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lems in every sphere of human activity,
have made the study of the mechanics of
piano-playing something depending entire-
ly on mental determination and physical
endurance.
Any one possessing certain physical qual-
ities—hands of the proper shape, fingers
of the requisite length, a good digestion,
good general health, nerves that are under
control, and who is equipped mentally, with
patience, perseverance and self-confidence
—will now-a-days, after a certain number
of years of study under efficient direction,
acquire a degree of technical proficiency
which not so many years ago would have
been considered as approaching the marvel-
lous. Of course, a little bit of predisposi-
tion toward music, some ambition and con-
scientiousness too, must be assumed to exist
in the student.
The logical outcome of this plethora of
technicists among pianists has been the
transfer of critical consideration of pianists
from the form to the substance of their
achievements.
They are graded and
judged now by the intellectual and emo-
tional qualities of their art, bv their greater
or lesser degree of individuality. Modes
and methods are estimated merely as
mediums; the crucial points are the thought,
the feeling, the expression—in other words,
the human factors.
A N important move for the reformation
**• of church music has been ordered by
Catholic Church authorities. The change
is the result of the work of a commission
of investigation, which spent two years in
a complete criticism of the works in most
popular use for church services.
Members of the commission discovered
many works in which part of the liturgical
text is omitted. In others it is garbled and
unintelligible, or has unauthorized verbal
additions. Music that is frivolous and un-
becoming is also noted as wedded to the
text.
Archbishop Elder, of Cincinnati, who is
now the senior prelate of the Catholic hier-
archy in the United States, has therefore
issued a circular letter, in which he for-
bids the use of many popular masses,
among them these well-known composi-
tions:—
By Joseph Haydn.—Mass No. 2 kyrie, credo de-
fective in text and benedictus too long; mass No.
3, kyrie, credo defective in text and benedictus '00
long; mass No. 7, credo, garbling of words; mass
No. 8, gloria, credo defective in text and benedictus
too frivolous.
By Mozart.—Mass No. 5 credo garbled ; masses
Nos. 7 and 8 kyrie, gloria, credo defective in text;
mass No. 9, kyrie, gloria, credo defective in text;
mass No. 10, kyrie defective in text; gloria, credo,
words garbled; mass No. 11, kyrie, gloria, credo
defective in text; masses Nos. 12 and 14, kyrie de-
fective in text.
By Weber.—Mass in E flat, gloria, agnus Dei
defective in text; credo, inserting words.
By Marzo.—Mass in F, gloria, sanctus, inserting
words; credo defective in text.
By Millard.—Mass in G, agnus Dei defective in
text; mass in B flat, credo defective in text.
By Peters.—Mass in D, gloria defective in text.
By A. H. Rosewig.- Mass in G, gloria, credo,
sanctus, agnus Dei defective in text.
By F. X. Schmidt.—Mass in E flat, kyrie, gloria
defective in text.
By Stearn.—Guardian Angel mass, gloria, beue-
dictus, agnus Dei; Festival mass, kyrie, gloria,
agnus Dei defective in text.
The ban on these works began on the
first Sunday of Advent, Dec. 3. If any of
the rejected pieces shall be corrected they
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
must not be used until they have been re-
submitted to the Music Committee and ap-
proved by it.
A LTHOUGH Wagner never was in this
^*- country, the possibility of his coming
over here is referred to often in his pub-
lished correspondence, saysGustave Kobbe.
In fact, he made America a srtand-and-de-
liver argument with his friends, several
times threatening to forever put aside his
" Ring of the Nibelungs " and to cross the
ocean to earn a competency unless they
contributed to his support.
That Wagner regarded America as a
gold mine well worth exploitation by for-
eign artists appears from a letter which in
1848 he wrote to Franz Loebmann, music
director at Riga, whose brother wanted
financial assistance to go to America with
an orchestra. Wagner advised Loebmann
to assist his brother. He instances the
ELIZABETH PATTERSON,
case of a German musician who went to
America as a poor man, and in a very short
time was in receipt of an excellent income;
adding that a whole orchestra would cer-
tainly be still more lucky, for "in a coun-
try where villages are constantly growing
into cities in five years there can be no lack
of opportunities for the settlement of whole
bands of musicians." Could anything be
more deliciously naive than this last quo-
tation?
N American artist who has brought and
is bringing credit to herself and her
native land is Miss Elizabeth Patterson,
soprano. 'Tis true, she has the great ad-
vantage of being a protege of Madame
Melba, having been heard with the prima
donna in concert in this country, and, also
during the Queen's Jubilee in London, but
it must be admitted that she has won her
present position owing to her widely con-
ceded vocal gifts. During the past three
months she has been on a professional visit
to England, singing in London and other
prominent cities. Her American tournee,
for which engagements have been booked
by Manager Young, opens at once, Miss
Patterson having just returned to the
United States.
A
j*
A
N American paper published in Paris
recently put forward a project to have
the music for the Exposition cantata se-
lected after a competition open to the mu-
sicians of all countries. An inquiry made
among musicians and Exposition officials
finds them unanimously against the pro-
ject. They want to have the music written
by a Frenchman.
The poem, which has
already been accepted, is by Botrel, an ec-
centric character known all over Paris as
the "Briton Bard."
is
P°P ular
Thomas, in a lecture in Chicago
recently. "The man who never enters the
concert hall will answer, ' It is music like
" The Star-Spangled Banner " o r " Home,
Sweet Home," or "Marching Through
Georgia," stirring, familiar strains such as
we all know and love.' A second man, who
went to the old Summer-night concerts of
bygone years, will reply: ' It is music like
the Largo, the "Spring Song," "Traume-
rei," tender flowers of melody, which touch
our hearts and which we know and love.'
Still a third, more advanced than the fore-
going, will say, 'It is music like Beetho-
ven's immortal Fifth Symphony, great
thought expressed in simple, direct form,
which appeals alike to heart and brain,
and which we all know and love.'
"And thus, as a musician recently said
in my hearing, 'You will always find that
each person will describe as "popular
music" that which is most familiar to him,
and if all the symphonies were as familiar
to the general public as the composition
just mentioned, they would at once be
classed as "popular music."' The pro-
grams that are usually considered popular
include five symphonies—Beethoven's Fifth,
Tschaikowsky's Fifth or Sixth, Schubert's
Eighth, or Unfinished; Dvorak's 'New
World,' the other numbers being really all
short single pieces such as the 'Tann-
haeuser' overture, the Chopin Funeral
March and Polonaise, the 'Peer Gynt' suite,
'Overture, 1812,' and the like."
j*
T I ERE is an interesting anecdote of
* 1 Gladstone and Disraeli. At Baron
Meyer de Rothschild's house, during dinner,
Disraeli said that the process of musical
composition had always been a matter of
mystery to him. Sullivan tried to explain it,
pointing out that the composer heard in his
mind every combination of notes, as though
they were sounded just as the author thinks
he hears the words he is writing, and so
on. A few nights afterwards Sir Arthur
met Gladstone, who put the same question
to him. "I set out to give much the same
reply that I had given Disraeli, but I had
not uttered six words before Gladstone in-
terrupted me, and proceeded to give an
eloquent discourse upon the subject of mu-
sical composition. He was very animate^,
and it was very interesting."
I OOK1NG through our European e*.
*-^ changes we find that our friends on
the other side of the "big pond" are rather
amused at the idea that Mr. Grau was dis-
satisfied with the $TOO,OOO he took in at
Chicago in three weeks. A critic points
out that that sum exceeds the total receipts
of many an Italian opera-house for the
entire season. This may be so but then
Mr. Grau's company is ten times more ex-