Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
equally hard to compute the money paid
by Americans for theatrical amusement.
Separate audiences yield from absolutely
nothing, in extreme cases of failure, to as
much as $20,000 at an exceptional perfom-
ance of opera. A conservative calculation
is that the aggregate reaches $70,000,000
a year. Not less than one and a half mil-
lion persons sit in these theatres each week-
day night in the season of at least eight
months.
*
A N enterprising young woman of this
• city has opened up a studio on Fifth
avenue with the object of teaching accom-
panying. It is entitled "A School of Ac-
companying," and seems to be meeting
with no small measure of success. "Every
one knows that to read music readily is the
first essential for an accompanist," says
Miss Dunn, the principal of this institu-
tion, "but no matter how able or fluent a
woman might be in this regard—I say
woman, because nearly all accompanists
are women—if she did not have the cool-
ness and the tact to do the right thing in
emergency she would not fill the place.
"The effective requisites for the profes-
sion are sympathy—of course with thor-
ough music knowledge for a groundwork
—tact and adaptability. The successful
accompaniment player must be subservient,
must be content to be merely a background,
but at the same time the most versatile and
responsive of backgrounds. She must have
a warm heart and a cool head. The reason
that men are not popular, or, as a rule,
successful, accompanists, is because they
lack the unassertiveness and pliancy of a
woman player. The man with ability
enough to be an accompanist is apt to seek
more prominence, and, anyhow, the mas-
culine touch is too positive. Accompany-
ing is essentially a woman's field and one
occupation at least that she is not likely to
be supplanted in. It pays well to the
proper practitioner.
"The musical directory of New York
shows from 40 to 50 professional ac-
companists, while the list of resident and
visiting singers likely to need such service
runs away up into the hundreds. More-
over, not all of these accompanists are
satisfactory by any means, so the experts
have all the work they can do and more,
and many singers and managers have to
put up with accompanists that are either
draw backs or just makeshifts."
*
A SERIES of Sunday night concerts will
**• begin at Carnegie Hall on Nov. 5,
under the management of Mr. Victor
Thrane. The Kaltenborn Orchestra will
be employed and the soloists will include
Petschnikoff, Mark Hambourg, Frances
Saville, Elsa Ruegger, Leonora Jackson,
Voight and Katherine Bloodgood.
*
C M I L PAUR, who returned recently
•—' from his European vacation, has the
following to say of his plans for the pres-
ent season; "I shall conduct at the Met-
ropolitan the entire Wagnerian cycle, be-
ginning with 'Rienzi' and concluding
with 'Parsifal,'" he said. "This will be
followed by an elaborate production of
'Fidelio,' which, too, I shall conduct.
"I shall lead also the opening Philhar-
monic concerts in New York. Besides
this I have taken the directorship of the
National Conservatory of Music, which
will give four concerts at Madison Square
Garden during the operatic season. Be-
fore the season opens I may make a trip
of a few weeks with my orchestra through
the leading cities.
"I hope that the orchestra will be much
advanced over last year. I have in mind
many changes. As head of the first vio-
lins, or as 'concert master,' I will have
Nahan Franko."
Mr. Paur was asked about the report
from Germany that Dr. Muck, of the
"O Deus Optime," dated about 1688. The
melody may have been by Henry Carey or
Dr. John Bull, whose "Ayre" was played
on the organ before James I., at Merchant
Taylors Hall, in July, 1607, or a develop-
ment of an older tune. But it certainly
was not by Lully. That the nuns of St.
Cyr, who were supposed to have made the
ridiculous affidavit in 1819, (Lully died in
1687,) may have been acquainted with the
tune, is most probable, considering that in
the latter part of the last century it was the
State tune of almost every country in
Europe. In Denmark it was "Heil dir
dem liebenden," in Prussia and all
North Germany it was "Heil Dir, im
Siegerkranz," in Wei-
mar it was "Brause du
Freiheit Sang," in Aus-
tria it was the national
anthem until Hadyn
composed his sublime
tune, in Russia it was
the State hymn until
1833 it was superseded
by the anthem of Lwoff,
in Switzerland it still
figures as "Rufst du,
mein Vaterland," in
Sweden it is still the
State tune, while it is
also one of the National
hymns of America, as
set to the beautiful
words of the Unitarian
minister Charles Tim-
othy Brooks, beginning
"God bless our native
land, Firm may she ever
stand, Through storm
and night."
has
D R. just RICHTER
signed a fresh
contract with the au-
thorities of the Imperial
Opera, Vienna, extend-
ing to the end of 1904.
He reserves the right to
conduct at Manchester
MARKZHAMBOURG.
the Halle Concerts dur-
Royal Opera in Berlin, was to come over ing a portion of next winter, and to direct
this season as conductor for Mr. Grau. his Autumn and Winter concerts in Eng-
"I have a letter from Mr. Grau," he land, given annually under the manage-
replied, "in which he denies that he has ment of Mr. Vert. He may also conduct
in 1901 at Baireuth, but this would, of
made any offer to Muck."
course, be in the vacation. Otherwise,
*
for the next five years he will devote him-
'T'HE American and Italian papers, says
self to Vienna, while after January, 1905,
* the Daily News of London, h a v e -
when he will be well past sixty, he will
sure sign of the silly season—trotted out
probably be thinking of retirement.
once more the question of the origin of
*
"God Save the Queen," and the venerable
claim in the souvenirs of the Malrquise de P R O M Rome comes the report that Verdi
Crequy that the tune was the work of Lully *• has given up all idea of writing any
and the words by Mme. de Brinon. Prof. more operas, but has been engaged for
Paul Robert has, for some reason, reopened some time on his memoirs, which will soon
the question, but more than half a century be completed. He spoke about his inten-
ago the so-called "Souvenirs" were proved tion to write such a book to a friend sev-
to be a clumsy and audacious forgery, eral years ago, explaining that what im-
probably the work, in 1834, of one Cousen pelled him to undertake this task was less
de St. Malo. Whoever was the real author the desire to tell the story of his life than
of the words of what Mr. Gilbert calls ' 'our to explain to the world how he came to
illiterate national anthem," has not much change his operatic principles so completely
to brag about, although it is possible they in his latter period. His attitude towards
may be an adaptation of the Latin lines, Wagner, whom he acknowledges as his