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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
It is evident that this organization is
now placed on a substantial footing, and it
should be accorded the heartiest support
by teachers who have at heart the advance-
ment of their profession. The old saying
has it that "in union there is strength"
and in this age of concentration it is par-
ticularly true. The musician as well as
the manufacturer can best advance their
interests by coming together for one com-
mon purpose and by discussion of the evils
which prevail in their respective callings,
reach such conclusions as in the opinion
of the majority are best calculated to be
remedial. The next convention will be
held at Richmond, Va.
and most delicate effects, must feel what
he is playing, identify himself absolutely
with his work, be in sympathy with the
composition in its entirety, as well as with
its every shade of expression. Only so
shall he speak to that immense audience
which ever attends on perfect art. Yet—
and here is a paradox, indeed—he must
put his own personality resolutely, tri-
umphantly into his interpretation of the
composer's ideas, in the same manner as,
for example, a great actor like Sir Henry
Irving gives us, in that wonderful portrait
of Louis XI, the senile monarch, cowardly,
despicable, and—himself.
" Beethoven I have always regarded as
the most soul-satisfying of composers for
T R E A T I N G of primitive language, Chas. the piano. He was the master harmonist,
* Johnson, a well-known philologist, and we must all reverence his memory—
holds that besides the mere variation and
repetition of simple sounds, in itself a
very rich resource, the primeval tongue
was rich in many other resources. It had
a very wide ran»ge of tone. The men of
old sang up and down the scale, instead of
merely dragging their words evenly across
it as we do. And one must go to a land
where the tone element still survives to
realize what a very rich resource this
would be. Take the Siamese, for in-
stance, who have a rich diapason of
tones, and listen to them singing to
each other rather than speaking, and one
realizes how much music can be in speech.
Gaelic, to come nearer home, has much the
same element, and that musical element
IGNACE PADEREWSKI.
has come clear through into the modern
dialects, in which English vocables are no, not his memory, for how can it be said
overlaid on Gaelic sounds. Thus Cork and of such a towering genius that he is dead?
Kerry at the one end, and Fifeshire and Upon his brow there rests the fadeless gar-
Edinburgh at the other, have a definite land of immortal fame. He speaks to us
melody in every phrase. And so it was in in music, he lives in sounds that ravish us
the primeval tongue—to the almost infinite to hear!"
The piano comes in for this graceful
expressiveness of speech itself was added
the quite infinite expressiveness of music. tribute at the hands of the great virtuoso:
"Assuredly, the pianoforte is the great-
And all our music is a development of
this early power in speech, which has been est of musical instruments. Its powers,
gradually dying out of our speaking as it who has yet been able to test them to the
has grown into song. Many old tongues full? Its limitations, who shall define them?
kept it, but for holy uses. It ranged from No sooner does one fancy that nothing
pianissimo to fortissimo, and added a new further can be done to enhance its possi-
richness to expression. If music be mag- bilities, than inventive ability steps for-
ical, touching the emotions directly, then ward and gives to it a greater volume, a
the oldest speech was full of magic; and more velvety smoothness of tone."
Of the true mission of music, Mr. Pader-
we may well describe it by saying that
it consisted of streams of vowels set to ewski holds that it should speak not only
music, with all the qualities of tone, melody, to the intellect, but to the emotions as well.
stress, and time which music possesses. It should, in the words of Mr. Gilder's
beautiful poem on Chopin, have a voice
^ JF I were asked to name the chief qual- "too tender even for sorrow, too bright
•* ification of a great pianist, apart for mirth." It should sustain and cheer
from technical excellence, I should answer us, even while we are touched with a vague
in a word, Genius!" said I. J. Paderewski melancholy. It should ennoble. In this
in a recent issue of the Independent. connection he says: " I am no prophet,
"That is the spark which fires every heart, still I hardly think it probable that
that is the voice which all men stop to the future will witness any very rad-
hear! Lacking genius, your pianist is ical change in the manner of express-
simply a player—an artist, perhaps—whose ing musical ideas. Sensuousness is a
work is politely listened to or admired in marked characteristic of a great deal of
moderation as a musical tour de force. He the music of our time, and undoubtedly
leaves his hearers cold, nor is the appeal makes a potent appeal to a large section of
which he makes through the medium of the public. However, pure intellectuality
his art a universal one. And here let me in pianoforte and other music still finds
say, referring to the celebrated 'paradox'of its eagerly appreciative, if limited, audi-
Diderot, that I am firmly of the belief that ence. As to a general comparison of the
the pianist, in order to produce the finest music of the old composers with that of
the moderns, what can one say but this:
A man is not necessarily a master because
he happened to compose two or three cen-
turies ago. Much that was written then
was worthless, and long since has gone
down to ' dusty death '; other things were
truly fine and have survived. Let us be-
ware of the worship of mere antiquity."
T H E Manuscript Society of New York,
*• has returned to its original title and
discarded the name "The Society of Amer-
ican Musicians and Composers." It has
elected the following officers for the sea-
son of 1900-01; President, Frank Dam-
rosch; First Vice-President, John L. Bur-
dett; Second Vice-President, Bruno Oscar
Klein; Corresponding Secretary, Lucien
G. Chaffin; Recording Secretary, J. Haz-
ard Wilson; Treasurer, Louis R. Dressier;
Board of Directors, Homer N. Bartlett,
Edward Baxter Felton, E. L. Horsman,
Jr., Carl V. Bachmund, Eduardo Marzo,
Gerrit Smith ; three vacancies in the board
to be filled later. The society proposes,
with the resumption of the old name, to
return more to the original purposes of the
society as they were understood in the
earlier years of its existence. Six private
and two public concerts will be given an-
nually and a return will be made to the
former rates of dues. The society's chief
object will still be the advancement of
American music and the programs will be
made up with this end in view.
T H E date for the opening of the Savage-
* Grau English Opera Co. at the Met-
ropolitan Opera House has been fixed for
Oct. 1. The season will run for eleven
weeks, ending on Dec. 15. The Grand
Opera Co. will then begin. On Easter
Monday, April 8, 1901, the English com-
pany, will return for its spring series of
performances. The orchestra is to num-
ber fifty musicians, conducted by Mr. Sep-
pilli. The chorus will have seventy-five
singers. Three operas will be sung each
week.
Henry W. Savage has cabled from Ber-
lin that he has signed Lloyd d'Aubigny for
the Metropolitan English Company. Mr.
d'Aubigny is the tenor who made such an
excellent impression in such roles as Faust
in "Faust,"and David, in "Meistersing-
er," at the Metropolitan two years ago,
T H E chief difficulty in the way of study-
* ing historical musical literature is the
giving of sufficient time to the topic,
where time is, as it is with most of us
a consideration. But a little system in ar-
ranging one's leisure moments easily over-
comes this. The student should always
have at least one musical book of a histor-
ical nature "on hand." There are hun-
dreds of opportunities for the perusal of
such. If we have an entertaining novel
to read we manage to get through it some-
how—and that often in a remarkably short
time, even at a busy period.
The instrumentalist would find it a won-
derful rest if, when the energies show
signs of fatigue during practice hours, he
would take up a well written biography,
or a work such as Crowest's "Great Tone