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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
leadership of Prof. A. H. Rose wig, who is
well known as having been connected with
some of the largest musical features which
have taken place in the Eastern States
within the last few years.
In the organization and training of the
great chorus choir, Prof. Rosewig will be
assisted by Edmund J. Holden, the well-
known director of the choir of the Church
of the Gesu in Philadelphia.
Following the United States Marine
Band, which will play during the opening
week will be Sousa's for an engagement of
equal length, and afterward the Banda
Rossa, which, playing from Oct. ist to 7th,
will be succeeded by the United States
Marine Band in a return engagement.
Other prominent musical organizations of
the country which will assist in the enter-
tainment of sightseers at the big show will
be the Damrosch Orchestra, the First Reg-
iment Band of the National Guard of
Pennsylvania, Dan Godfrey's Coldstream
Guard Band, Innes's Concert Band, and
the Municipal Band of Philadelphia, which
has been engaged to play for four weeks
in morning concerts, both in the Audito-
rium and in the Implement Building.
plaint is said to be the
T HE Zulu following
National anthem:
Pooza, pooza, mushla pooza!
Manzi? manzi? Ka, ka, ka!
Yabo, lapa is maninga
Upi? Wena to de bar.
Susa all sabenza, Umfaan,
Isinkwa peleele O!
But de pooza, lubly pooza,
Mali make it mushla flow.
Some of our enterprising rag-time com-
posers should set these words to music.
The language is certainly as comprehen-
sible and as euphonious as the words of
the innumerable rag-time songs which a
long-suffering public is compelled to en-
dure without any prospect of redress.
*
HTHE amateur musician has much to be
'
grateful for and much to regret. His
art is inspiriting, and if he is of the right
kind he daily communes with genius and
stores his mind with lofty thoughts and
gorgeous emotions. On the other hand,
however, the amateur is punished by hav-
ing friends abundant, officious and over-
kind ; and these friends deal with the ama-
teur in a manner that is very suggestive
of cruelty. They have a decided mania
for giving advice, and their advice is al-
ways opposed to the amateur's cherished
convictions. They may not have studied
music, but they pride themselves on their
taste and experience, and they convert
their prejudices into the profoundest can-
ons of criticism.
According to this criticism, whatever
the amateur does he does badly, whatever
he likes he should have disliked. His
method is always false; his teacher is just
the teacher he should have avoided. Is he
a piano player? Then the Frankenstein of
a Bach is raised to haunt him, notwith-
standing that he may be a profound stu-
dent of this composer. When the friend
of an amateur has nothing else to suggest
he suggests Bach. "You play well," says
the friend, "but your fingers need unlim-
bering; you need style, grace, light and
shade, and deftness of execution. Study in light and grand opera a few years ago;
Bach! Divine Bach! "
under the instruction of such an eminent
*
master as Henschel, she has broadened in
T H E advice is good, says a London paper her art and commands a new measure of
1 especially if it has not been already appreciation.
followed, but it wearies the poor amateur
*
through its monotonous repetition. At 1VTOVELTIES which have never been
the start he may have worshipped the *• ^ heard before, or are new in the Eng-
great genius, but he is human, and a con- lish language, will form a regular feature
tinuous diet of Bach, like a diet of part- of the winter program of that enterprising
ridge is wearying to the nerves. But the organization the Castle Square Opera Co.
advice is not confined to this item: it be- The selection of " Die Meistersinger " in
gins with music and includes everything English for the opening performance at
else connected with the life history of the the American is sufficient evidence of an
amateur. Ordinarily the advisers are ignor- intention to make ambitious efforts to en-
ant of the subject in which they play the large the field of the company's work.
part adviser, but there is agrafe of torture Operas in English, as well as operas in
French and German, please
New Yorkers more when they
are old friends. It is doubt-
less true that the management
finds the greatest profit from
the works most familiar to the
public. "Faust," "Lohen-
grin" and "Carmen" are the
favorites there, just as they are
at the Metropolitan. Efforts
to vary the repertoire with
new or unfamiliar works do
not always meet with popular
response. But the necessity
of widening the field is recog-
nized, and for that reason the
list of works to be sung next
winter will be found to con-
tain several operas that have
not been heard before at the
American or any other New
York theatre. The list of
novelties announced is as fol-
lows: " Tannhauser," "The
Flying Dutchman," " D e r
• Freischutz," "Don Giovan-
ni," "Ernani," " T h e Star
JULIETTE CORDKN-POND.
of
the
North,"
" T h e Yeomen of the
beyond this when the adviser is a profes-
Guard,"
"
The
Princess
of Trebizonde,"
sional musician. For it is a curious fact
"
L
a
Tarantella,"
"The
Highway
Knight."
that a musician by profession has not the
"Mascot,"
"Nanon,"
"Iolanthe,"
"Falka,"
slightest respect for the amateur, even
and
"Die
Fledermaus."
Other
works
to
though the latter be the better artist. In
be
revived
are
"
Romeo
and
Juliet,"
the hands of the professional, the amateur
is goaded to despair, his art becomes a "Lohengrin," " Maritana," " L a Gio-
rack that tortures him and his aspirations conda," " Fra Diavolo," "Faust," "Mar-
weights to drag him to perdition. To the tha," " La Boheme," " Lucia di Lam-
musician by profession the amateur at best mermoor," "Carmen," " Rigoletto," and
is only an evil to be tolerated, an evil that " I Pagliacci." Some of the perform-
pays a certain amount of money for in- ances will be interesting, whatever the
struction, and has no other use in the manner of their performance may be.
world. Space, however, is lacking in Meyerbeer's " T h e Star of the North " has
which to record the various species of gra- not been heard for years in New York.
tuitous advice showered on the amateur, An opera by Felix Mendelssohn, never
advice that occasionally crushes him, and given here, is promised by the manage-
more rarely is of positive advantage. In ment. The Castle Square deserves to
art, as in business, it is always wise to have the support of the public in the effort
suspect what is given freely, especially to give these new works. Fortunately,
when the giver has greater skill in words old favorites are always at hand for
than in ideas.
revival.
*
JULIETTE CORDEN-POND, who for \ H C T O R HERBERT is amazing every-
^ the past three years has been studying
* one these days by the fecundity
in London with Geo. Henschel, and who of his genius. He has not been con-
has also been heard in concerts under his tent with furnishing us with the scores
direction, will be a prominent figure in the of four new comic operas this season,
concert field the coming season. The close but he has just finished an orchestral
of last year she was heard in some of the suite entitled, " Liebes Verklarung"
prominent Eastern and Western cities, win- (Love's Transfiguration), which will be
ning a large measure of success. Juliette played by the Pittsburg Orchestra under
Corden-Pond's name was a prominent one Mr. Herbert's direction. Evidently this