Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
fried" will be sung on Tuesday, Jan. 19
The performance will begin at 7 and con-
clude at 11.50. The afternoon perform-
ance will commence at 1 o'clock and con-
clude at 5.50. " Gotterdammerung " will
commence at the evening performance
on Jan. 24 at 6.45, and end at 11.45. It
will be sung on Thursday afternoon, Feb.
16. The curtain will rise at 12.45 a n d fall
for the last time at 5.45. New scenery
and costumes are promised, with the best
Wagnerian singers in the company.
*
A VERY interesting piano and song re-
**• cital was given recently at Middletown,
N. Y., by Mr. Harvey Wickham and Mr. Ion
Jackson. Dr. Jackson has won himself an
enviable position among native tenors, and
Mr. Wickham, who at one time figured as
organist and pianist, is now wise enough
to devote himself entirely to the piano.
Mr. Wickham also conducted a very siic-
cessful performance of Dudley Buck's can-
tata, " T h e Coming of the King," at Mid-
dletown, on the evening of Nov. 19. The
audience was a crowded one, taxing the
seating capacity of the building.
*
T H E announcement of Mme. Patti's en-
*
gagement to Baron Cederstrom, a
Swedish gentleman, has been a much dis-
cussed topic of interest in the musical and
newspaper world for the past couple of
weeks. Twice she has been betrothed by
rumor within the past two months, once to
an Irish musician, the second time to a
Danish Count. The papers are teeming
with stories about how very happy Mme.
Patti is over her approaching marriage.
Were she contemplating a visit to this
country we would almost be inclined to
think the press agent was a factor in the
publication of some of the silly " g u s h "
which is appearing daily.
*
H A U L KALISCH, the tenor, whose mar-
*
riage to Lilli Lehmann when the prima
donna was at the height of her fame here
some years ago created a sensation, may
accompany his wife when she comes to sing
at the Metropolitan. Manager Grau wants
him to sing a few times, and he is trying
to obtain permission from the Cologne
Opera House, where he is now engaged.
*
T H E following curiosity or rather parody
*
of analytical programs, written in
1854 by the western humorist, John
Phoenix, has been unearthed by Philip
Hale.
The composition is entitled The
Plains: Ode—Symphonic par Jabez Tar-
box:
The symphonie opens upon the wide
and boundless plains in longitude 115 de-
grees west, latitude 35 degrees, 21 minutes,
03 seconds north, and about sixty miles
from the west banks of Pitt River. These
data are beautifully and clearly expressed
by a long (topographically) drawn note
from a B-flat clarinet. The sandy nature
of the soil, sparsely dotted with bunches
of cactus and artemisia, the extended
view, flat and unbroken to the horizon save
by the rising smoke in the extreme verge,
denoting the vicinity of a Pi Utah village,
are represented by the bass drum. A few
notes on the piccolo call the attention to a
solitary antelope picking up mescal beans
in the foreground. The sun, having an
altitude of 36 degrees 27 minutes, blazes
down upon the scene in indescribable
majesty.
' ' Gradually the sounds roll forth
in a song " of rejoicing to the God of Day:
Of thy intensity,
And great immensity
Now then we sing,
Beholding in gratitude
Thee in this latitude,
Curious thing.
which swells into "Hey Jim along, Jim
along Josey," then decrescendo, mas o
menos, pocopocita, dies away and dries up.
*
JGNACE PADEREWSKI is said to have
1 changed his mind about the produc-
tion of his opera "Stanislaus," in Dres-
den. It was due there early this month,
December, but the report now is that after
the rehearsals were well under way the
tor, organizer and manager. Among the
recent honors which have fallen to the lot
of Colonel De Frece was his election last
week as one of the trustees of the New
York Press Club.
*
T H E New York papers may crack all the
*• jokes they want to at the expense of
Boston's municipal band and municipal ad-
vocacy and support of good music, but the
fact stands nevertheless that the " H u b "
is showing an example of what can be ac-
complished in every city were the proper
men in charge of municipal affairs.
We must admit it would be an anom-
aly were our city fathers to take any step
whereby the masses of the people could
enjoy good music at a small cash out-
lay, or free of charge, or take action to
regulate and refine public music. They
would be more in their element at the race
course or in beer-selling. Hence it is re-
freshing to read once in a while that there
is a city where the interests of the people
are taken into consideration, therefore we
doff our hat to Boston.
The action of the Boston Music Com-
mission last week in making a personal
examination of the piano-organs played in
that city, is a commendable one. The
aims of the body of examiners and licens-
ers is thus set forth by the Hon. J. Thomas
Baldwin, of the Music Commission.
The idea of having these instruments
tuned by direction of the city of Boston
may strike a good part of the public as
laughable and, perhaps, absurd. But, as
a matter of fact, there's no nonsense in the
proposition. When people become accus-
tomed to an instrument out of tune they
usually prefer it to one in tune. Now, the
Commission proposes that all street musi-
cal instruments which are licensed shall be
in tune; and the tuner or tuners must have
the approval of the Commission, must be
licensed. If people could come to know
when an instrument is in tune they would
COL. A. B. DE FRECE.
protest against street pianos and other
things out of tune; they would prefer to
pianist decided to postpone the perform-
hear a classic piece of music in tune than
ance, as his engagements in Russia pre- a rollicking melody out of tune.
vented him from attending the rehearsals,
The great trouble nowadays with many
a condition on which he made the perform- of our public writers is that a worthy cause
ance depend.
is apt to be satirized and buffooned while
the grossest public abuses are glossed
L. A. B. D F FRECE who is widely over.
known and exceedingly popular in
journalistic and social circles, is also a
YMILLY
BURMEISTER, the violinist,
composer of many meritorious musical
arrived from Europe the earl)'- days
compositions which bid fair to win no little
of the week and is scheduled to make his
popularity.
Some of his most recent
first appearance in Boston to-day with the
works, published by Wm. A. Pond & Co.,
Boston Symphony Orchestra and at Carne-
of this city, are the " Eulalia Waltz,"
gie Hall this city on Dec. 14, with the same
" Edith Quickstep " (dedicated to Mrs. Geo.
organization.
J. Gould), "Our Own Waltz " (dedicated to
*
Chauncey M. Depcw), "Bow of Orange
ONUMENTS to Caesar Franck,Chopin
Ribbon Waltz" and " Electra Patrol"
and Gounod are to be erected soon
(dedicated to Commodore Elbridge T.
Gerry.)
These numbers arc exceedingly in Paris. Doubtless Caesar Franck would
captivating in melody and admirably ar- have preferred an occasional performance
of one of his works while he lived to any
ranged. They afford substantial proof of
the genial Colonel's versatility in the field number of monuments after death. Near-
ly all the prominent musicians of Paris—
of musical composition.
Col. De Frece has always been a warm including Massenet, Dubois, Reyer and
supporter of matters musical, and his Widor—have become members of the com-
counsel and aid have been solicited on mittee. Saint-Saens alone declined. He
many occasions in public affairs where he acknowledges that Franck was certainly
has demonstrated his ability as an origina- an artist, but considers that his influence
M