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THE: MUSIC TRADE
come to its own rescue if it would stand
beside other nations that have given gen-
uine treasures of art to the world of art.
A poet, a novelist, a sculptor or a paint-
er needs no inspiration except that of
nature; solitude is his best companion;
he has time to read, to study, to rumin-
ate, to commune with himself and with
nature. But the musician must draw
from all these sources, from every other
art and science, but beyond all this he
needs musical surroundings of the highest
degree of excellence. These he must have;
without them not all the education, not all
the work, not all the ambition in the world
will make of him an artist sufficiently fin-
ished to command attention and respect
among those who know and want true art.
America's students need not deplore that
the Rhine with its legends was not given
to them, for the Columbia has Indian lore
that rivals in beauty, in romance and in
intensity anything that castles and aristoc-
racy could create; the pickaninny is a very
good substitute for mountain elves; the
Niagara has no rival in Europe, and Switz-
erland has few mountain peaks more ma-
jestic than Mount Hood, Mount Shasta,
and those of the Adirondacks, the Catskills
and the White Mountains. Germany has
its Schwartzwald, but California has its
Yosemite Valley. Why—why, indeed—
can the music of the future not come from
America, if America so wills it ?
But it will take more than the will. It
will take incessant work, honest work—
work in the interest of music, and not a
struggle of self-glorification in which every
other thought is made subservient to the
word "self," which kills more art in a
minute than could be created in a year.—
The Oregonian.
WRETCHED PAY FOR BANDSMEN.
HP HE bandsmen in the British navy are al-
1 most all foreigners, who can play stringed
as well as wind instruments. Their pay is
wretched. The London Truth thus sums up
the state of affairs, on information derived
from an officer on active service:
The band in a battleship, it seems, officially
consists of twelve, and in a flagship of four-
teen, members, besides the bandmaster, so
that it is perfectly obvious that even if all
have their sea legs, the performance cannot
be any but a modest one. These men are
paid at the rate of is. 4d., and the bandmas-
ter at 2s. 5d. a day with rations. The Ad-
miralty also generously contribute £17 a year
in the case of battleships, and £20 in the case
of a flagship—a dole which is just sufficient
to pay for band parts and repairs. The ac-
tual cost of the Band instruments, stands,
etc., amounts to between £80 and £100; and
this sum, together with any extra pay which
the men may receive, comes from the pockets
of the captain and wardroom officers, who
thus are in much the same delightful predica-
ment as officers in the army. My correspond-
ent thinks that £9 to £10 a month is a fair
average, and that the cost of the band to the
officers for a commission of three and half
years is about £550, out of which the Ad-
miralty dole is £59 10s. The whole thing is,
of course, an absurdity. The Government
contribution to any army band at present,
£80, is shortly to be raised to £160 a year.
Even this is grossly insufficient for the pur-
pose; and why the navy should be starved
with a £17 band is not at all clear. In each
case the officers, for some reason which no
mortal man whose brain is not dulled by de-
partmental routine can divine, are expected to
pay the difference.
REVIEW
HERR CONRIED'S OPERA PLANS.
JACQUES THIBAUD, VIOLINIST.
LJEINRICH CONRIED, the director of
the Metropolitan Opera House in New
York, in an interview printed in the Vienna
papers, defends himself against the attacks
on him for his decision to produce "Parsifal"
in New York next season, declaring that it
is an act of reverence toward the great com-
poser. Its production, owing to the absence
of a copyright treaty between the United
States and Germany, is open to any small
manager, who might have taken the piece on
a tour and made a parody of it. Mr. Con-
ried said:
"I have the greatest and most fashionable
theatre in New York, though it is still primi-
tive in its arrangements. For the production
of 'Parsifal' alone I am spending $65,000 for
alterations of the stage and also paying Lau-
tenschlager of Munich, the celebrated in-
ventor of the revolving stage, a large sum
to go to New York.
"The costumes and decorations will cost
$30,000. The former are from Blaschke,
and the latter from Burghart, both of Vi-
enna. The costumes were especially designed
by Tefrler, the costume designer of the Vien-
na Court Opera. Before all, I am endeavor-
ing to procure artists who will breathe life
into the Bayreuth play. I have made con-
tracts for 'Parsifal' with Van Rooy as Am-
fortas, Ternina as Kundry. I have also
engaged Felix Mottl and Herz, of Breslau,
to direct the orchestra of 100 pieces. The
first performance will take place on Dec. 21.
'Parsifal' will be given in New York only,
and there not more than ten times. The pay
of the artists will amount to $8,000 a night.
If all the seats were sold they would bring in
$9,700. There is, therefore, no question of
money-grabbing, which has been charged.
"I have engaged Caruso, Kraus, Naval,
Dippel, Scotti, Calve, Sembrich, Gadski,
Schumann-Heiok and other eminent artists,
and have made a provisional arrangement
with Edith Walker, the brilliant contralto of
the Vienna Court Opera, who has resigned.
If her resignation is accepted she will join
me; otherwise I must wait. I should also like
to take Fraulein Selina Kurz and Messrs.
Demuth and Slezak away from Vienna, but
I do not believe in inducing artists to break
their contracts by offering large salaries.
European managers, however, must meet me
in granting vacation appointments to their
artists. I have already made arrangements
looking to this end with Director Hahler
and Intendant Possart of Munich. Only in
case of continued refusals will I reserve the
right of getting artists in any way I can."
T T may be said without question that
1 Jacques Thibaud, the French violinist
who is to tour this country next winter under
the management of Henry Wolfsohn, is one
of the greatest of younger violinists. Those
familiar with his playing class him with the
most celebrated violinists of all times.
In Europe, where he has been playing since
1899, he is called a. "phenomenal" player. He
possesses all of the qualities displayed by
other violinists, besides other new phases that
*
•
STRAUSS APOTHEOSIS.
r* LOSING a remarkable tribute to Rich-
ard Strauss in last Sunday's Sun,
James Huneker says: "Strauss has only be-
gun. A master stylist, a realist in his treat-
ment of his orchestral hosts, a pyschologist
among psychologists, a master of a new and
generous culture, a thinker, above all an in-
terpreter of poetic and heroic types of hu-
manity, who shall say to him: Dare no
further! His audacity is only equaled by
his mental serenity. In all the fury of his
fantasy his intelligence is sovereign over its
kingdom."
(From a drawing by Faivre, of Paris.)
were received as little less than revelations in
the most critical music centers of Europe.
Thibauld will be 24 in September. His
father was a musician, and was also his first
teacher. He has two older brothers both fine
artists—one a pianist and the other a 'cellist.
When Jacques finished studying with his
father, he entered the Paris Conservatory and
took first prize for violin playing in 1896.
After this he joined the Colonne orchestra
and soon attracted attention by his solo play-
ing. During the winter 1899-1900 he won
great renown in his own country as well as
in Holland and Switzerland as a virtuoso.
After this he visited Berlin and from there
dates his international fame and great
triumphs.
Thibaud makes his American debut at the
first of the Wetzler Symphony Concerts in
Carnegie Hall on Friday evening, Oct. 30,
after which he will tour the country.
•t
A fund is being collected by admirers of
Edward Grieg to celebrate his sixtieth birth-
day, of which the income is to be devoted i/o
the assistance of young Norwegian musi-
cians.