Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
sharps and flats that would be appreciated
in music hall circles.
"I would not do away with rag-time
music," said Mr. Root.
"If some one
should ask me if I would blot out Mother
Goose's rhymes I would say unhesitatingly
I would not do it. Mother Goose is a good
thing in its way. So is rag-time.
" T o make the matter plain, rag time is
syncopation. All of the great masters
have enjoyed syncopated notes. That is
all right, or the masters would not have
done it. But they did not write all of
their works in syncopation. That shows
that syncopation is good for awhile, but
we do not want too much of it. Now,
Mother Goose's literature is a good thing,
but suppose you had nothing else to read
you would get tired of it after awhile."
" What would you suggest be done about
it ? " he was asked.
" Let it alone. The people who like it
may learn after a while to like something
else better."
"What objection lies against ragtime
music ? "
' ' I t is a repetition of the same thing,
that's all. There is nothing else in the
world the matter with it. As I said, if it
were not a good thing the masters would
not have used it."
Among many oddities of rag time an ex-
ample of its effect may be seen in the set-
ting of "Old Hundred" to that measure.
" There is no such thing as good music
or bad music," said Prof. Emil Liebling.
" You may set good music to bad or vicious
wordings and the music becomes bad by
implication. So with rag time. It is now
lending itself to low vaudeville, in the
main, and because of that association the
music is denounced.
" The song from 'Carmen,' 'Love is a
Wild Bird,' is one of the best examples of
rag time in modern music. In the over-
ture to ' Don Juan,' by Mozart, and in some
compositions of Bach we have good exam-
ples of syncopation.
" Rag time is simply having its day. It
will be forgotten as a craze in a few years."
new operas (oratorios are
S IXTY-NINE
included in the official list) were pro-
duced in Italy last year, but none, it seems,
with any special success. None of the
leading Italian composers, such as Masca-
gni, Puccini, Leoncavallo, nor, of course,
Verdi and Boito, were represented at all.
j*
T H E R E was an interesting discussion in
* last Sunday's World concerning the
subsidizing of the stage, and especially the
operatic stage, by the government as a
means of bringing the best music within
the reach of all the people. Maurice Grau
thinks that there would be both advan-
tages and disadvantages attending the ex-
periment. In the first place, an opera-
house under the control of the Govern-
ment is usually required to present a large
number of the performances in the lan-
guage of the people. "This would be a
distinct advantage, as it would mean opera
in English, something which I have al-
ways advocated and which I should like to
see accomplished," says Mr. Grau.
But before there can be a subsidized
opera house there must be conservatories
of music under Government control. There
are at present several so-called conserva-
tories, which are in reality private enter-
prises. A national conservatory of music
would be a very good thing. It would
necessarily not be a money-making con-
cern ; neither, for that matter, would the
opera houses.
When America becomes a sufficiently
music-loving nation to regard art as a
MME. EMMA EAMES.
necessity rather than a luxury, then official
attention will undoubtedly be given to the
founding of national conservatories. Then,
perhaps, we shall have operas composed by
Americans and sung by American singers.
Most of the countries of the Old World
have subsidized both the dramatic and the
operatic stage.
Private initiative, stimulated by the de-
sire to make money, is best in the opinion
of Chas. Frohman. "Effort," he says,
"balanced by a proportionate amount of
dollars and cents, brings the best results."
The popular and financial success of the
Castle Square Opera Company in this city
tends to support this view.
Nordica, that great and conscientious
artist, herself a "daughter of the people,"
says, "By all means I approve of the sub-
sidized stage for America, and also believe
that a national conservatory of music
would be a very good thing."
Walter Damrosch says the stage should
be subsidized, not by the Government but
by private subscription. D. O. Mills sug-
gests that precisely this condition of things
exists already. " There are thirty-four
stockholders in the Metropolitan Op era-
House, each one of whom has over and
over again, with more or less equanimity
of spirit, put his hand in his pocket to
help great deficits."
T H E copyright of Berlioz's works ex-
* pired in Germany the first of Janu-
ary, and as a result some cheap editions of
compositions have been issued.
Felix
Weingartner, who has edited one of them,
said recently that the French composer's
works had^not yet
received the atten-
tion they deserved.
He c r e d i t s him
w i t h exceptional
originality,
and
pronounces Berlioz
the greatest sym-
phonist since Beet-
hoven and Schu-
bert. This state
ment will of course
offend the follow-
ers of Schuman
and Brahms, Ru-
binstein
and
Tschaikovsky.
n RAISE has
*• been bestowed
unanimously and
deservedly on the
Castle
Square
Opera Co. for its
recent magnificent
p e r f o r m a n c e of
Spinelli's new op-
era, "At the Lower
Harbor." The pro-
duction from every
point of view de-
m o n s t r a t e d the
missionary value
of this institution,
and deserves es-
pecial commenda-
tion by reason of the fact that the produc-
tion of such works is not fraught with
financial gains. It has been proved at the
American, as at the Metropolitan, that
the familiar opera is the best and surest
attraction.
T H E commission for the performance of
'
Italian music at the coming Paris Ex-
position has decided to represent that
country by four of its principal orchestras
—that of Milan under the direction of the
celebrated Toscanini; that of Rome, under
Giovanni Sgambati or Ettore Pinelli; that
of Naples, under Russomani, and that of
Bologna, under Martucci. A special con-
cert of choral music will be given at the
Trocadero by the Roman Choral Society,
under the leadership of Stanisloa Falchi.
In case of an international band contest
Italy is to be represented by her famous
Roman band, already so well known
throughout Europe, directed by Vessella.
The list of Italian operas to be given has
not yet been made up, and the same may
be said of the programs of modern Italian
instrumental music. However, in follow-