Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
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WHY THE OLD PREVAILS.
A correspondent inquires why it is that
concert programs, not only here, but else-
where, continue to present so much music
that is old and so little that is new. The
only answer appears to be that the old mu-
sic is more worth the hearing than is the
greater part of the new. A vast quantity
of music is written, but little of it lives;
there are many fine musicians, but few of
them write masterpieces. Countless sym-
phonies have been produced since the time
of Mendelssohn by composers eminent in
their art, but between the time of that
master and the present the especially no-
table works in the field of symphony, works
about which the future is likely to trouble
itself, may be counted on the fingers of
one hand. A return must always be made
to the old because the new gives no accept-
able equivalent for it. Brahms has pro-
duced works of this order that will prob-
ably survive, and Raff has composed one
or two, and Rubinstein one that, perhaps,
may linger through the ages, but the great
mass of symphonies that have been pro-
duced since Schumann and Mendelssohn
are destined to exist only in the libraries
of the collectors, and yet hundreds of ex-
cellent symphonies, perfect in workman-
ship, faultless in technique, admirable in
musicianship, have been written and
played, only to fall into obscurity after a
brief career. Knowledge does much, in-
vention does much, but it is now difficult
to find something new to say in symphony,
and more difficult still, after having found
it, to say it in a manner that shall cause it
to live. Not many years ago Spohr was a
name to conjure with. He wrote nine
great symphonies, but they have all disap-
peared. His fourth, "The Consecration of
Sound," is sometimes heard, but rarely.
His thirty-four string quartets have gone
in the same direction, and of his 154 works,
with opus numbers, scarcely one survives
vigorously. He is as much underrated now
as he was once overrated. Complainings
continually go forth from solo violinists of
the scarcity of violin concertos, but how
seldom do they take refuge in the seven-
teen compositions of this kind written by
this master of the violin?
The musical seasons are changing in Lon-
don. According to the Daily News: "The
spring and late autumn are becoming far
more important than the summer for the
higher class of concerts, and accordingly
the Philharmonic for the first time in its
history of nearly eighty-five years will give
performances in ^October and November.
This progressive policy will likewise show
how little there is left of that crusted con-
servatism which nearly wrecked the soci-
ety in 1883. The present directors have in
fact by liberal enterprise quite rejuvenated
this time-honored institution, which is now'
in the most flourishing condition."
o
Ysaye, the famous Belgian violinist, has
been engaged for a tour of the United
States during the coming winter. His
success two years ago was one of the most
notable ever achieved by an instrumen-
talist in this country.
So it is with concertos for the piano. Bee-
thoven is constantly played; Chopin sur-
vives, also Mendelssohn, weakly; Schu-
mann's one work in this kind lives, but of
the myriads of concertos for this instru-
ment, how few are heard, and how seldom !
Field lives in his nocturnes, but his seven
concertos have vanished. Ferdinand Reis,
a pupil of Beethoven, composed nine con-
certos. One of them in C sharp minor, and
another in E flat are not greatly inferior
to the works of the same order written by
his master, and yet they are no more.
Hummel's seven grand concertos, and some
really fine concertos byWoelfl, Dussek and
Moschelles have gone down among the
dead men.
It is almost appalling to reflect on the
merciless treatment to which time subjects
works that in their day bade fair to enjoy
immortality. How many names such as
DONIZETTI'S CENTENNIAL.
Admirers of Donizetti, one of the most
popular Italian dramatic composers, have
arranged to hold a Centennial celebration
in his honor in his native town, Bergamo,
Italy, next August. The Festival is of
especial interest inasmuch as Mme. Lillian
GAETANO DONIZETTI.
Blauvelt, as announced elsewhere, has been
engaged to participate.
Donizetti died about 1850. Of the sixty
or seventy operas which he composed eight
or ten have enjoyed a great popularity in the
opera loving cities of Europe and America.
" Lucrezia Borgia " and "Lucia di Lam-
mermoor " have been universally admired,
while the "Filledu Regiment," "Linda
di Chamounix," " Maria di Rohan,"
" Roberto Devereux " and several others
of his operas, besides the above named,
are all associated with the triumphs of the
great singers of the middle of the nine-
teenth century.
those of Kalliwoda, Lindpainter, who were
famous in their lives, are almost forgotten.
How much will posterity remember of the
Reineckes, the Bargiels, and the Volk-
mannsof ourtime, despite the accuracy and
the skill with which they have written?
Of all the vast number of admirable quar-
tets composed by Boccherini, only a min-
uet survives. In music, as in other things,
the law of the survival of the fittest pre-
vails, and yet it is not easy to concede that
all which has not survived is to be classed
with the unfittest. Something is to be at-
tributed to the change in musical fashion,
and yet though Gluck lives, it cannot be
said that Piccini has been justly doomed to
pass out of view.
Some one has said that music is to be
divided into "musickini, music and music-
issimus," and that the last alone has the
good fortune to pass down to posterity. All
which is discouraging to those who, with
the best intention in the world, backed even
by the most profound knowledge and per-
fect skill in manifesting it, can only achieve
"musickini" and music. Hence is it that
the foundation of our various concert pro-
grams must continue to be the compara-
tively few great works that have stood the
test of time and been acknowledged as the
masterpieces of musical art. It is noteasy
to write a great symphony, because all or
nearly all that a symphony can say has
been exhausted, and from the tendency of
modern art it does not appear that the pro-
duction of works in this class will become
any easier, notwithstanding the fact that
contemporary composers capable of writ-
ing a symphony are, as a rule, better
founded in the theory and practice of
counterpoint than was Beethoven, and are
more deeply grounded in a knowledge of
orchestral resources than was he. We have
perhaps our full share of finely educated
musicians, but we have fewer geniuses;
more of music that is perfunctory, but less
that is spontaneous.
©
A counterpart of Trilby has appeared in
the person of Mrs. Annie B. Gage of this
city, who has developed the faculty of be-
ing able to sing Italian and French songs
of "ye olden time" while in a hypnotic
state, although in her natural condition
she does not speak either language. It
seems that the hypnotic condition is
brought about by a certain chord in the
piano, when she claims to be under the in-
fluence of a great French vocalist—a favor-
ite of a century ago. The special gifts
with which Mrs. Gage is endowed devel-
oped about ten years ago. She has given
a number of exhibitions, but so far in pri-
vate.
©
Mile. Alice Verlet will not sail for Lon-
don until June 23, owing to numerous en-
gagements. Mr. Thrane announces that a
few desirable dates are still available in the
last week of June.
©
Almost two thousand tickets at $5.00
each were sold two weeks ago for this sum-
mer's Wagner performances at Bayreuth.