Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 174S.--EIOHTEENTH STREET.
The musical supplement to The Review is
published on the first Saturday of each month.
riUSlC PLAYING ITS PART.
The " w a r " talk, which has predominated
for the past few weeks, owing to the blowing
up of the battleship Maine, has resulted in a
virtual recrudescence in unexpected places
of our so-called national songs. Wherever
the "Star Spangled Banner" and other famil-
iar airs associated in the public minds with
national affairs, are heard these days and
nights, they send the people into tumultuous
demonstrations of enthusiasm.
The wonderful influence of music over the
emotions of the people in great crises is his-
toric, and the sudden and conspicuous popu-
larity of national music is quite natural. There
is not a bar of it that does not set a good
American's veins tingling, aud make more
active the heart's action.
A calm, methodical and, mark you, peace-
ful man who is blessed or cursed with a musi-
cal temperament happened to be present at
one of these demonstrations now nightly oc-
curring in our theatres. This is how it
affected him:
"The music leaps into our blood and pours
its glorious enthusiasm all through our be-
ings. We throw up our hats and turn our
lungs loose, and as there are millions of us
doing the same thing under the same impulses,
you can feel assured that the country is safe,
no matter who or what threatens."
O
GIVE US SOMETHING NEW.
There are plenty of indications already
that next winter will be a very enjoyable one
in the matter of music. Maurice Grau's
plans for the grand opera season of 1898-
1899 are certainly imposing as far as the ar-
ray of names is concerned. A company
which can boast of such notabilities of oper-
atic art as Nordica, Melba, Eames, Calve,
Schumann-Heink, Jean de Reszke, Saleza,
Van Dyck, Campanari, Bispham, Edouard de
Reszke, Plancon, Seidl and Mancinelli, is
certainly an extraordinary organization.
In
soloists, orchestra, costumes and scenery,
Mr. Grau will be equipped as are few of his
brother impresari.
In the " p l a n s " which Mr. Grau has given
to the public he has said nothing definite
about new additions to his repertoire. A
" s t a r " cast is all very well, it draws, and few
managers subordinate cash to art these days,
but just the same we would like some specific
statement that we are not to be eternally
surfeited with operas which were not new to
a preceding generation.
Take a step forward, Mr. Grau. Give us
something new. And do not overlook a mise-
en-scene worthy of the great artists engaged
and of the public.
Speaking of the lack of novelty in operatic
production brings to mind some pertinent re-
marks made along this line by a writer in a
contemporary. The point made is a strong
one because it is based on facts. ' 'It is a serious
menace to the advancement of musical art
in any community," says the writer, "when
those who have in charge the direction of af-
fairs fall into the same ruts year after year,
and this seems to be the situation in New
York to-day. In the opera-house and on the
concert stage the works performed one year
are, with few exceptions, repeated the next.
A cursory glance at the fare offered for the
delectation of our public by the three orches-
tral bodies which play here every season re-
veals a remarkable lack of variety. If a
certain symphony is announced in the pro-
grams of the Symphony Society, it is more
than likely the same composition is promised
by the Philharmonic or Mr. Paur's forces,
while the very Beethoven and Wagner selec-
tions Mr. Seidl has prepared are almost cer-
tainly to be heard at the concerts of either of
his confreres. This seems to indicate either
poverty of thought on the part of the con-
ductors or lack of material on which to draw;
but neither alternative is acceptable. What,
then, are we to conclude ? Can it be that
apprehension of the loss of popular support is
the main cause of the present state of af-
airs ? "
o
THE PERHANENT ORCHESTRA.
From present indications it is safe to as-
sume that the much-talked-about permanent
orchestra will surely be organized and ready for
work about next fall. Anton Seidl,it is under-
stood, has agreed to become its leader. Of
the prospective concerts there will be half a
dozen in the late autumn, and one each
month thereafter. A part of the plan is an
acceptance of an engagement with Maurice
Grau's company for a term of two years.
The need of a permanent orchestra is ob-
vious, but whether this new organization,
limited and curtailed in its scope, can fill re-
quirements for good symphonic work is an
open question. Of course it is convenient
for Messrs. Grau and Seidl to have a fine or-
chestra for operatic purposes, but can we
hope to rival the Boston or Chicago orches-
tras with an organization such as is now out-
lined?
for people of prominence and wealth in the
community are to be noticed in large numbers
in the audiences at the American Theatre.
The programes presented are excellent, the
scenic effects adequate, and the casts, broadly
considered, very fair indeed.
The renaissance of English opera should
not only be of benefit to American artists,
and give them a long desired chance to dis-
play their abilities, but it would be productive
of splendid results in inculcating appreciation
for lyric music of a serious character, thus
effectively neutralizing the " c r a z e " for the
thrashy, senseless songs which have been
forced into so-called popularity through the
music halls.
Admirers of music, embracing all the schools
from Wagner to Balfe, or De Koven if you
will, cannot but admit the excellent results
which must follow from the growing apprecia-
tion among the masses for the lighter forms of
grand opera in the English language.
©
MUSICAL ARTISTS' HARVELOUSnEHORIES
The great singers and pianists are con-
stantly called upon to perform wonderful feats
of memory. To memorize a role in an opera
or a long sonata is quite different from learn-
ing a part in a play, for an opera singer must
not only commit words, often in a foreign
tongue, to memory, but also the music of the
role, while the instrumentalist has both the
melody and the complicated chords in the
harmony of the piece to memorize.
How many opera-goers who have heard
Mme. Nordica sing the three Briinnhildes in
Wagner's " Ring of the Nibelung" have real-
ized the amount of preliminary labor involved
in the memorizing of those great roles ?
"To correctly memorize roles like Wag-
ner's Isolde or the three Briinnhildes in ' The
Ring of the Nibelung' requires the hardest
kind of work," said Mme. Nordica recently,
"You must put your whole mind, as well as-
all your musical temperament, into it. It
was not unusual for me while I was learning
these roles to spend six hours a day with my
repetiteur at the piano, three hours in the
morning and three in the afternoon. I study
words and music together. I make a point
of memorizing a part so thoroughly that I
don't have to depend on the prompter or the
0
conductor. A prima donna can sing and act
IS IT A RENAISSANCE?
The phenomenal success of the Castle freely only when she knows her role thor-
Square Opera Co. at the American Theatre, oughly by ear.
this city, bids fair to be a forerunner of a
"There is one feature in memorizing Wag-
renaissance of English opera. The liberal ner roles, like Isolde or the three Briinnhildes,
support vouchsafed the enterprise has opened which I have recently sung, that makes the
the eyes of many managers to the fact that task especially difficult. You must know not
this often worked mine has still many rich only what you have to sing, but also what
and paying lodes worth looking after.
you don't have to sing, for there are no
According to present plans, opera in Eng- tuney catch phrases, as in the Italian operas,
lish will soon be given in two or three addi- from which you can get your cues. And let
tional theatres, with the best singers obtain- me tell you that the nervousness a singer ex-
able, and with excellent stage accessories. periences in Wagner opera is wholly different
This will certainly give a chance to the from that which one feels in Italian opera.
myriad of conservatory students who have a In the latter the public makes you nervous,
latent idea that they can "fill the bill," while but in a Wagner performance the work is so
"their cousins and their aunts," not so mod- enormous that the public is crowded out of
est, believe they can excel Melba.
the singer's thoughts and he or she is ner-
Be that as it may, there is no gainsaying vous about keeping time and pitch."
the beneficial influence which the Castle
Few of the great singers who have been
Square Opera Co. is exercising on the west heard in this country have had as remarkable
side population, and not only the west side— a memory and learned their roles with the