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THE MUSIC TRADE PEVTFW
ed, reproduced and disguised in order to
hide their monotonous repetition, with
learned technicalities and cunning har-
monic combinations." "Iris" is to be sung 1
in several Italian cities this winter, but is
not yet announced in Germany. Indeed,
German criticism of the work has not
been kindly.
*
DADEREWSKI'S thoughts are turning
*
to bucolic subjects. He has bought a
farm of several hundred acres and a large
number of books on agriculture in order to
know how to do things. He has acquired a
herd of prize Hertfordshire cattle, is build-
ing wine presses and has stocked a"little
river which runs through the property with
game fish. The farm is in Galicia.
What if the idol of the fair sex should
put on flesh and lose his etherealness and
perhaps his hair through his love for the
bucolic. Heaven defend us from such a
possibility. It would certainly shatter
another ideal of those keenly sensitive
creatures, the matinee girls.
*
T H E contrast between mediaeval ideals
*• of artistic excellence, and the modern
demand for the broadest utility forms the
basis of these well considered remarks in
the Commercial Advertiser of recent date:
In the workshops of Cremona the produc-
tion of perfect violins went on with a
devotion similar to that which inspired Fra
Angelico or Canova. Mechanical construc-
tion had not been modernized, but was
harbored by the guild and profited by its
jealous reserve. There was a pride of
workmanship that consecrated, rather than
attracted, the training of apprentices for
congenial tasks. No one asked how many
violins could be made within a definite
time in that little Italian town, or how
much fine work could be turned out by the
goldsmith's guild, but the product was
judged by its conformity to exacting
standards. The same spirit informed all
the mechanical arts where beauty and
grandeur as well as delicacy of construc-
tion were required. From the illumination
of missals to the building of cathedrals,
there was no sacrifice of an ideal product
to the gradations of public taste, for these
latter could hardly be said to exist. There
was but one rule for all, that of the elect
of the artistic spirit. Those who violated
it were excluded from its blessings. The
people were not consulted by the devotees
of an ideal excellence.
It is not permissible, however, blandly
to dismiss the claims of present day indus-
trialism merely because we haven't more
violin makers like Gemiinder, or gold
workers like Benvenuto Cellini, or because
the only cathedrals worth looking at are
those whose building began from five to
nine hundred years ago.
*
A RT in industry is not displaced but
** only preparing for a new enthrone-
ment, pending the adjustment of condi-
tions. And, after all, it is right to insist
upon the service of art to humanity, and
to demand that, in conformity with true
democracy, it shall descend to all and form
a part of ''joy in widest commonalty
spread." The industrial development
which diverts for an age or two the striv-
ing workers into the production of better
boots and shoes, plows and reapers, cloth-
ing and dwellings, so that the multitude
may have what only the few formerly
possessed, will level the people up to art,
so that art may fulfil her mission.
Health, comfortable living and more
leisure are the preludes of a social harmony
yet to emerge from the seeming conflict of
interests. Instead of contrasting what
many would call the rank industrialism of
the present with the product of a time in
which ideals were aristocratic, it should be
the aim to discern and accentuate the
trend of industrialism toward the realiza-
tion of ideals or the people. The refine-
ment of civilization largely rests upon an
economic basis, and the difficulties of the
unequal apportionment of wealth are
being merged in industrial reconstruction.
We have no cause to lament the loss of
middle-age workmanship, for the spirit
which inspired it will re-appear without
middle-age restrictions.
*
T H E "encore fever" is epidemic this
'
season as never before. It is an un-
usual thing to attend a concert and not
have the usual manifestation of approval
or selfish desire to get more value for the
money or what
We thought a season or two ago that the
encore fever was on the decline but it flour-
ishes as vigorously as ever, though an in-
dignant critic has hurled at them Shak-
spere's disapproval:
'' Enough! No more.
"Pis not so sweet now as it was before."
*
T H E Metropolitan cycle of afternoon per-
formances of Wagner's " Der Ring des
Nibelungen" is appointed for Tuesdays
and Thursdays, Feb. 7, 9, 14 and 16.
"Das Rheingold" is to begin at 2.30
o'clock, " Die Walkiire " and " Siegfried "
at 1 o'clock, and "Die Gotterdammerung '
at 12.45 o'clock. Already the demand for
seats indicates that large audiences may be
expected. The casts are unchanged ex-
cept that the Brunnhilde of "Siegfried"
will be Mine. Nordica, while Mme. Brema
is to have this role in "Gotterdammerung,"
as well as in "Die WalkUre." Even the
audiences will not be wholly new, as some
enthusiasts, fresh from the evening cycle,
have undertaken to go through the mati-
nee series also, from start to finish.
*
A COMMITTEE has been formed for
^ * the erection of a monument to Beet-
hoven at Baden, near Vienna, his favorite
summer resort. It was here that he wrote
some of his greatest works.
*
"THEODORE THOMAS when asked re-
cently for an opinion regarding the
quality of music to be played in the public
parks said: " I believe in free concerts for
the people, but only "when they can be
given in accordance with the highest
standard, on the same principle as giving
free admittance to a gallery of great paint-
ings. Music given in the parks naUirally
must be popular, but at present sickly sen-
timentalism is mostly afforded. Nor is the
execution artistic, but it is commonplace."
This may be true of Chicago but not of
New York. The music in Central Park
last summer, under Prof. Fanciulli's direc-
tion, was in every way satisfactory.
*
T H A T Ethiopian classic colloquially
1
known as "Hot Time" has served in
many capacities during the past six months.
In Cuba and Porto Rico it has been hailed
as a sort of national anthem, its swinging
measure having captivated the natives.
In far-off Manila, according to a letter
from a private in the 13th Minnesota Reg-
iment, the now celebrated melody served
a rather peculiar purpose as related in the
following curious incident: A merchant of
the well-to-do class came to the camp one
day and told of the death of a friend. He
said his friend's last request was that a
certain one of those "beautiful American
tunes" be played during the march to the
cemetery. The messenger did not know
the name of the piece, and the leader of
the regiment band played a few notes from
different selections until he struck " A Hot
Time in the Old Town To-Night." The
native clapped his hands and said that was
the identical tune his dead friend wanted.
It seemed a trifle odd to play that rollick-
ing air at a funeral and the musician en-
deavored to point out the incongruity of it,
but it was no use—"A Hot Time in the
Old Town " was wanted and nothing else.
The obsequies were a big thing and the
members of the band did their best to
keep straight faces as they slowly headed
the procession down the streets, grinding
out as solemly as they could our "new
national anthem." It was probably the
first occasion where " A Hot Time in the
Old Town " did duty as a dirge.
C V E N the production of new operas by
*~^ Giordano and Mascagni has not di-
verted the interest of musical Italy from
the oratorios of Perosi, the priest and com-
poser. They are sung now with great
success in all the Italian cities and the talk
in Italy to-day is chiefly of them. It is
said now that Perosi will go to Germany
in the spring and direct there the perform-
ance of his works.
*
T H E demand in Europe for American
* literature is growing at a rapid pace,
and, according to Mr. Vance Thompson,
promises to equal our own consumption of
the works of European writers. The
American reader whose appetite for the
stories and poems and novels of Kipling,
Anthony Hope, Ian Maclaren, Barrie, and
others, is being constantly whetted and ap-
peased by the magazines, needs to be re-
minded that in England and on the Conti-
nent multitudes of readers are eager for
everything that comes from the pen of
Mark Twain. Bret Harte, Henry James,
Harold Frederick, and others. In Eng-
land to-day there are scores of popular
editions of Longfellow, Fenimore Cooper,
Hawthorne, and Washington Irving.
The foreign critic is a good judge of lit-
erature. He is not influenced bv fads of