Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
the changes in the thought or the action of
the poetry. Then, too, nature's aspects
and changes find glorious expression.
Schubert's songs are among the finest ex-
amples of what is called descriptive music.
His tone-painting, his coloring, is both
wonderful and varied. There are magnifi-
cent
contrasts, not only between the dif-
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745.—EIGHTEENTH STREET.
ferent songs, but often between the indi-
The musical supplement to The Review is vidual parts of the same song.
published on the first Saturday of each month.
OPERA IN THE VERNACULAR.
Dudley Buck does not agree with those
musical critics who demand that operas
should be sung in the language in which
they are written. "New York City, for
instance, is cosmopolitan," says Mr. Buck,
''and agrand operaaudience generally com-
prises speakers of all the great languages
and some of the lesser. To such persons,
familiar with the work in their native
tongue, a rendering in English would
doubtless, at first hearing, sound more or
less befremdend, as the Germans say—
foreign—and that in an unpleasantly sur-
prising sense. But the German does not
complain of Gounod's "Faust" in German,
nor the Frenchman of the text of Wagner's
operas when given in French. On the con-
trary, they demand it. Minor drawbacks
are more than counterbalanced by the
greater pleasure and comprehension of the
majority. Would we say that the works of
a Dante, Goethe, Victor Hugo, and a host
of others shall remain sealed books with-
out translation because, forsooth, there are
a relative few who can read them in their
originals? "
o
SCHUBERT, THE HEISTER-SINGER.
Before Schubert, the song, in spite of its
beauty, was, with very few exceptions,
limited in range; the accompaniments were
for the most part of the simplest descrip-
tion or were not an integral part of the
whole, while the general structure was
lacking in dramatic fitness, in harmony
with the demands of the words. Schubert
appropriated that which was best in the
national song, elaborated it, idealized it,
made it over into a fairer, sweeter, larger
form.
Entering with the strength and passion
of a true poet into the meaning of the
poetry he chose to set, feeling with the
mood of the poet, thrilled by the same
•emotion, he reproduced it with vivid and
striking power in his music—the vocal
parts being intensified by peculiarly rich
and highly developed accompaniments.
We are again confronted by the difficulty
of definition. But one secret of Schubert's
power in the song, writes Kenyon West, is
that he seems to have a musical expression
for every kind and variety of emotion
of which the human heart is capable.
Beautiful melodies, frequent and unex-
pected modulations, even occasional dis-
cords, form his means of expression. He
so entered into the spirit of the poems of
Goethe and other poets that he seized at
once, by divine intuition, the most charac-
teristic and fitting music for them. With
glorious freedom and insight he followed
0
THE ENCORE NUISANCE.
" The encore fiend is as rampant as ever
this season, and there isn't a comic opera,
musical comedy or concert which he doesn't
attend and demand double his money's
worth in a call for the repetition of every
musical number as it comes along," says a
writer to the Herald. Isn't it peculiar
that this gentleman confines himself to
music? He does not disport himself in
this fashion at dramatic performances. He
doesn't insist that a scene shall be played
over again because he happens to like it.
When the villain falls dead in a heap, he
doesn't ask him to rise and fall dead once
more. But let the villain of the musical
stage warble his taking off in song, and the
encore fiend roars for him to do it all over
again.
This encore habit has grown to be a
positive nuisance, especially on first nights
of comic opera, when the repetition of
solos, duos and choruses practically doubles
the score and drags out to weary lengths
what might have been a brisk and lively
performance. If managers, composers and
actors are wise they will stop it by a very
simple remedy—a rule of the house for-
bidding encores. If the people are so
anxious to have this or that number re-
peated, why there is the box office; let them
buy tickets for another night. That is the
place for encores. There's money in the
idea for the house—and rest for the wearied
ones among the audience.
o
AflERICAN AND EUROPEAN ORCHESTRAS
COriPARED.
The United States has made phenom-
enal advances in musical culture during
the past ten years. This is quite appar-
ent to all who have given the subject any
attention, but it secures additional em-
phasis when the views of a man like Aug.
Hyllested, the eminent Dutch pianist, are
considered.
For the past three years he has been over
in Europe, and he has made a study of
orchestras in that country as compared
with the United States, and on his return
he gives it as his opinion that there is a
higher development in the matter of music
in this country than in the old world.
" In Europe they have been standing
still musically, while in the United States
greatprogress is being made in musicalcul-
ture," said Mr. Hyllested recently. "We
have more great and extremely artistic
events here than they do, and I think we
can get along very well without so much
-of the commonplace music that is almost
annoying in some parts of Europe."
When asked in what particulars this
musical superiority consisted, Mr. Hyl-
lested said:
"There are no grand orchestras in
Europe equal to two or three in this coun-
try. There is no doubt in my mind on
this point. Some of the German orches-
tras are equally large, but they lack the
finish and perfection to which we are ac-
customed in the work of the Chicago or-
chestra or of the Boston Symphony Or-
chestra. Their orchestras are cheaper and
do not contain so many picked men, and
to a very considerable extent their instru-
ments are inferior. This is particularly
true of the wood winds, which are often
very deficient in tone and seldom harmonize
acceptably. The strings are much better,
but the general effect of the orchestral work
that I heard in Europe is noisy rather than
refined. The one exception to this rule that
I can recall is furnished by the Grand Opera
orchestra of Paris. I had the pleasure of
hearing this band both in opera and in
symphony programs, and was very much
impressed by the delicacy and finish of its
efforts. At the same time it lacked force
and was weak in the strong explosive
passages. You know that grace and de-
licacy are peculiarities [of all French art
work, and they frequently sacrifice strength
to finish. In most of the continental or-
chestras I discovered noise enough but
very little delicacy of expression, and it is
for this reason that I place the American
orchestra in the front rank. They give us
a much wider range of artistic effect, and
not only excel in grand crashes, but in the
most delicate forms of musical expression.
Aside from a few exceptional solo artists,
we are also better provided in this depart-
ment that they are, and when we do have
grand opera companies they are more
complete and splendid in talent than our
European friends are accustomed to."
© .
AMERICAN SINGERS IN OPERA.
The success of the secondary season of
the Carl Rosa company in grand opera at
Covent Garden, London, which was closed
last week, may point a moral for the oper-
atic magnates of New York and the other
American cities. When the Carl Rosa
company proposed to lease the Covent
Garden house, all the musical wiseacres
predicted disaster. They argued that no
lesser artists could follow the De Reszkes,
Melba, Eames, Bispham et al., with the
expectation of attracting people to hear
them in profitable numbers. The Carl
Rosa management gathered a coterie of
singers especially for London. No great
stars were engaged, but artists, most of
them young and ambitious to make names.
The management fixed the seats at the pre-
vailing prices of London theatres, which
are about fifty per cent, of grand opera
rates. There have been no fashionable
audiences, but the season has demonstrated
that the masses are eager to hear grand
opera when it is brought within the reach
of their purses.
The most important positions in the
company have been filled by a group of
young American singers, Alice Esty,