Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
be the director, but the arrangements for Mr. harmonized and crudely notated, only appeals
Pugno's tour had progressod so far that they to me as would a pretty child of the slums, badly
dressed, slipshod, and with disheveled hair. But
Mme. Emma Barnes has left Paris and gone could not be altered.
place the same girl under the skilful ministra-
for the balance of the summer to her villa "II
Bessie Abbott, the American soprano, now en- tions of the hairdresser and the modiste, and
Torre," at Vallombroza, Italy, where she will re-
main until she sails for this country in Septem- gaged at the Grand Opera in Paris, who is com- mark the change. The girl of the alley may be
ber next to begin the first concert tour under the ing to this country in December next for her transformed into a radiant beauty. And so the
first professional tour, has gone to Switzerland original melody may undergo a like metamor-
direction of Henry Wolfsohn in this country.
for the summer and early fall with a party of phosis and emerge from the chrysalis of the com-
Marie Hall, the famous English violinist, who American friends, including Mme. Ashforth, who monplace to the effulgent beauty of the butterfly.
"I fear that the professional musician, and the
is to tour here next winter under the manage- was her teacher when Miss Abott was living in
ment of Henry Wolfsohn, has just finished a tour this country. Miss Abott's tour is being ar- dilettante as well, allow their prejudices to warp
through England, Ireland and Scotland, which ranged by Mr. Wolfsohn, and she is to be heard their judgment very often, in their estimate of a
has been a veritable triumph, according to the in oratorio, orchestral concerts and song recitals, musical composition. The poet or lover of poetry
newspaper reports sent across the ocean. Her and quite possibly with the Conried Metropolitan would never denounce a poem like 'The Skylark'
as trifling merely because it is short and simple,
audiences in several of the larger English cities, Opera Co., toward which end negotiations are but I think that sometimes we of the musical
as well as in Dublin and Edinburgh, being almost now being carried on.
profession are apt to think that the mastodonic
insatiable in their demands for extra numbers.
symphony,
the elephantine overture, or the leo-
Fritzi Scheff will, on her return from Europe,
In the English towns the assistance of the police
at once begin rehearsing the new operetta, "Mile. nine prelude are entitled to all our consideration,
Modiste," which Victor Herbert and Henry Blos- while the skylarkist's valse, march or ballad
wins no place in our affections.
som have written for her.
"There are times when the simpler and plainer-
spoken themes appeal more potently. I agree
POPULAR AIRS PLEASE SOUSA.
with Longfellow when he says:
INTERESTING MUSICAL TOPICS.
Bandmaster Says, However, They Must be
Adaptable to Correct Orchestration—Having
Merit, They Live—Works of Great Com-
posers Lead in the Public Estimation.
John Philip Sousa, who, from his experience
as composer and conductor, extending for more
than twenty years, and gained in all parts of
this country and Europe, is better qualified than
any one to speak on popular music, believes that
simplicity is the greatest element of popularity
in music.
"There is probably no term," said he, "more
absurd and more often mistaken in its real mean-
ing than 'popular music'
"To the average mind and very often to the
professional musician 'popular' music means only
the lightest and most ephemeral of compositions,
banal and vulgar in conception and commonplace
in treatment. And yet in reality there is nothing
so absolutely incorrect as this view of the ques-
tion. If we take the music that has been per-
formed the most by orchestras, band, operatic
company, or piano, we will find in every instance
that the most meritorious of inspired composi-
tions, whether based on complex or simple tunes,
have survived the longest.
was several times required to force a passage
through the crowds that would gather at the
stage door, so as to enable Miss Hall to reach her
carriage. Despite demonstrations of this kind, it
is said that Miss Hall is a most modest artist,
who never forgets that at a time in her very
early life she was compelled to play her fiddle
in the streets and hotel lobbies in the English
provinces whereby to earn sufficient money to
maintain life, and aid in supporting her family.
"THE 'TANNHAUSEB' OVERTURE.
"There certainly is no composition in the world
to-day that has enjoyed greater vogue and popu-
larity among the widest range of listeners dur-
ing the last decade, from the technical musician
to the uneducated and merely sympathetic audi-
tor, than the 'Tannhauser' overture.
"For spontaneity, brilliancy, and melodic
charm, most musicians will agree that the 'Poet
and Peasant' overture is the master work of
Suppe, and that composition has been drummed
Sig. Campanari is again to make a tour this and hammered for these many years.
fall and early winter at the head of his own con-
"A melody happening to catch the fancy of the
cert company, under Wolfsohn's management. public becomes momentarily popular, but unless
The success attained last season by this promi- it bears the absolute signs of cleverness, if not
nent operatic star, in his first year of concert- genius, it soon palls and sinks into deepest ob-
izing, was so widespread that California and livion. I do not think that any one will ques-
the Northwest are included in his itinerary for tion that 'Faust' is the best opera that Gounod
the coming season. Campanari is to sing four ever wrote—melodically, dramatically, and from
orchestral engagements in New York before the the technical point of orchestration it stands
above the others, and beyond all doubt it is the
Christmas holidays.
most popular of the great Frenchman's composi-
Mme. Louise Homer, of the Metropolitan Opera tions. The same argument can be used with
Co., is to make a short concert tour under Wolf- equal force for 'Carmen,' 'Bohemian Girl,' 'Mari-
sohn's management, before the opening of the tana,' and other operas that have won and still
opera season. Her tour will open in Columbus, maintain the popular favor.
O., on October 10, and will close in Philadelphia,
"Among shorter compositions, such as marches,
with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, on waltzes, and songs, the very same condition ex-
November 4.
ists. I recall that when I was in Vienna two
years ago, I asked Emil Lindau, the famous Aus-
Raoul Pugno, the French pianist, is to open trian librettist, if the 'Blue Danube Waltz' was
his third American tour with the Philadelphia played out, and received the terse reply that 'so
Orchestra on November 10, in Philadelphia. He long as Vienna endured, so long would the "Blue
comes for a tour of fifty concerts under the man- Danube" live.'
agement of Henry Wolfsohn, and will remain in
PLEA FOR GOOD NOTATION.
this country until April. Mr. Pugno was offered
"My theory is that any melody with sufficient
the piano professorship at the Loeb Conservatory intrinsic merit to catch the popular taste, and
of Music, which is to be open in New York City capable of being harmonized by strict rules, is
in October, and of which Frank Damrosch is to worthy of consideration. Such a melody, badly
Conif read to me some poem.
Some simple and heartfelt lay
That shall soothe this restless feeling
And banish the thought of day.
Not from the grand old masters.
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridor of lime.
Kead from some humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart
As showers from the clouds of summer
Or tears from the eyelids start.
PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA PLANS.
The management of the Philadelphia Orchestra
is already surveying next season's virtuoso field.
Among the noted pianists who are sure to cross
the Atlantic for Yankee fame and fortune during
the winter of 1905-6 are the brilliant Emil Sauer,
who has not been among us for some time; Raoul
Pugno, and Albert Reisenauer. The great Teresa
Carreno may possibly come, too, but her plans are
not fully matured. Jacques Thibaud, the French
violinist, is also in the doubtful class, but Heer-
raann and Petschnikoff, others masters of the
bow, have definitely decided to make the trip.
That the orchestra management will be active in
the field to secure their services may be taken
for granted, says the Philadelphia Ledger. Every
effort will be made to sustain the excellent record
for noted soloists that was made during the just
completed season. Since there will be eighteen
concerts instead of fifteen, opportunity will be
provided for securing practically all the great
virtuosi talent in the market.
NATIVE TALENT UNRECOGNIZED.
We marvel at the obtuseness shown by our an-
cestors in regard to works of genius written for
the opera or the concert stage, yet we are not
much better, comments the New York Post, Lon-
don furnishes the latest illustration. There was
much criticism because at the recent gala per-
formance at Covent Garden, no English composer
was represented on the programme. Gounod,
Puccini and Meyerbeer were the composers hon-
ored. Strange to say, most of those who wanted
to hear an act by a native composer mentioned
Sullivan's "Ivanhoe," his poorest work by far.
Others suggested Cowen's "Signa" or "Harold,"
Ethel Smyth's "The Forest" and Stanford's
"Much Ado About Nothing." No one seems to
have thought of what is by far the best opera
ever written by an Englishman (or Irishman),
Stanford's "Shamus O'Brien," a real work of
genius, worthy of being placed' almost on a level
with "Carmen." It is Irish music, to be sure, but
the best English music is nearly always Irish.
STRAUSS'S NEW OPERA.
It is settled that Richard Strauss' new opera,
"Salome," will be sung for the first time at Dres-
den in October, and during his summer holiday
be will set the finishing touches to the score.
Oscar Wilde's play gave him his text. Hitherto
Strauss' operas have been the least interesting
of his music.