Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
mal growth, these machines will have a va-
cuum. During such the subjective side of
man comes into prominence. Then even the
beginner in art will learn to feel that his seem-
ingly puny efforts are in reality worth more
than can be accomplished by the most per-
fect mechanical piano or organ ever invented
or to be invented. " A n artist," says Emer-
son, " must inscribe the character and not
the features." The original faculty,-we re-
peat, for creating, or at least suggesting, is
one of the grandest gifts bestowed on hu-
manity.
And no atomic theory on which
everything is reduced to different combina-
tions of primitive force will ever succeed in
furnishing an organic to an inorganic subject.
Let us then learn to - put a correct valuation
on the different modern musical inventions,
some of which are of a very fine grade. They
can never do more than help build up the
walls for our art temples. Inside the sacred
precincts one will only find such refined na-
tures as have, by earnestness and persever-
ance, thoroughly prepared themselves for
admission.
0
English opera, on a permanent basis, at
popular prices, which has been on trial for the
past month at the American Theatre, is, we
are pleased to say, an assured success. In
that time the Castle Square Opera Co. have
given a number of well-known operas with
an admirable chorus and well trained soloists,
and constant improvement is observable.
The success of this company is gratifying for
several reasons. The presentation of good
opera exercises unquestionably a potent in-
fluence on the musical culture of the masses.
Transient productions with high salaried
stars, or even at popular prices, are of little
avail to this end. In the meanwhile a perma-
nent opera system such as the Castle Square
Co. have inaugurated, is certain to be prolific
of splendid results. It is an enterprise that
should be heartily encouraged and supported,
and we have no patience with those super-
critical individuals who expect the "earth"
for fifty or seventy-five cents. The com-
pany are doing good work and they are, we
we are glad to say, getting splendid encour-
agement from the public. Let the good
work go on.
0
As we grow older it seems that our cher-
ished beliefs are destined to be revolution-
ized. It was once thought that the ear for
music differed in some way from the ordinary
ear, and was a special dispensation of Provi-
dence; but it is now claimed that, given a
normal ear and no deficiency in the brain,
there will be the ear for music. Sometimes,
indeed, the sense may be dormant for years,
because it has not been wakened and devel-
oped by hearing music; but in most cases it
exists, and s-hould be cultivated for the future
happiness of the child. But a music-loving,
singing child usually implies a music-loving,
singing mother; and so that matter obsti-
nately dates back,as every other kind of edu-
cation finally does, to your great-grandmother,
who could sing lullabies or other little songs
sweetly and correctly. If you can neither
sing nor make instrumental music yourself,
many a teacher of music can recommend to
you some young woman studying vocal music
who would be glad to sing to your brood
once or twice a week for a very modest sum.
Thus musicians, unlike poets, are made not
born.
0
At a recent meeting of the Incorporated
Society of Musicians in London, Sir John
Stainer discoursed eloquently and earnestly
on the question as to whether the state ought
not to interfere in what is becoming a serious
danger to musical life—the growing number
of incompetent and brazen music-teachers,
whose operations are often extended so in-
geniously that honest teachers are crowded
to the wall. As the state protects musical
property by copyright, he sees no reason why
it should not also interfere to save poor, con-
fiding mothers and widows from wasting their
little all on charlatans. The speaker inclined
to the opinion that there ought to be a rep-
resentative body, with statutory power of
licensing teachers
after duly
testing
their qualifications. The Evening Post says
the argument applies with even greater force
to this country, the paradise of humbug
music-teachers and so-called conservatories.
BEETHOVEN'S SYMPHONIC WORK.
In writing of " The Masters of Symphony"
Emile Michel of the Acade'mie des Beaux
Arts, Paris, has the following to say of Bee-
thoven of whose work in the main he writes
in a semi-antagonistic vein:
Amid all the painful contrasts and incoher-
ences of his character he always remained
true to his art. Art alone helped to support
the burdens of a life which he might have
been tempted to shorten; he concentrated all
his affections on it, and by it he stood, and
consoled and avenged himself for the miseries
of his destiny. The symphony, more than
any other form of music, was, says M. Michel,
the form which best suited his genius:
" I t alone could impart to the confused ardors
that seethed in him an expression sufficiently
©
Following the steps of the theatrical man-
agers, who it is said recently formed a trust,
the actors have now organized a labor union.
Thus commerce again gets the best of art.
Over seven hundred actors who are mem-
bers of the Actors' Society of America have
expressed their willingness to join.
By
this means the actors will have the backing
of organized labor when they wish to bring
managers to terms, especially on the road.
As a board of walking delegates is quite
essential to the success of a labor union, there
will be as many applicants for the "soft
snaps" as there are for appointments from
Mayor Van Wyck.
Why waste words on the advancement of
musical and histrionic art in America with
musicians and actors considering themselves
purely artisans?
©
Dr. Henry G. Hanchett, the well-known
musician and teacher, seems to have taken a
long step towards solving the problem of
pedal effects on the piano. He has invented
a sustaining pedal by which fundamental
basses can be isolated and sustained without
interference from the ordinary damper pedal,
which is not the case with the sostenuto
pedal as commonly applied. Then, as the
use of the damper pedal is frequently re-
quired in connection with the sustaining
pedal, thus employing both feet, Dr. Han-
chett has also invented an ingenious little de-
vice by which the soft pedal can be applied
at the same time by a knee lever.
o
Mr. Seidl will go to London in May to pre-
side again over the Wagner operas in the
regular season at Covent Garden. Signor
Campanari, Herr von Rooy, and possibly
Madame Gadski and Mile. Ackt6, from Paris,
will be added to the company. M. Jean de
Reszke' will, it is hoped, be heard as Sieg-
mund, and Madame Calvd as Ophelia, while
the company will, it is understood, include
MM. Van Dyck, Dippel, Plancjon, Renaud,
Pringle, and Reichmann; Miss Brema, and
Madame Eames.
clear, yet indefinite—mysterious and elo-
quent." In the third, or " Eroica " sym-
phony, says M. Michel, after having touched
on the first and second symphonies, " we
search in vain for any trace of the style of
Beethoven's predecessors;" it is a work
"stamped with a poignant sadness, and ele-
vated by that lyrical inspiration which hither-
to had been unknown in the symphony."
Beethoven here made the symphony an in-
strument of wholly personal expression. " It
is himself, his hopes and despair, his suffer-
ings broken by his bursts of joy that he paints
for us. And just- because he put himself
completely into his work, its contrasts are the
more startling, its notes the more profound,
more intimate. The manner in which he con-
ceived it, too, accounts in some degree for
the originality of its inspiration." M. Michel
retells the well-known story of Bernadotte,
the French Ambassador at Vienna, suggest-
ing to Beethoven that he should compose an
important work in honor of Napoleon, then
First Consul; of Beethoven's brooding long
over the idea, and at last writing the
" E r o i c a " symphony; of his anger when he
heard news of the Corsican's becoming Em-
peror, and his exclaiming, "Why, he's noth-
ing but an ordinary man after all!" M.
Michel omits, however, to mention that other
remark of the master's, when he heard of
Napoleon's death: "Ah! I have already writ-
ten the music for that ceremony"—meaning,
of course, the famous "Funeral March" which
forms the slow movement of the symphony.