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THE
ATCVSIC T R K D E
HOW SHE MASTERED THE ORCHESTRA.
WHERE COMPOSERS ERR.
JW1 ISS SMYTH, composer of "Der Wald,"
C O M E of our modern composers will find
much to interest them in the following * ' 1 which is slated for immediate produc-
advice given by Prof. Nie.cks: "Unfortu- tion at the Metropolitan, is not only a clever
nately the composers are as a rule, worse woman from a literary point of view, but a
than the critics. They follow indiscrimin- thorough musician who can play the leading
ately a fashion, and transfer unhesitatingly instruments of the orchestra as well as she
the voluptuous accents of 'Tristan and can compose. A good story is told in this
Isolde's' love duet to a child's prayer, and connection. When her opera was produced
the gorgeous pomp of Walhalla to a rustic in Berlin she conducted the orchestra at the
idyll. The irreconcilableness of the two rehearsals. Now, a German musician dearly
should be obvious, but it is not. A tyro hates a woman conductor, and so the orches-
should be able to understand that the sim- tra started out all at sixes and sevens. Miss
ple can only be expressed by the sim- Smyth stopped the players with a sharp rap
ple, the naive by the naive, and the tranquil and said:
by the tranquil, not by the complex, the pas-
"Gentlemen, this will not do."
sionate, and the turbulent: nevertheless, the
"Ach, Fraulein," said the concertmeister,
masters of the craft often fail to do so. There "this passage is impossible. I cannot play it."
is nothing so common in our present-day mu-
"You can't?" she exclaimed. "Give me
sic as illustrations of 'much ado about noth- your violin."
ing.' "
And before the astonished fiddler could
Speaking of Liszt Prof. Niecks says: say more she had taken the instrument and
"Liszt, unequalled as an experimentalist, has played the passage.
"A Richter in petticoats!" chorused the
proved himself also a great discoverer. No
one has been bolder in modulation and har- musicians. Miss Smyth had no more trou-
monic progression, and in the introduction ble.
Jt
of dissonance. His abandonment of the class-
TO MOVE TO CLASSICAL BOSTON.
ical forms, and fashioning of new ones in U
L J IAWATHA" and his real Ojibways
accordance with the nature of the subjects,
from the far end of Lake Huron are
is not a whit less bold, nay, required even
going to Boston next. The Indian play
greater boldness. His pianoforte style must
which has been presented at Madison Square
be allowed to be a creation of his own, and
his orchestration abounds in miracles." Con- Garden during the past two weeks will now
cerning two other great innovators, Chopin move eastward with the Sportsmen's Show
and begin an engagement on March 18 in
and Wagner, Niecks remarks:
Boston's big Mechanics' Building. The
"Few realize how much of the develop-
Transcript says that "the experience of the
ment of the modern style is owing to Chopin.
management with the play under the severe
A long list of items has to be placed on the
credit side of his account. Here are some conditions incident to a production in the
of them: frequent employment of other Garden has determined a number of changes
modes than major and minor, immense ex- some of which are instituted as a direct com-
tension of chromaticism, great multiplica- pliment to the critical taste of Boston's music
tion of harmonies by the extension of chro- lovers."
maticism, and the bolder use of dissonances,
CHARPENTIER'S OPERA IN GERMANY.
substitution of serpentining and twirling lines / ^ H A R P E N T I E R ' S opera "Louise," that
for straight ones, and of sophisticated for ^- > seems as if it were so locally Parisian
plain arpeggios, introduction of novel rhythm- in its spirit that it could never succeed out-
ical formations in which syncopation and side of France, is having more and more
transposition of accent play important parts. success in Germany. It has finally reached
By sophistication of arpeggios I mean their the stage of the Royal Opera House of
intermixture with non-harmonic notes and Berlin, and is scheduled for production there
their unusual ordering as regards rhythm this week. Mr. Hertz, the German conductor
and sequence.
of the Metropolitan, brought it out in Bres-
"But great as was the influence exercised lau.
by others on the development of the modern
BRAHMS AND HIS SONGS,
style, it is undeniable that Wagner's was the
greatest. He focused the musical tendencies r\R. RICHARD HEUBERGER of Vien-
of his time, and strengthened and modified *-' na is one of the few musicians who
them by his own powerful individuality, with enjoyed the intimate friendship of Brahms.
the result that he formed a new style and The great composer on one occasion re-
art form, and has imposed this art form marked to Dr. Heuberger: "You should
on a large portion of civilized soci- look for tasks for yourself that are irksome
ety, and more or less influenced by them the to you. Those who only live for art create
practice of every composer and the taste of nothing." Regarding his own songs, Brahms
every lover of music.
said: "Do you think one of my 'few decent'
songs has come to me cut and dried ? I have
David Bispham's song recital at Carnegie
worried myself strangely about them! One
Hall last Sunday afternoon was a delightful
should be able—of course, that is not to be
entertainment. This great artist again dis-
taken literally—to whistle a song, and then
played the wonderful resources of his art
it is good."
and delighted a most appreciative audience.
Antoinette Szumowska, the pianist, now
A special chamber music concert by the
Mrs.
Josef Adamowski, is to give a piano re-
Adamowski Trio will take place at Associ-
cital
in
Mendelssohn Hall on Saturday after-
ation Hall, Brooklyn, on Wednesday even-
noon, March 7.
ing, March n .
MUSIC IN EDUCATION.
' T H O S . W. SURETTE, the University
Extension lecturer, delivered a lecture
on "Music as a Factor in Education" at the
fifty-eighth public session of the Educational
Club, held at the Normal School, Philadel-
phia, Pa., Feb. 28. Mr. Surette said: "Art
never comes until a nation has stopped fight-
ing and a settled order of things has been
reached. Art comes with a love of order.
"The value of art in general lies in its
power to train and keep alive that side of
our nature which is not fed by mere knowl-
edge. Let us frankly admit that music
teaches nothing; that it conveys no code of
morals lays down no law of conduct. It is
subjective; it deals not with the outward
world, but with the inner. Music expresses
the inner things of which the.outward show
is but an appearance. Painting copies more
or less; literature finds expression through
a mechanical medium called language. Mu-
sic is, as it were, a fluid medium, a plastic
language not conventionally arranged by
man, but founded on the natural physical
laws of sound. Its melody is equally primi-
tive in its origin, going back to the primeval
cry of the children of the world."
The lecture was illustrated by piano se-
lections, and the subject in its pedagogical
aspects was discussed by E. W. Pearson,
Director of Music in the Public Schools, and
by these Principals of elementary schools:
Mrs. Emma V. Thomas, T. Worcester Wor-
rell and Louis Nusbaum.
Jt
A VOICE HE'D LIKE TO PICK UP.
\\J AS that Englishman Braham the great
**
singer that tradition represents him
to be? Somehow Italians, Germans and
French are possessed of the idea that there
never was an Englishman, or for that, an
American, that knew how to sing. English
musical annals of eighty years ago are full
of stories about Braham. Here is one Fred.
J. Crowest tells in his recently published vol-
ume of anecdotes: Braham was to sing;
Tom Cooke was conducting. Said Braham:
"Now, Tom, keep quite soft here, because
just at this point I intend dropping my voice
so as to give a little effect to the passage."
"Do you? By the powers," said Tom Cooke,
"whereabouts? for its just the kind of voice
I should like to pick up." Mr. Crowest's
selections are good ones, and the illustrations
clever.
Eugen D'Albert has lately been arousing
much enthusiasm in German cities, where he
has been compelled, like Paderewski, to give
encore after encore at every performance.
D'Albert is an artist of the highest rank—
a pianist we would enjoy hearing again.
ETTA EDWARDS, Vocal
M RS. Boston,
Mass.
Instruction, Steinert Hall
All oar instruments contain the full iron frame and
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•truments, and therefor* Challenge the world that
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