Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
TELEPHONE
NUMBER.
1745—EIGHTEENTH
STREET.
CROM all points of view the present
*
opera season is more brilliant than
any of its predecessors. It bids fair to be-
come historic.
The performances are a
sequence of artistic gratifications. There
are blemishes, weaknesses and defects, but
none so prominent or important as to
diminish the general pleasure. The aver-
age man is indifferent to standards, and he
cares not if the high mark which has been
set for grand opera in New York is not
always attained. He is content to revel in
the song of the great singers and to find
his ideas realized. With these facts before
him the critic has his troubles, for it is
difficult to be carping when every one else
is enthusiastic. As usual with performances
of opera in New York, the shortcomings
are in details most easily remedied.
Some very excellent and timely com-
ments on the lack of attention to these es-
sential details were made recently by a
writer to the World, who said :
"There is no good reason why the or-
chestral department should not be as satis-
fying as the corps of principal singers.
The individual instrumentalists are at
hand.
More preparation is needed and
the selection of conductors should be
governed by the same rules as govern
the choice of singers. There is no ex-
cuse for a state of things which leads
to constant differences of opinions between
those on the stage and the man in the
leader's chair. With the many eminent
maestri of to-day it is a paradox that the
singing of the greatest contemporary art-
ists should be directed by men whose work
ranges from indifference to incompetency.
"With the extravagance which marks
the support of opera here, there should
certainly be the resources for the forma-
tion of a chorus equal to the choruses of
the old world's opera houses. The ballet
corps is a non-essential at the local opera
house. American audiences associate the
pointing prima ballerina assoluta with
spectacular extravaganza, the coryphees
with comic opera and the pirouetting male
dancer with the circus. They almost re-
sent the introduction of these people into
the scenes of opera.
The manager can
hardly be blamed if he ignores this depart-
ment of his forces. He contents himself
with such pro forma performances as are
illustrated in the absurd dance in Queen
Marguerite's gardens and the sparsely at-
tended Bacchanale on the Yenusberg."
I T is certainly gratifying to find in the
* army reorganization bills now before
Congress adequate provision for regimen-
tal bands. Heretofore these bodies have
had no official existence. The men were
privates detailed from the several com-
panies with the army musician's monthly
pay of $15. The Board of Officers added
to this amount from the regimental fund a
sum sufficient to procure the enlistment
of trained instrumentalists. The scheme
now is to provide each regiment with a band
of from 30 to 36 pieces, the men to receive
adequate pay. It must be remembered that
in Europe military bands are permitted to
add to their income by outside engage-
ment. In this country this permission has
been denied, owing to the opposition of the
musical
unions. Now that American
bands have contributed to the success of
American arms, have stimulated the fight-
ing men with stirring tunes, have trumpet-
ed victory, have also done service as hos-
pital assistants and in one case dropping
their instruments and picking up rifles
taken from their dead and wounded com-
rades, charged up San Juan Hill, there is
no one who will oppose their recognition.
*
T H A T celebrated artist, Mme. Teresa
*
Carreno, well entitled a true Amazon
of the keyboard, occupies the place of
honor on our cover page this month. This
fascinating and charming pianiste is at the
very apogee of her fame, her art and her
life. She is scheduled to arrive in this
country to-morrow and will make her first
appearance with the Cincinnati Symphony
Orchestra on Friday and Saturday, Jan.
13th and 14th. She will appear in all of
the Western cities and will give four recit-
als in San Francisco, week of February
6th. She also plays with the Thomas Chi-
cago Orchestra; eight times with the Bos-
ton Symphony in Boston, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, New York, Brooklyn and Prov-
idence, and with the New York Philhar-
monic. Her time is practically all filled.
She will be heard for the first time in this
country in the D minor Concerto by Mac-
Dowel], opus 23, which she will play with
all the orchestras.
Carreno was a wonder-child and it is the
opinion of the most eminent critics of
to-day that she is a wonder-woman. Her
programs are rich in variety and versatile
are her readings of Bach, Beethoven,
Schumann, Liszt, Chopin and Brahms.
She is eminently a progressive artist, hav-
ing an instinctive horror of the rut, of the
conventional.
She possesses enormous
advantages over the mere virtuoso by rea-
son of her enormous vitality, warm heart
and keen brain.
There is a tropical color in her playing
in sympathy with her bearing and southern
birth. A distinguished critic says: " T o
hear her play the first movement of the
Rubinstein D minor Concerto is to listen
to Rubinstein. He said so himself. And
with what unparalleled audacity Carreno
attacks a Liszt rhapsody! Her native en-
durance and power of restraint enable her
to preserve a fine tonal balance and pro-
found sense of repose while riding the
whirlwinds of modern masters of the piano.
She is an unique artist, an unique individu-
ality."
We understand it is not unlikely that
Mr. Willy Burmester and Mme. Carreno
will give a few recitals together in the
larger cities.
T H E affinity between man's hirsute
*
adornment and music has long been
the subject of comment, humorous and
serious.
Now it is announced after an
anthropological study on Mozart's ear that
there is some connection between the form
of ear and the musical faculty. The fact
that the great composer had ears of a pe-
culiar shape supports such an idea which
rests, however, on a very slender basis of
fact, as there have been few opportunities
of establishing the truth.
Mozart's ears, according to Dr. Gerber,
who is the atithor of the following 1 hypoth-
esis, were of the broad type, especially seen
in the lower race of man, as, for instance,
in negroes, and must, therefore, be looked
upon as a mark of a low grade of develop-
ment. While the normal ear is curved in
beautiful lines and has a longish form,
Mozart's ear was flat, presenting obtuse
angles instead of curves, so that it might
be described as misshapen. The complete
want of lobe is a well-known mark of low
development, especially when, as in the
case of Mozart, it occurs in connection
with a broad ear. It is surely an example
of nature's irony that the man whose inner
ear was of the very highest grade of de-
velopment had an outer ear misshapen to
the point of ugliness, but of a retrograde
type generally found only in the lowest
savages.
*
/CONDUCTOR Emil Paur and his Sym-
^-^ phony Orchestra will be heard in
their third concert at Carnegie Hall this
evening. William Sherwood is the solo
pianist for the occasion, his selection of
music being the concerto for pianoforte in
A minor, op. 54, of Schumann.
The
orchestra will play Beethoven's "Pastoral
Symphony," the "Roman Carnival" over-
ture of Hector Berlioz, and a new "Suite
Orientale," op. 20, of M. Iwanoff. Of this
last number the several movements are
"Alia Marcia," "Surle Bosphore," "Danse
Orientale," "Reverie" and "Au Harem."
The diversions of Beethoven's symphony,
from its "Cheerful Sensations on Arriving
in the Country" to its "Glad and Thankful
Feelings After the Storm," are not unfa-
miliar.
A FAMOUS musician says that 50 per cent.
**• of the Germans understand music,
16 per cent, of the French and 2 per cent,
of the English. Where, O where, do
the Americans come in? If the " famous
musician" is not contemplating a tour of
this country, he should not hesitate to
give us a "rating."
*
O influence can be brought into a home
more elevating and refining than
music, but too often the acquiring of
musical skill and knowledge by a child or
young person is given a wrong motive.
The knowledge is valued as a means of
attracting attention to self rather than to
the making of life to self and to others
more lovely and cheerful. The power to
create sweet melodies for others to enjoy
should be a great and unselfish pleasure.
Too rarely is the musical education used
for the brightening of the home.
Too
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