Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
out" the management,and he significantly
remarks: ' ' If I were a man who sought to
make a purely selfish application of the law
of supply and demand, I might have used
the fact that M. Alvarez and M. Van Dyck
will not be available next season as justifi-
cation for demanding increased terms."
Regarding the general question of sal-
aries, he makes the following argument,
which is convincing and which will meet
with the approval of those who have de-
voted years of study and effort to their
art:
" When a singer has devoted twenty-five
years to the earnest, serious, thoughtful,
expensive and trying study of voice art,
and his efforts have been crowned with
what the public have been pleased to call
success, don't you think that the singer's
services are worthy whatever they will
bring in the open market?"
" Should he not ask as much as managers
are willing to pay, just as he should be
content to receive as little as his place can
be filled for?
"Are the artists of the Metropolitan re-
ceiving too much in salary if they can
draw an audience that pays for their
salaries and a profit besides? "
A WORD WITH YOU.
Commencing with this issue The Key-
note, or the literary and musical features
peculiar to that magazine, become incor-
porated with The Music Trade Review.
This amalgamation will be effected
every month, so that The Keynote sub-
scribers virtually receive their paper as
heretofore. Meanwhile much of vital in-
terest will be found in the trade depart-
ment. The development of the music trade
industry, bringing new names ever to the
front, and the many technical improve-
ments which come to the surface from time
to time and with which every musician
should keep in touch, will be found accu-
rately reported. In this way our readers
will gain a valuable knowledge of the man-
©
ufacture and advancement of the instru-
It may now be almost considered an
ments with which he is constantly associ- axiom that the best books make the
ated in his sphere of activity. It will be worst dramas on record. Its truth has
our aim to strengthen the musical depart- been demonstrated in a couple of instances
ment so that it will increase in importance; in this city recently. There is good reason
gaining a wider and more comprehensive for this. The art of the novelist is to delay
his secret; the art of the dramatist is to
scope.
betray it. The best and most interesting
We feel that the new move will be bene- book is the one that delays the surprises
ficial to our readers and advertisers. until the last page. The worst play is the
Both publications will gain in force. The one that refuses to tell the secret until five
subscribers will receive increased value, minutes before the curtain falls on the last
while the advantage to advertisers is so ob- act. The reader of novels likes to dawdle
over the story and to prolong the agony.
vious that little need be said in this con-
The spectator of plays loves to be wiser
nection.
than the puppets before him and to watch
©
them dallying. No one has ever drama-
The question of salaries paid operatic tized Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" or
artists has been agitated a good deal lately, "Esmond." Yet both stories teem with
and the idea is general that they are re- dramatic situations and surprises. We
ceiving excessive incomes which are sup- could enumerate others, but it is unneces-
posed to be wrung from a reluctant public. sary. It is safe meanwhile to never ex-
In last Sunday's " Herald" Jean De Reszke pect a good dramatization of a good book.
undertakes to make a defense in which he
0
claims that the singer "is worthy of his
Dr. Paul Riverra-, a learned physician of
hire."
Munich, is the author of a novel method
In answer to the charge that his salary of treatment called " music cure " for cer-
($1,250 a night) in this country is double tain ailments to which flesh is heir. Music
that received in Europe he says: " I receive as a therapeutic is not new, but the Doc-
a guarantee for the same amount a night in tor's method is, and in the opinion of con-
this country as I do in the principal ceded authorities it will revolutionize the
countries in Europe plus twenty-five per treatment of certain diseases. The suc-
cent, on the gross receipts over $5,500."
cess of the new treatment has been so pro-
This, by the way, is less than he received nounced that a '' music cure " hospital has
in former seasons. He also adds that he been established in Munich which is being
has never received an increase of salary well patronized. During the last twelve
since he appeared in this country, and that months some of the most eminent mu-
were he to consult his own inclinations and sicians in the United States have advo-
personal comfort, coupled with best busi- cated music as a curative agency in one
ness interests, his engagements in Europe form or another, and singers and instru-
would be far more preferable.
mentalists have been employed to charm
He also formally announces that he has away pain with marked success. In the
consented to return to America next course of time we can expect that every
autumn on the present terms, to ' ' help hospital will employ a medico-musical ex-
pert who will utilize effectively, and let us
hope successfully,the "charms that soothe."
0
Mme. Lilli Lehman, who is appearing
with the Damrosch Opera Company, has
the reputation of being unnecessarily parsi-
monious. However that may be, she is at
all events thoroughly wide awake in a
business way and knows how to "turn a
penny." A tew weeks ago while chatting
with a prominent writer who is editing a
musical work for a publishing house in
this city she mentioned that some time
since she arranged for a valuable literary
contribution from Lehman, which, as a
matter of course, was to be " s p e c i a l ; "
imagine her surprise a few weeks later to
discover that a syndicate had issued the
same article to the press of the United
States. Upon inquiry it was learned that
Lehman had given the so-called exclusive
article to a syndicate, receiving, well—.
Mme. Lehman's voice may be criticised,
but her business methods are certainly up-
to-date.
0
A report comes from London which will
doubtless greatly alarm the managers of
musical entertainments. A large depart-
ment store has added singers, players, and
combinations to its bargain lists. In its
catalogue No. 69 is our friend the violinist
Johannes Wolf, at 315 shillings; No. 122 is
that excellent tenor Ben Davies, at 1,050s.;
No. 141 is Miss Clara Butt, contralto; No.
131 a banjo and vocal trio, etc. This sug-
gests a happy thought, says the Evening
Post. It is well known that the depart-
ment stores usually sell things more cheaply
than other stores. Why not retire all the
special "musical bureaus" and put our
opera singers into their hands? That may
be the only possible solution of the opera
problem, which is becoming more problem-
atic every year, owing to the evident de-
termination of the singers to kill by their
growing greed the bird which lays the
golden eggs.
o
The one hundredth anniversary of Schu-
bert's birth was fittingly celebrated the
closing day of last month in all parts of
the world. In this country we have had
memorial concerts galore; in Germany
the) T had a Schubert centennial exhibition
where more than two thousand different
objects of interest were to be seen, while
our English cousins honored the memory
of the great lieder writer as much as the
Germans. This is fitting, because to two
Englishmen, Sir Arthur Sullivan and Sir
Geo. Grove, is due the credit of having
rescued some of Schubert's best works
from oblivion.
o
The season of German grand opera to
be given at the Metropolitan Opera House
under the direction of Walter Damrosch,
beginning March 8, promises to be one of
the most brilliant engagements ever given
by this enterprising conductor in New
York. The subscription sale, and the ap-
plications for choice sittings which have
been received, already assure its success.