Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
with his bass whistle at the proper time, when
his foot slipped and down he came, with the
ladder and sign over him. That was the effect
of one of the sweetest hymns in modern music.''
ffi^OPELESSLY paralyzed, Cosiraa Wagner,
^ ^ the widow of Richard Wagner, resides
in the quaint town of Bayrueth, Germany, whose
name has become famous through the fame of
its most famous son.
Cosima Wagner, though but " a woman,"
had more masculinity in her mental make-up
than most men, and so yoked the genius of her
last husband to solid business methods that he
succeeded when even his immense talent alone
would not have given him that position which
he won in the musical world.
Moreover, this woman was, prior to her mar-
riage to Wagner, the wife of Hans von Bulow,
the famous pianist and kapel meister to the
King of Bavaria. Bulow also owed much of
his success to her genius for affairs. Before
paralysis attacked her in early April but one
impression could be gained, even after a short
interview, and that would be that Wagner was
right when he said that she was the most intel-
lectual woman in Germany. You would also
get the impression that she is one of the home-
liest women to be found anywhere. Tall—she
is divinely tall, as the poet puts it, but by no
means divinely fair. She wouid stand at least
an inch taller than the last and greatest of her
husbands, Wagner. In her old age she is spare
and gaunt of figure and dressed in a way that
accentuated the effect of oddness, and for that
matter, ugliness, that is taken by superficial or
cursory glances at her.
James Whitcomb Riley tells an interesting
story to illustrate the influence of music.
" Strange," says he, " what an influence music
has upon a man. Especially the kind that steals
upon his ear in accents sweet and low. Now,
there's Bill Peasley, for Instance. He wasn't
much of a singer, yet he caused quite a disturb-
ance by singing an old gospel hymn. Right
across from my house is a grocery store. One
day last July a man placed a ladder against the
grocery store and tried to put up a sign nearly
twenty feet long over the window. There was
an element of intense interest in this proceeding
to thirty men who gathered around the ladder
and watched the man as he stood on his precari-
ous perch. Pretty soon Bill Peasley came
along. He joined the group, putting his hands
behind his back in a lazy manner, and began
softly whistling the ' Sweet By and By.' The
air was so soft and persuasive that the man next
to Bill took it up and began whistling tenor.
Then another joined in and still another until
the whole group were whistling. By this time
the man on the ladder had become interested.
He began to pucker, but no sound came from
his lips. His attention was so taken up by the
sign that he could n't form his lips aright. It is
difficult job to whistle and put up a sign at the
same time. He had been struggling with the
sign and tune for several minutes, and was
standing on one foot on the ladder trying to hang
one end of the sign on a nail. The situation
was further complicated by his effort to come in
*
Impresari, as a rule, are not over-scrupulous
as to the means they employ in order to attract
an audience. An amusing story was told re-
cently of the audacity of an Italian impresario,
who is evidently no exception to that rule. It
appears that this individual, who was touring
in Italy with a small opera company, was about
to produce Bizet's " Djamileh " for the first time
in an out-of-the-way town, when the tidings
reached him of Gounod's death. The news
placed him in rather an awkward position, for,
whereas it was clearly his duty to improve the
occasion by giving an "in memoriam " perform-
ance of one of the late composer's works, he did
not see his way to mounting any of Gounod's
operas at short notice with the forces at his dis-
posal. Suddenly a brilliant idea occurred to
him, and he hastened off at once to the local
printer to make a slight alteration in the bills
with which he was about to placard the town.
As amended they now ran as follows :
Homage to Gounod.
Positively the first performance of
the One-Act Opera,
" Djamileh,"
Words by M. Louis Gallet,
Music by Charles Gounod.
On the eventful night the enthusiasm of the
inhabitants knew no bounds.
"Djamileh"
drew a splendid house, recalls were numerous,
and at the end of the performance the curtain
went up on a group of the whole company posed
round a plaster bust of the deceased master—a
truly touching sight. After three more success-
ful performances of " Djamileh " the impresario
made his preparations for departure, being due
at another town. But before he left a puzzle-
headed native came to see him and asked him
point blank, " Surely Gounod never wrote
' Djamileh ? ' " " Well," replied the unabash-
ed impresario, '' now that I come to think of it,
I'm not so sure that he did. But, anyhow, he
wrote ' Medge,' and it's the most natural thing
in the world to confuse the two titles—' Medje,'
' Djamileh.' Why, they're as like as two peas.''
*
The following story is told about M. Pader-
ewski's famous minuet, perhaps the most fami-
liar of all his-compositions, and his skill in
improvising. When he was still a professor at
Warsaw he was one night at the house of Alex-
ander Swicztochowski, one of the most famous
musical critics in the town. The conversation
turned on Mozart, and Swicztochowski declared
that no living composer could ever compare with
Mozart in simplicity and beauty. Paderewski,
who even then considered himself to be worth
twenty Mozarts, merely shrugged his shoulders
for the moment and, presently sitting down at
the piano, said:
"May I play you a little thing of Mozart's,
which perhaps you do not know ? "
Swicztochowski assented, and Paderewski
thereupon improvised his minuet. Swicztoch-
owski was delighted, and exclaimed triumph-
antly :
" Now you will acknowledge that a piece like
that could never be written in our time."
" Well, " replied Paderewski, " I am not sure
about that. This happens to be a minuet, which
I have myself composed on the spur of the
moment."
* #
Henry Irving's house is a veritable curiosity
shop. In the drawing-room a small case con-
tains the russet boots which Edmund Kean wore
as Richard III. and the sword he used as Corio-
lanus. A companion cabinet is in the drawing
room. One by one the treasures were taken out
and talked about. Here is David Garrick's ring,
which he gave to his brother on his deathbed.
The Baroness Burdetts-Coutts presented it to
Mr. Irving. Two watches are here. One is the
gold timekeeper of John Philip Kemble, the
other is a silver one, which formerly belonged
to Edwin Forrest, which stopped at the very
moment Forrest breathed his last! But the
treasures of the case are not exhausted. You
can handle the silver dagger worn by Lord
Byron, a pair of old sandals worn by Edmund
Kean, a pin with a picture of Shakespeare, once
the property of Garrick, an ivory tablet which
belonged to Charles Matthews. Do not over-
look this little purse of fine green silk and silver
band. It was found in the pocket of Edmund
Kean when he died. There was not a sixpence
in it! It was given to Henry Irving by Robert
Browning.
There was one story which the late RosinB
Vokes never tired of telling about that famous
song of hers, " His 'Eart Was True to Poll."
It was the opening night of her first engage-
ment in Salt Lake City. She was to appear in
" The Milliner's Bill." The house was packed
with Mormons. Each was surrounded with his
own little coterie of wives. All went swim-
mingly until Rosina began to sing her famous
song which, as every one knows, relates the
polygamous adventures of one William Kid,
who, whatever else he did to his Poll, was
always true. As she sang the first verse it be-
gan to dawn on Miss Vokes that the sentiment
of the song might be rather inappropriate. It
was too late to retreat, however, so noticing
that the audience was still smiling she went
ahead. During the first four verses William
managed to espouse several copper colored
brides and a couple of Fiji spinsters.
The last verse finds him in a tight box, from
which he manages to extricate himself on the
plea that:
Though he thought it was polygamy,
It wasn 't even bigamy,
'
For his 'eart was true to Poll.
At first Miss Vokes determined to omit this
verse, but when the audience insisted upon hear-
ing the finale, she very wisely took refuge in
"La, la, la, !" And next morning the news-
papers spoke of the ditty as a very charming
little love song, expressing a most healthy
sentiment, which was somewhat marred by Miss
Vokes's indistinct pronunciation.
•
V-
The following concert notice appeared recently
in an English paper :
" The attendance was so sparce one could
not help arriving at the conclusion that, despite
elegant speeches to the contrary, we have not
evoluted to that point where we find pleasure in
listening to such excerpts as,'' etc. '' Miss
and Miss
gave the duet con moderate."
" Miss
has just that quantum of vivacity
and spirituelle to warrant her budding into a
first-class recitationist, and her winsomeness
will be quite au fait when she arrives at ' sweet
seventeen,' but de gustibus.'''' " ' T h e Better
Land ' was given con viorbidezza by Miss
.''
'' Deacon's new song, ' Arab Love,' as essayed
by Mr.
, struck us as metallic, and being
evolved on the principle of tnagno voce minimo
corpote.''
V
BELLWOOD, PA.—A band has been organized
here under leadership of S. Hamilton,