Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
anything that is new, is it credible or con-
ceivable that in Germany alone more than
10,000 new pieces and songs should be pro-
duced every year? It must be great fun to
write this music, for certainly there is no
other reward for doing it. I have read
somewhere that in Paris 15,000 trashy
music-hall songs are composed every year.
These are sung 'two or three times, and
then—luckily—forgotten. Regarding Eng-
land I have no figures at hand, but I fre-
quently see in a London journal a column
headed "Music of the Day," the contents
of which indicate that the industry flour-
ishes in that country too. As to the
quality of those songs, we may draw our
inferences from a recent communication
by a London publisher to the " Musical
Times." An attempt had been made to
issue collections of high class songs by the
best English composers, but as the writer
adds, his experience was not an encourag-
ing one—
" The public has not, to any appreciative
extent, responded to our efforts, and vo-
calists, with a few praiseworthy exceptions,
while speaking enthusiastically of our
' specially selected ' songs, decline to sing
them without being paid for so doing.
While the popular taste remains as it is,
publishers are obviously unable to expend
large sums in paying vocalists to sing what
their audiences do not want and are unable
to appreciate. When vocalists will be satis-
fied with their concert engagement fees and
siug high-class songs for the love of their
art, then we may reasonably hope for a
better state of things to prevail; but, unti
then, the publishers of ' artistic' work
must content themselves with the thought
that they are devoting energy and capital
toward bringing about this much-desired
improvement, for that is all the compensa-
tion they are likely to get at present."
Composers often lament and scold, and
wonder why the publishers are so unwill-
JUANITO MANEN.
ing to print what they consider their best
other infant phenomena that have visited efforts. The passage just quoted throws
us. But he is indisputably more musical light on that unwillingness.
in matters of rhythm, expression, phrasing.
The human race has made considerable
He plays with greater taste, with less ex- progress since the days when it lived on
travagance, than is the case with some of trees like its simian cousins. Most people
his rivals. Undoubtedly with years he will already know enough to prefer a good
gain in tone and emotion. He played piece of beef to a bad piece, a good potato
soberly, without antics, without the intol- to a bad one. After a million more years
erable bravado that characterizes so many of evolution they will also have learned to
boy fiddlers, boy pianists, and boy sopranos. prefer good books to bad books, and good
He is a healthy, modest youth, whose music to bad music.
actual performance commands respect and
When that time arrives women will not
whose future is not merely a wild guess.
wear big hats in the theatres and opera
0
houses.
A CLEVER BOY VIOLINIST.
Juanito Manen, the Spanish boy violin-
ist, has met with extraordinary success in
his present concert tour of this .country.
He is only thirteen years old, and judging
from the flattering tributes paid him by
the critics he seems destined to attain
prominent distinction in the musical
world. In a recent performance in Boston
he created quite a furore. The distin-
guished critic of the Boston Journal com-
mented as follows on his playing:
Young Mr. Manen, we have all been told
by no less a critic than Queen Maria Chris-
tina of Spain, is " a gift of God to the
world." The old saw concerning the gift-
horse is immediately brought to mind; but
Mr. Manen can bear tolerably close inspec-
tion. His technique, though it is often
surprisingly good fora youth of his age, is
not so well-rounded or amazing as that of
WHY PUBLISHERS REFUSE.
To a philosophical observer there is a
gleam of hope. The fact that so many
millions of people will persist in making a
crude sort of music shows that an immense
amount of raw material exists in the world.
If this raw material could be refined and
worked up into fine fabrics, what a flourish-
ing art music would be!
Under present conditions I do not un-
derstand how it is that music exists and
progresses at all, says a writer in "Looker
On." Since nobody ever sings or plays
the size of the brain itself. The effect on
the cerebral circulation was variable, the
vessels being sometimes constricted and
sometimes dilated. At other times no ef-
fect was produced.
MM. Binet and Courtier experimented on
a musician. Isolated notes, chords in uni-
son and discords were first tried. Both
major chords struck in a lively manner and
discords quickened the respiration, the lat-
ter more especially. Minor chords tended
to retard respiration. When melodies were
tried it was found that all, whether grave
or a
g y> produced quickened respiration and
increased action of the heart. The lively
tunes produced the greatest acceleration.
The subject also sometimes unconsciously
endeavored to synchronize his respiration,
with those of the singer. In rallentando
and diminuendo passages the respiration
was retarded. Where the sound was whol-
ly uncomplicated by emotional ideas, as in
single notes or chords, the heart's action
was accelerated, but not in so marked a de-
gree as when a melody either grave or gay
was played. During operatic pieces or
those well known to the subject the accel-
eration attained its maximum. The sub-
ject had a strongly marked capillary pulse.
The influence of music on the capillary cir-
culation was tested by a plethysmograph
attached to the right hand. The capillary
tracing usually showed a diminution of pul-
sation. This diminution was occasioned by
the sound of single notes, chords or dis-
cords. In sad melodies, especial!) 7 minor
ones, there was almost no diminution,
while in lively airs the diminution was
marked.
0
A very melodious and ''catchy '" set of
waltzes entitled " Cuba Libre " has been
sent us by A. R. Shaw, Latrobe, Pa. They
are of medium difficulty. The Cuban flag
in colors adorns the title page.
W. W. Whitney, of Toledo, O., have
favored us with some of their recent pub-
lications, which are of the popular order.
They are entitled, " Mother's Bow of Rib-
bon White," "The Bottom of the Old Oaken
Bucket," "You Did the Same Thing Too,"
and " Gone the Preacher's Way."
Lillian Blauvelt, the favorite prima
donna, recently visited Bermuda, and was
entertained by the Governor-General and
the elite of that beautiful island. She is
now in the States filling a cumber of im-
portant engagements.
The Kneisel Quartet, the well-known
chamber
music organization, will make a
INFLUENCE OF HUSIC.
tour
to
the
Pacific Coast next September
MM. Binet and J. Courtier give in the
and
October,
immediately after its return
Revue Scientifique an account, translated
from
a
London
engagement.
for the London Lancet, of experiments
made by themselves and others on human
The fragment of an opera begun by Wag-
beings and animals of the effects of music ner in 1843 and never finished, called "Die
on the heart and respiration. M. Patrizi, Hochzeit," has been purchased by an Eng-
an Italian physiologist, had a patient with a lish woman for $500.
wound in the skull which laid bare the
Plunket Greene, the Irish basso, gave
brain. He was thus enabled to observe the
actual effect of music on the cerebral circu- two concerts at the Carnegie Lyceum Tues-
lation. Music occasioned an increase in day and Wednesday of this week.
0