Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
8
orchestra consisted
of a viol da gamba,
-harpsichord, double guitar, two flutes, but
no violins.
The representation included
A PLAIN TALK TO VOCAL STUDENTS.
f
BY THE EDITOR.
decoration much like stage setting, chorus
a la antique, and although it was presented
at the Church of La Vallicella analogous
dances were presented, as this was the cus-
tom even in church services, dancing hav-
ing been part of the religious ceremonies.
The musical construction was very simple;
there were many choruses, but they were
all written in plain counterpoint with a
single fugue or imitation; consequently the
words were very distinct.
There were no
arias and few recitatives.
A ND now a woman comes to the rescue
of her sex who has never known a
comfortable moment at theatre or concert
since the hat law has been so rigidly en-
forced.
With all the polite printed matter
concerning ' ' checking hats without charge"
the wary woman knows that it will cost her
a round quarter, and considering the rush
in the dressing-room she keeps her quarter
and her hat likewise.
But Miss Ottenhei-
mer, of San Francisco, Cal., shows a de-
vice for holding the feminine headgear in
the safest manner possible; and if some
enterprising
manager would
adopt this
very ingenious invention there is no doubt
that he would capture all the business for
the hat question is a very trying one to all
theatre-goers of the fair sex.
•*.
A LL rules have their exceptions, as now
we learn that all artists did not die
paupers.
Paganini could not only draw a
house by playing on one string but he
could also draw his cheque for several hun-
dred thousand, and at his death he left his
only son two million francs and the title of
nobility.
The inventory of Brahms' ef-
fects shows that he left about $80,000 in
the bank.
Among other things were a
number of
drawings, water colors and
modern engravings, honorary medals, a
library of 488 volumes, mostly on music;
letters from contemporary composers and
virtuosi, and upward of two hundred musi-
cal autographs of great value, Beethoven,
Mozart,
Haydn,
Schubert,
Schumann,
Weber, Chopin and Wagner being repre-
sented.
JESSICA DE WOLF.
'"THE Handel and Haydn Society of Bos-
*
ton has engaged Jessica De Wolf to
sing the soprano part in the Messiah Dec.
25. This splendid singer goes West to
sing the Elijah in Minneapolis Dec. 4.
She also has some Persian Garden dates
pending. Mrs. De Wolf sang the Persian
Garden in London among the very earliest
presentations of this cycle.
Sembrich and the opera company under
Graff's management are to arrive this
week.
ARTICLE HI.
It may be that some of you feel that I
have wandered far from the subject, but I
have not, as you will please remember that
we are now dealing with the voice as a
manner of expression. Expression of what?
Expression of ourselves of course. No—
you say expression of the composer. Yes,
truly, but of ourselves first, for we select,
and in our selection we prove what we are.
You cannot imagine a lively, flighty girl
with thoughts no higher than a two-step,
or a waltz, enter into the noble portals of
a Beethoven sonata. It is impossible. To
her, Beethoven is an abomination—dry,
dull, insufferably stupid.
Neither can it be reversed, for one who
can give herself body and soul to the great
master's works cannot satisfy her hunger
with trifles.
But you say you liked trifles once and
by continued study of music, you like a
higher class of work now. Then rejoice
and be happy, for it is not your musical
taste alone that is growing better and
broader, it is your character; it is your
mind ; it is yourself.
Have you any idea what an influ-
ence over your character a teacher has?
Well, that teacher who is constantly
leading you to higher musical results is
also little by little molding your nature to
the best in life. Unfortunately the re-
verse is also the case, but of that it is need-
less to speak. So to return to the subject
we will accept, if you please, the fact that
our selection first represents ourselves,
our musical taste. It does when it is made
in a truly musical sense.
But stop to consider how often selections
are made because some one else had suc-
cess in a certain song. You do not stop to
think that she is a colorature and yours is
a dramatic voice, and that her tempera-
ment and style are light and airy, and
your style is impassioned and broad. You
with the power to do great, magnificent
things will take that feathery, light
frivolity, and you will give it weight,
you can not help it, and fire, you could
not sing it otherwise, and when you
are through with it, it will be so
distorted, so unlike what it was intended
to be that it will be laughable indeed, quite
as much so as if the light, flexible, high
delicate voice would attempt some big dra-
matic aria. I do not mean operatic arias;
most of them are written for the light high
soprano.
The impossibility to sing in both styles
never was better shown than in the case of
Melba when she essayed the role of Brun-
hilde in Siegfried. To those who know
the superb art which is hers in her own
genre, the fiasco of that night will never
be forgotten. Sembrich is perhaps the
best singer known who sings either style
with success, yet she has never attempted
Wagner, and probably never will.
Too much thought cannot be given to
this side of the question, as it is all-impor-
tant and one upon which some students
are very stubborn. When a singer has ac-
complished certain things in vocalism, in
technic, she feels satisfied that she is
equipped to meet any emergency.
She
sings in public—something is missing, she
does not know what it is, the audience
hardly knows, for she has a beautiful voice
and uses it well, but there is something
lacking and that lack leaves audience and
critics cold and unsatisfied. She has over-
looked everything but tone production.
That her audience desires to hear the
words, and to know that she is fitting the
music to those words never enters her
head, neither does she fit them; to her the
words mean nothing except a vehicle to
carry her tone production. She would just
as well sing in Italian, or in Welch for that
matter; the words amount to nothing.
Then where is there any chance for style
and interpretation? These are totally miss-
ing and that beautiful voice, with years of
study, has failed to interest a single hearer,
and why? Because, young lady, you have
neglected the diction, you swallow half of
your words, the other half you chew; you
have no style because you make no connec-
tion between words and music; you have
no interpretation and your singing means
nothing. If a mechanical instrument could
be devised to present a perfect human
voice it would sound like your voice, which
is beautiful, and cold, and uninteresting,
and lifeless.
This, then, has been a hasty glance at
the voice as a means of expression, and,
although it has been touched in a most
meagre way, there is enough to be of use
to any one who takes it seriously. The
voice as a musical instrument is the most
neglected side with the average singer, for
this brings true musicianship into play. It
seems impossible to make a singer under-
stand that he should be a musician as well
as'a singer, and that perfect art can only
come from perfect musicianship. If a vo-
cal student be requested to hear music the
extent of the endeavor will be to hear a
few singers.
The symphony, chamber
music, piano recitals are unheard of for
him; he does not enjoy them, and he will
not educate himself to that point. A vocal
work is to him merely a vehicle in which to
carry a voice, that it is a form of music
never enters his head. Even the opera is
regarded by most of the singers as a com-
modity to exploit their voices and their
dramatic ability; as a musical entity it
does not appeal to them because they are
not musicianly enough to appreciate that
the creation comes first and then its ex-
positors.
The most arrogant, in fact, impertinent,
thing that a singer can be guilty cf is to
sacrifice musical effects to vocal effects and
indeed how many do not? If a singer has
a good high note, good-bye to all thought
of rhythm, time, art or anything else, but
he or she hangs on to it until every musician
in the audience is fairly racked with de-