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THE
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flUJIC TIRADE
V O L . X X X V I I I . No. 19. Pnblishefl Erery Sat, by Edwarfl Lyman Bill at 1 Madison ATC,
MR. LOEB ENDOWS CONSERVATORY.
WOMEN SING IN VATICAN
Creates a Fund of Five Hundred Thousand Dollars,
To Which He Hopes Ten Others Will Contrib-
ute Fifty Thousand Dollars Each—The Con-
servatory Will be a Memorial to His Mother.
New York is to have a Conservatory of Music
which will begin its career with an endowment
fund of at least $500,000, and probably more.
The establishment of the institution is to be made
possible by James Loeb, of 37 East Thirty-eighth
street, the son of the late Solomon Loeb, who
died a few months ago, leaving an estate esti-
mated at $15,000,000.
As a tribute to the memory of his mother, who
was a musician, Mr. Loeb has determined to
give $500,000 to the conservatory, and he hopes
that at least ten other New Yorkers will con-
tribute $50,000 each. Mrs. Loeb died two years
ago; and on her death her five sons and daughters
created what is known as the Betty Loeb Me-
morial Fund. Each gave $50,000, creating a fund
of $250,000, the income of which is used for the
encouragement of music. Money from the fund
does not go to individuals, but is used to foster
general musical interests.
Mr. Loeb, this week, confirmed his reported
gift of $500,000 for a conservatory, which is en-
tirely separate from the contribution already
made by him to the Betty Loeb Memorial Fund.
The idea of a New York Conservatory has been
under consideration by him for some time past.
Several weeks ago Frank Damrosch, the New
York musical director, went abroad to study the
endowed conservatories of Europe. Mr. Dam-
rosch took the trip at Mr. Loeb's request. He
will probably conclude his researches and return
to this country the latter part of June.
Whether or not other contributions are made to
the conservatory, Mr. Loeb's gift will be used
for the purpose intended. "The gift," he said,
"is not contingent upon the raising of $500,000
or any other sum by other people. I am sure,
however, that there will be no trouble in secur-
ing at least $500,000 more.
"An endowment fund of $1,000,000* would mean
an income of about $40,000 a year, to be chiefly
used for salaries, which could be made suffi-
ciently large to secure the best musical edu-
cators available. The new conservatory is not
intended to be a free school by any means. Rea-
sonable tuition fees will be charged, and it is
hoped that a sufficient revenue will be received
from this source to pay the smaller salaries and
the running expenses. The plan is to formulate
a definite course of study and to insist that only
such pupils be accepted as will agree to take it.
The details have not yet been worked out. As
a matter of fact, I have discussed the subject
with only a few people. When Mr. Damrosch re-
turns there may be something more definite to
say.
"The probabilities are that Mr. Damrosch will
be the managing director of the undertaking. I
have talked over the conservatory idea with one
or two friends, but have not asked them to join
me in raising the endowment fund. Rudolph
Schirmer, with whom I have discussed the plan,
has offered to give a complete musical library to
the conservatory, and there are, I am convinced,
many others who will be glad to contribute to its
success as soon as the occasion arises."
New Tori, May 7,1904.
For the First Time in Four Centuries—Pope Hears
The Oratorio by Perosi.
A spectacle unprecedented for centuries oc-
curred at the Vatican in Rome, on April 16, when
Pope Pius, the Cardinals, other dignitaries of
the Church, the members of the Papal Court, the
"Black" aristocracy, and three hundred other
guests, including the Pope's sisters, assisted at
the performances in the Sala Regla of the Abbe
Perosi's new oratorio, "The Last Judgment."
The choir, which included women singers, was
personally directed by the composer, and the Pope
called attention to the fact that it was the first
time in four centuries that music had been ren-
dered at the Vatican with female voices.
The audience was perfectly silent, knowing the
aversion of the Pope to noise and manifestation,
but after a hymn of peace the Pope himself gave
the signal by clapping his hands, and every one
burst into enthusiastic applause. When this sub-
sided Abbe Perosi intended to continue the per-
formance, but his Holiness requested an encore
which was given. Immediately at the end of the
performance the Pope clapped his hands, and
then received Abbe Perosi and the singers.
His Holiness expressed the hope that Abbe
Perosi would compose a work for the fiftieth
anniversary of the proclamation of the Immacu-
late Conception, on December 8, next.
The Pope, carrying out his purpose to revive
the music of Gregory the Great, has established
in Rome an international college for the training
of boy sopranos, and has placed it under the di-
rection of Perosi. A similar institution was
founded by St. Gregory, the illustrious Pontiff
himself teaching in it. There are still some adult
soprani in the service of the Roman Church, but
by asecreta rescript of the late Pope (1901) they
will have no successors, and the boy soprano, as
of old, will reappear in the choir of the Sistine.
INTERPRETATION IN MUSIC
Discussed by Mrs. Newmarch in Her Interesting
Volume on Henry J. Wood.
In Rosa Newmarch's clever book on Henry J.
Wood, the London conductor, who was recently
heard at the Philharmonic concerts here, there is
much interesting and suggestive matter. For ex-
ample, she says: "As a rule, the complaints
against individual interpretation in music come
from those whose emotional gamut is very limit-
ed in compass, and whose emotional tone is of
the thinnest quality. Such people are as out of
place in the concert room as those of low physi-
cal vitality are in the football field. In these
days of specialism it would not be a bad idea to
organize concerts especially adapted for such
constitutions. It would give employment to a
considerable number of composers and executive
artists of the mildly anaemic type. . . .
"Besides individuality of temperament, another
quality is expected from the modern conductor—
individuality of tone. Even the same piano will
respond differently to the fingers of a succession
of pianists, and the same orchestra will produce
a distinctly different tone-effect under different
conductors. But the individuality of a conduc-
tor's tone is something much more definite and
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tangible than that of the virtuoso. Ysaye, for
example, will get a quality of tone from the
strings we never hear under any one else.
Nikisch's brass might come from a different
world to that of any other conductor. With Mr.
Wood the "elegiac" tone of the viojas receives a
fuller value than in most orchestras. This may
account to some extent for that phenomenon of
"a large voice singing in the inner parts," which
has been observed in the Queen's Hall Orchestra
by a writer in the Zeitschrift der Internationalen
Musikgesellschaft.
JOSEFFY IN LECTURE=RECITALS.
The Plans of This Great American Pianist and
Teacher Will Interest All Who Love the Best
in Music.
The announcement is made that Rafael Joseffy
is to remain in America this year, and that he
will put his time to good advantage may be un-
derstood from the fact that he will give ten lec-
ture-recitals beginning May 17, at the National
Conservatory of Music. Joseffy does this for the
benefit of the vast number of teachers who write
him for time after the regular season is over;
as he does not give private lessons, he has been
induced to talk to those who are able to benefit
from his experience and advice. He will illus-
trate the use of his remarkable work upon tech-
nic, and it need hardly be added that he will be
worth more to those really desirous of studying
seriously than a year's struggle with a foreign
language and a foreign teacher. This great
artist is as great a pedagogue as he is an artist,
and that means much, for when he does emerge
from his self-imposed retirement he stands at
the head of all the pianists and of all countries.
With the Boston Symphony Orchestra this sea-
son he made a triumphant re-entry, satisfying
those who had never heard the master that he is
really as great as his old admirers say he is. The
postion in which the critics hold Joseffy is one
which may be envied by any artist living, and
that this great pianistic genius is a resident of
America is a matter for congratulation to every
American citizen. An excellent portrait of
Joseffy appears on the cover page of this issue.
DE RESZKE'S SCHOOL FOR SINGING
Opens in Paris—What This Popular Tenor Seeks
to Inculcate.
Our old friend, Jean de Reszke, has just opened
his school for singing in Paris, and according to
cable dispatches, he has been overwhelmed with
applications. He believes in frankness when se-
lecting his students, thus differing from those
teachers who consider fees before art. Conse-
quently those whose main qualification was am-
bition were sent away sorrowing.
The classes are limited to four or five, so as
not to go beyond the personal supervision of M.
de Reszke. For the earlier stages, at all events,
no assistants will be employed. In time it will
be so arranged that instruction will be given to
about 100. The fees will be on a sliding scale,
those able to do so paying for those who are not.
Thus a talented poor student will not be shut
out from the advantages of the school.
M. de Reszke's estimate of the English voice is
that it is "throaty, but capable of development,"
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