor at course
end or tail of the key conveys the motion inwards;
Garden, next season. Madame Sembrich, one of the Paris Ope"ra.
sticker or first rod over the key, carries it up-
the most renowned vocalists in Europe now, will Materna has been engaged for a renewed term at the
wards; the roller conveys it across by its revolving
sing the title role at the express desire of Mr. the Imperial Opera House, Vienna, extending movement
(an action like the partial revolution of
Thomas.
until 1886, with the exception of the vacations. a window-blind roller), any necessary distance right
Brahm's " Tragic Overture" is on the prospectus The salary is comparatively small, amounting to or left; while at the same time the tracker again
of the Royal Orchestra Concerts, at Dresden, only seven thousand two hundred dollars per carries it upwards to the pull-down which opens
annum. Her American engagement beginning he pallet. A pin passing through the key-lail or
Saxony; also a new Symphony by Svendsen.
April 15, 1882, comprises only sixteen concerts. back, down from the sticker, prevents the latter
Since her performances last Spring in London All her traveling, board and lodging expenses, and from
slipping off the former. The rollers, former-
with Rubinstein, Sophie Menter is considered a that of attendants are paid and eight thousand y made
wood are now made of iron tubing, the
kind of protege of the master. She will make a dollars besides. She must return in time to be in different of
points of junction or friction are covered
tour of Belgium in January and from thence she Bayreuth in July.
or lined with cloth, "bushed," as the builders say,
goes to Holland and Germany.
in order to secure a silent action. The joining of
Camille
Saint-Saens
is
at
work
on
a
new
opera
The engagements of that musical genius, Anton "Henry VIII." The first act is now completed. he trackers is effected by buttons of leather worm-
Rubinstein, are fas plentiful as his productions. He starts in January on a concert tour in Ger- ed on to the screw-like ends of the wires, which
After directing some of the Moscow symphony many.
terminate the trackers in either direction. Several
concerts he goes to Berlin in January to superin-
small local inventions are employed to lessen the
tend some of his later works to be produced there. Boito, the composer of " Mefistofele " has been strain on the key-movement, and to relieve the
A new ballet and comic opera from his pen will be reated a Commander of the Order of the Italian weight of touch felt on the key itself. Such inven-
given in St. Petersburg in March, for which he is Crown, by King Humbert.
ions are of special value in large organs, where
secured. Prior to these affairs he is engaged in The London Musical World again gets into error the different actions are multiplied and elongated;
Paris during the month of February.
when it says that Constantin Sternberg will short- the principal invention in this direction, the "pneu-
Marie Krebs, the pianist, who made a tour with ly make a tour visiting the large cities of the matic action," will be referred to in my second lec-
Thomas' orchestra some years ago in this coun- United States. Mr. Sternberg did make that tour ture.
Having traced the action from the player's fin-
try, made her 1000th appearance in the concert last season but will not this season.
room in Dresden, Oct. 21. She has been engaged The Wagner cycle of opera will positively take gers to the pallet, which permits the pipe to speak
for the Glasgow Choral Concerts ; also M. Marsick, place in May and June, 1882, at the Drury Lane, or not, as it is opened or closed, it is time to con-
sider another important mechanical department,
violinist.
under the management of Herrman Franke and the draw-stop action.
No young composer has become more prominent Herr Pollini, of Hamburg, Herr Franke says that
The necessary musical conditions regarding the
than Canaille Saint-Saens. At the Liverpool Phil- he has secured the sole right of performing "The pitch and duration of sounds are capable of fulfill-
harmonic Concert, Oct. 11, his symphonic poem, Meistersinger," and " Tristan and Isolde," in this ment upon an organ supplied, as in ancient days,
" Jeunesse d'Hercule," achieved a pronounced country. How has he managed that and when?
with only one tier of pipes and without any change
success. Max Bruch conducted.
Frau Laura Rappoldi, a graduate of the Vienna of stops or registers, but the all but equally im-
Pablo de Sarasate, the wonderful Spanish violin- Conservatory, is th© latest addition to the number portant musical tone conditions, expressed by the
ist, is considered one of the few artists who can of eminent pianists. Von Bulow regards this lady words intensity and quality, have yet to be fulfill-
continually attract audiences of a mixed character. as the most gifted pianist of modern times and. ed. The primary importance of these two last nam-
His performances are quoted in European musical makes a written statement to the effect that he ed conditions is attested by the evidence that the
journals as the most remarkable in modern times. never heard a more ' brilliant performance of the greater part of the vast array of pipes and machin-
Although a performer of the Beethoven, Mendels- B flat sonata (Op. 106) Beethoven, than that given ery to be found in a large organ owe their presence
to the necessary and satisfactory fulfillment of these
sohn and Spohr concertos, he does not limit him- by Frau Rappoldi.
tone conditions, relative intensity and quality,—
self to works^of that description, but also plays
conditions violated in the first instance when, by
national and popular works that create a veritable
the ambitious thought of man, the organ passed
THE ORGAN AND ORGAN MUSIC.
furore.
from the lips of the simple player on reeds and
IV.
pipes to the necessities of an artificial and, in itself,
When the late Khedive was expelled from Egypt
inexpressive wind supply. Though when the arti-
he established his harem in Naples, to the great \A series of lectures delivered at Birmingham, Eng-
ficial breathing power came into existence, at that
disgust of the Italians. Not long afterward a num-
land, by E. H. Turpin.]
ber of the inmates escaped. One of them, named Having shown the process by which the wind is early point of its history the organ stepped into a
new and larger life, passing from the condition of
Sahibe", discovered that she had a charming voice
ready for us« close to the pipes, into which comparative subordination, inevitable in the case
and sought employment in Vienna, where she has stored
it
passes
by
means
of
the
little
trap-doors
or
pal-
been engaged by the manager of the Josef-Stadt lets, at the will of the performer expressed by pres- of every single toned instrument, however precious
Theatre. An Egyptian prima donna will certainly sure of the keys in front, I will now endeavor to its sounds may be, into a tone monarchy of its own
right, as embracing at once the domains of both
prove a novelty.
trace out the mechanism employed between the melody and harmony.
The foreign musical newspapers are full of re- key-board, the wind store, and the pipes them-
ports of the discoveries of compositions of greater selves. As we now stand, we have seen how the The keys and pedals, indeed, enable the perform-
or less value. First, there was the Donizetti opera, wind or breath, which is to make the pipes sound, er to play any given musical progressions suitable
" II Duca d'Alba." Then Mr. Groes announced has been supplied and placed ready for use. Now to the instrument, but it is the draw-stop action,
that he was on the track of a tenth Schubert sym- let us turn to the player and approach the pipes which gives him full command over the various re-
phony. Now it is a Herr Pressel, of Steglitz, near from his fingers and feet, so to speak. The keys of sources of the vast emporium of tone-producing
Berlin, who is said to have discovered the complete the organ correspond in every way with those of pipes, as supplying the means by which the differ-
and fully instrumented score of Nos. 8 and 9 of Mo- the pianoforte, and the performer of the last named ent tiers and families of pipes from the softest, dis-
zart's " Requiem," in the composer's own hand- instrument comes to the organ with all the requi- tant tones, hidden away as it were in the swell box,
writing. These numbers, the "Domine Jesu " and site knowledge of the relative position of notes and to the roar of the full organ, including every inter-
" Hostias," are among those which it had always the playing of scales and chords, melodies or har- mediate gradation of sound.
been supposed Mozart left unfinished, and which monies, although there are wide differences of touch
The draw-stop action furnishes the necessary
were completed by Siissmayer after his death. The and manner as regards the manipulation—the one mechanism required to draw out or push in the dif-
instrument
speaking
by
means
of
sustained
wind
discovery, if authentic, is important, but it remains
ferent sliders lying beneath the different sets of
to be proved whether or not Herr Pressel's score is power, and the tones from the other arising from pipes. The way the pipes are brought into use, or
the quickly fading vibrations of struck wires. The silenced, is a matter of almost primitive simplicity.
really by Mozart.
different key-boards of the organ are ranged in A slider with holes corresponding with the aper-
Mr. George Grove, the Editor of the admirable steps, which in the more modern instruments over- tures under the pipes and over the pallets, is placed,
" Dictionary of Music and Musicians," now pub- lap each other. As before mentioned, each set of when the stop is drawn, with its movable range of
lishing, has found traces of an unknown symphony keys belongs to a department, or, to speak techni- holes under the openings between the pallets and
by Schubert, which is supposed to exist in the cally, a distinct organ, within the generic meaning the pipes, so that when the pallets are opened by
library of the Musical Society of Vienna. Schu- of the word as applied to the entire instrument. the keys severally connected with them, the wind
bert is known to have dedicated to the Society in The pedals or keys for the feet are made in the passes through the two sets of holes brought into
1826 a symphony which has never been discovered. same way as the keys for the hands, differing chief parallel positions. If the organist desires to shut
It has always been supposed that this was the ly in their greatly increased size, in order that they off a given range of pipes, he does so simply by
grand symphony in C (his ninth), but the first may be more suited to the application of the play- pushing in the draw-stop controlling that particu-
page of that composition bears the date "March, er's feet.
lar range of pipes, and so placing the solid spaces
1828." If the symphony which Schubert dedi-
the slider under the openings between the pipes
The key action of ordinary and simple construe of
cated to the Musical Society was ever delivered,
and the pallet; then, as no wind can pass through,
as there is no reason to doubt that it was, Mr. tion consists principally of the key, stick«r, roller the set of pipes so shut off will be silent. Differ-
Grove hopes that a thorough search in the Society's and tracker; this last communicating directly with ent builders have somewhat different draw-stop
the pull-down attached to the pallet. The action movements. An ordinary plan in a modern organ
library will bring it to light.
works in this order : on pressing down the key of moderate dimensions would be this : a draw-stop
Mme. Marchesi, the famous singing teacher, which is held in its place and works as on a bal rod,
which passes from the knob into the organ a
who counts Mme. Gerster among her pupils ance, on a metal pin or centre, the further end o;
to the refinement acquired by the study of music,
its development as an art increases the general
taste for the good and the beautiful.
MUSICAL CHAT