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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
nEMORY MAY BE CULTIVATED.
You can cultivate your memory just as
you can cultivate your muscle, and it will
improve steadily up to a certain point.
The science of memories, as it is called,
has recently been; studied anew in Europe,
where some surprising results were
achieved in the experiments that were
tried. It has been found, for instance,
that a man who had a poor memory from
youth was enabled to so strengthen his
mind by assiduous cultivation that he
could, without the slightest apparent
trouble, recall minute facts, giving dates
and names. He could recite whole pas-
sages, word for word, after readinga book.
A French scientist, however, has pointed
out that this is done at the expense of other
intellectual powers, and that the whole of
the man's mental energy had been diverted
to a single channel. He was so busy re-
membering dates and names in history that
he forgot his dinner. It has also been
claimed that a memory for minute facts is
cultivated at the expense of the judgment,
and that a due sense of the proportion of
large events rarely accompanies the recol-
lection of names and dates.
Here are four fundamental facts to be
borne in mind by those who would im-
prove a bad memory:
First—That our remembrance of any-
thing depends principally on the force,
duration or iteration of attention we de-
vote to it.
Second—That the habit of attention in-
creases with acts of attention.
Third—That ideas are recalled by ideas
which by likeness, contrast, or otherwise,
are adapted to suggest them.
Fourth—That the faculty of remember-
ing is strengthened by efforts of remem-
bering.
Some men have a remarkable memory
for names; others can as readily recall
dates as numbers. There are others who
can neither recall names nor dates, but
who never forget a face.
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PIZZICATOS.
which it is proposed to hold at Bayreuth
next year. The affair has not yet been
settled, but if he should decide to sing there
he and Edouard de Reszke will cancel their
London engagement. On September 8
Jean de Reszke will sing before the Czar
at Warsaw.
Lamoureux, the French maestro, has
abandoned his annual series of concerts in
Paris. For seventeen years these concerts
have been important events in the musical
life of the French capital. Lamoureux
will ever be famous for his championship
of Wagner. He not only kept him on his
concert programs until opposition was
silenced, but he produced " Lohengrin "
in 1886 at the old Eden Theatre in the
face of a mob's violence.
Sir Arthur Sullivan has set to music the
" Recessional," Rudyard Kipling's latest
poem, composed in honor of the Queen's
Jubilee.
Chas. Henry Marcy, a well-known teacher
and composer of many popular composi-
tions, died at his home in Brooklyn, on
July 27.
Mme. Helen Hopekirk and Carl Baer-
man will be members of the faculty of the
New England Conservatory the coming
year. George W. Chadwick is to be the
director.
The chime of nineteen bells recently
imported from France for St. Patrick's
R. C. Cathedral will be formally blessed by
Archbishop Corrigan on August 18. It is
The Viennese composer Bruckner, who
expected they will prove to be the finest in died a few months ago, was noted for his
the city.
bashfulness. It is related that when the
The "normal pitch"—diapason normal University of Vienna made him an honor-
—is making such headway in European ary doctor, he got up, after receiving his
countries that foreign musical journals are diploma, to make a few remarks. But the
of the opinion that it will soon be known words stuck in his throat, and he could not
as the "international pitch." Let the utter two coherent sentences. Finally he
good work proceed.
exclaimed, "If I only had my organ here,
William C. Carl, the celebrated organist, I would know how to express myself," and
sailed last week for a trip through Norway, sat down.
Sweden, and Denmark, and will return the
If reports and published statements are
last week of September. Mr. Carl is to be credited Gilmore's Band has been
arranging a repertoire for an extensive reorganized, with T. A. Couturier, the
concert tour in addition to the annual organ famous bandmaster, as its conductor. Mr.
series of organ concerts in the old First Couturier has bought from Mrs. Gilmore
Church.
the complete library used by P. S. Gilmore.
Alexander Wheelock Thayer, of Boston, The band comprises fifty members, and
who died recently in Trieste, was known will start on a tour of the United States
chiefly by the great biography of Bee- and Canada early in the fall under the
thoven to which he gave the greater part management of Thomas Ebert. This
of his life. The work, though it has been means another "live" competitor to Sousa,
left incomplete, is still the standard biogra- Herbert, Brooks, Innes and others.
phy of Beethoven. Mr. Thayer left $30,-
The N. Y. State Music Teachers' Asso-
000 to Harvard College, his alma mater.
ciation closed a three days' convention in
Light opera, which for years has been Binghamton, July 9. The following offi-
a feature of the torrid spell in New York, cers for the ensuing year were elected:
has not materialized so far this year. Had President, Sumner Salter, of New York;
theatre managers a "tip" from St. Swithin secretary-treasurer, F. W. Riesberg, of
they would have been more agreeable to New York; program committee, J. De Zie-
"chancing it" on light opera than on roof linski, of Buffalo, W. H. Hoerrner, of
gardens, which, owing to the weather, Binghamton, and L. A. Russell, of New
have been decided failures.
York; delegates to National Convention,
The thirty-ninth Birmingham triennial Prof. G. C. Gow, Mr. Brewer, Mr. Wilder
musical festival will occur October 5 to and Miss Crane. It was decided to hold
8. It promises to be exceptionally attrac- the next year's convention in Binghamton.
tive in the way of notable vocalists and pro-
Says Mr. Henri Falcke, the French
gram. There will be a chorus of 360 voices. pianist: "Will you think it strange if I
The festival will open with 4< Elijah." say to you that Sarah Bernhardt has been
New works will be contributed by Edward my best piano professor? Her diction,
German, Prof. Stanford (Requiem Mass), her declamation, her tranquillity, her free-
and Arthur Somerveil (Cantata).
dom of thought in uttering lines, were a
The opera season at Covent Garden, revelation to me in musical expression. I
London, has resulted, it is said, in a hand- learned what phrasing meant in 'Cleopatra,'
some profit to the syndicate. Mr. Grau and lost sight of bars and notes in 'Feodora'
says he will have the de Reszkes and all and ' Gismonda.' Much irregularity and
the other male singers next year, and pos- feebleness of touch come from a habit pupils
sibly Tamagno. He expects also to have have of pressing the keys but part way
Melba, Eames, Calve and Nordica. He down, with the idea of making a light
will return to New York in October to tone. The keys must be pressed quite to
consult with the Metropolitan directors as the bottom, and the tone made to depend
to the New York season of 1898.
on the force, or sentiment of force, rather.
Jean de Reszke has been asked to take I am convinced that the wrist has more to
the parts of Tristan and Parsifal in a do with piano touch than is realized by
{Continued on Page /j.)
special performance of Wagner's operas