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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
TELEPHONE
NUMBER.
<745--EiaHTEENTH
STREET
The musical supplement to The Review is
published on the first Saturday of each month.
IN view of the many suggestions made in
* these columns anent the advisability of
the Board of Education inaugurating in
this city a course of classical concerts dur-
ing- the winter nights, to take place in our
public schools, it is interesting to note that
free concerts of classical music for the
working classes have met with great suc-
cess in Germany. Since Easter Day, 1898,
twenty-four concerts have been given be-
fore about 56,000 hearers, who were almost
entirely workingmen. In Leipsic, Ham-
burg, Cologne, Frankfort, Vienna and
other cities, the scheme was a complete
success. But it met with failure in
Munich, and the conclusion of the official
inquiry into the question was that music
without beer was not regarded as possible
in the Bavarian capital. The report of the
investigators of this subject in Germany
was strongly against the union of beer and
classical music, on the ground that this
combination did nothing to raise the hear-
ers to the level of the music, but rather
profaned the art. This answer was given
to the inquiry as to the nature of the good
results that came from giving the working
man the advantage of hearing classical
music for nothing. " I n those hours in
which Beethoven or Haendel speaks to him
there comes to the laboring man the idea
that there is a force which cannot be esti-
mated in wages, and of labor not to be paid
for by the hour."
that has commanded the admiration of our be admitted that at none of them was the
best musicians as it has evoked well-mer- enormous scope of the present Saengerfest
ited compliments on the part of emi- reunion reached.
nent critics. His nightly concerts at St.
The influence exercised by these great
Nicholas Garden are deservedly attracting singing societies, in which our citizens of
large audiences. This in a measure is due German birth and extraction have played
to Mr. Kaltenborn's skill as a program and are playing such a prominent part,
maker. He has the faculty of being able has been most potent in developing musi-
to cater to a miscellaneous assemblage of cal taste and appreciation in this country.
music lovers, and is able to please the mass- In the early years they brought to their
es as well as his more cultivated listeners. adopted land that love for music which is
The devotees of Wagner have every characteristic of the race, and their various
week a night to themselves, as have the organizations have been the nucleus of
lovers of symphony; the admirers of more many of the male choruses to be found to-
popular music are looked after another day in the West and other parts of the
evening", while through the week the gen- United States. The growth in years agone
eral program is a happy blending of the of these singing societies in various cities
first and last. Eminent vocal and instru- of the union resulted in time in annual re-
mental soloists have been heard during the unions, or festivals of song, the first occur-
past few weeks, and, taken altogether, ring in Philadelphia in 1850. This was the
there is no entertainment in the city that germ of the great gathering which closed
is better deserving of the success with its sessions this week in our sister borough
which it is meeting than Mr. Kaltenborn's. "over the bridge."
We are pleased to learn that the season
Anyone who has studied the evolution
thus far has proved distinctly better than of musical taste in this country, must ac-
the same period of last year. This is as it knowledge the obligation which we are
should be, for concerts such as Mr. Kalten- under to these great singing societies.
born is giving are educating, refining, and They have been instrumental in inculcat-
tend to inculcate a better appreciation ing a love for the "divine art" which has
of music among our people. An excellent been transmitted from sire to son. There
portrait of Mr. Kaltenborn appears on the are few customs transplanted from the
cover page of this issue.
German fatherland to this great republic
that
we should more dearly cherish than
/~"\NE of the commonest mistakes, and
these
reunions of song. They are invigor-
^—^ one of the costliest, is thinking that
ating
and point to a higher civilization.
success is due to some genius, some music,
something or other which we do not pos-
sess. Success is generally due to holding
on and failure to letting go. You decide
to learn a language, study music, take a
course of reading, train yourself physi-
cally. Will it be success or failure? It
depends upon how much pluck and per-
severance that word "decide" contains.
The decision that nothing can overrule, the
grip that nothing can detach, will bring
""THE summer is again with us, and mu- success. Remember the Chinese proverb,
* sic, good, bad and indifferent, is to be "With time and patience the mulberry
heard at the innumerable resorts which leaf becomes satin."
are catering to the musical appetites of
our people during the torrid weather. It T H E nineteenth German singing festival
*• and celebration of the fiftieth anni-
is evident, judging from the menu served
up at the roof gardens, that the frequenters versary of the Northeastern Saengerbund,
are not over fastidious in their tastes, as which has been holding forth the greater
hackneyed and inane bills apparently sat- part of this week at the Thirteenth Regi-
isfy. Here variety holds the boards while ment Armory, Brooklyn, has been a source
in two resorts light opera, metamorphosed of great interest to music lovers. About
172 different singing societies have been in
to suit occasion, is in evidence.
The only high-class summer entertain- attendance, and the arrangements made to
ment in the city is that offered by the Kal- entertain visitors were in every respect per-
tenborn Orchestra at the St. Nicholas Gar- fect. The programs were of unusual ex-
den, where programs of especial excellence cellence, the choruses splendidly drilled
embracing numbers from the severely and of great magnitude, and the attend-
classical to the more popular music of the ance tremendous—in fact, all preceding
Strauss order are to be heard. Mr. Kal- Saengerfests were surpassed in splendor
tenborn has brought together a splendid and originality. To President Saenger and
organization and both solo and ensemble his associates much credit is due. The
former especially was instrumental in se-
work are highly satisfactory.
This popular conductor and violinist is a curing the trophy presented by the German
unique and individual figure in New York's Emperor, which was duly competed for
musical life. He has won his way to a this week—the material value of which ex-
prominent position in the musical world ceeds $10,000. We have had great festivals
without considerable blaring of trumpets. from time to time under the direction of
As conductor of the Kaltenborn Orchestra Theodore Thomas and the late Dr. Dam-
as well as in connection with the quartet rosch, with a brilliant line of soloists, mon-
which bears his name, he has done work strous choruses and orchestra, but it must
are rarely heard in New
N EW York operas
nowadays, and the reason for
this deficiency in its supply of musical di-
version is the indifference of the public to
new operatic creations. No other city in
the world spends so much money as New
York on its opera, or, to speak more ex-
actly, on its opera singers; for if the pub-
lic here is indifferent to new works, it is
exacting to a degree unknown elsewhere
as to the qtiality of the singers who inter-
pret the music. They must be the best
that the opera stage has produced, and the
singers of this rank must have every im-
portant role in the opera. It is not enough
that one or two of them take part in a rep-
resentation. There must always be a group.
So if New York does without novelty in its
supply of music, it at least hears its favor-
ite works sung as they are nowhere else.
That new works are not produced here
is entirely the result of experience which
has proved beyond a doubt that only to its
favorite repertoire will the public turn out
in large numbers. The indifference here
is as great at first performances as at all
others, however successful the work may
be from a critical standpoint. In Europe
impresarios give new works because they
are certain of at least one large audience.
A new work given for the first time is al-
ways sure to be heard by a large gathering.
If the opera is a failure there will be no
repetition of this audience. But public
curiosity in musical matters is always suf-
ficient to insure for the first hearing of a
work a considerable audience. New York
is not alone in appreciating the old works
so much more than the new ones that the