Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
national air or national hymn and there
should be little excuse for popular ignor-
ance of that fact. Still, how few persons
there are, comparatively speaking, who
know the words of Key's song! Within
recent years the schools of the country have
sung them regularly and in many cases
daily. As a result, there are few of the
rising generation of Americans who do not
know the words. Unfortunately, the child-
ren are not always taught to stand when
they sing this hymn or hear it played.
The fact that we are not a military nation
may explain that neglect, and also the
further fact that the great majority of the
people have not been taught to uncover
as the flag is carried by in processions or
displayed upon formal occasions.
F^URING our war with Spain, frequent
*—* reference was made to the dearth of
patriotic songs as compared with the mul-
titude of creditable effusions which were
born during our domestic strife in the six-
ties. It seems the same condition of things
prevails to-day in England in connection
with her war with the Boers. In a Lon-
don paper George Gissing sets out to
explain why Tyrtaeus is not wanted:
" Certain minds of our day," he says,
"find a harsh incongruity between their
conception of the poet's calling and the
thought of one who incites to warfare.
Poetry concerns itself, as always, with the
woes and strivings and madnesses of man;
it depicts, idealises, whatsoever of it befalls
humanity; but—save, perhaps, in most ex-
ceptional circumstances—noble verse may
no longer raise the battle cry. Every man
of enough education to pen a rhyme knows
that amid all conflict of opinion, under all
disguises of passion, the thought of the
civilized world abhors brute strife, and
looks for the ascendancy of reason." We
quite concur with the writer that there are
enough themes for poetry without inspiring
the lust of fighting. Besides, "Music,
heavenly maid," cannot fittingly have any-
thing to do with Dum-dum bullets and
lyddite shells.
T H E art of musical criticism is now
*
brought to concert pitch. Speaking
of a new piece entitled "L'Ange du Ber-
ceau," a contemporary says that it is an
expressive and taking composition, and
adds: "It would be a pity, though, that
even a baby in the cradle should be allowed
to hear the consecutive octaves that figure
in the second line of the second page." If
the composer had only introduced a few of
what musicians call "triplet quavers," no
critic and no baby would have complained.
T IFE in a great city like New York
*—' abounds in sunshine and shadows.
Nowhere else perhaps are the extremes
of wealth and poverty so evident. If you
have never wandered below Eighth street
and have as a consequence believed
that there is no ambition, no gayety or
gladness in the dull, stifled lives of the
" Children of the Slums," make it a point
to journey there and notice what keen en-
joyment and pleasure the much despised
piano-organ affords to these poor souls.
Apparently all suggestions of mirth and
poetry and romance that these little crea-
tures ever get come from the piano organ.
At the first glimpse of it the agile little
creatures run dancing into the dirty street,
and frolic rhythmically about, in time to
the music, until the good-natured operator
gets tired alid moves on. And as their
happy little faces show, they enjoy it more
than a debutante enjoys her first ball.
And they can dance almost as well—for
they are unconscious of their feet, and
She began her musical studies at an early
age under the care of the best local teach-
ers.
In 1891 she was taken abroad to fin-
ish her education as a violinist. The fam-
ily met reverses and the young girl was
forced to return. She bravely set out to
earn something, and played her best at
summer hotels of New England for two
years.
Rich patrons of art became interested
in her future—and she made a second trip
to Europe. She became a pupil of Joachim
and her progress was most rapid. On
Oct. 17, 1896, she
made her debut at a
concert of the Berlin
Philharmonic orches-
tra, the great vio-
linist honoring his
pupil by taking the
baton when the or-
chestra played her ac-
companiment.
Her
success was instan-
taneous.
She was
summoned at once to
play at the German
Court. A year later
Miss Jackson won
the coveted Men-
delssohn State Prize
—a prize of much
value.
Since then she has
played everywhere—
in London with all
the big orchestras,
in Liverpool, at the
Leipzig
Gewand
Haus, at the Bremen,
Dusseldorf, Cologne
and Antwerp Phil-
harmonic
concerts,
in Paris with the
Colonne orchestra—
in fact, in all the
musical centers of
LEONORA JACKSON.
the Old World. Re-
the instinct of keeping time seems to be cently she was summoned to Windsor to
play before Queen Victoria, and among her
their birthright.
Now to city governments interested in most precious trinkets the young American
Utopias there ought to be a lesson in these artist counts a jewelled star with the royal
facts. City officials gifted with true wis- monogram V. R. I.
dom would give free concerts for the poor
T T is somewhat amusing in these days of
in public buildings or would employ small
* technical perfection in pianoforte play-
bands of musicians to tour the poorer dis-
ing
to remember that not so very long ago
tricts daily and thus contribute to the
it
was
considered that with Liszt, Thal-
moral and social development of these little
berg,
Rubinstein
and Tausig the school of
children of the poor. Sounds visionary, of
brilliant
execution
had reached its apogee.
course, but think, what a recompense!
It was assumed that the degree of mechan-
ical proficiency attained by these masters
JWI ISS LEONORA JACKSON, the young was the highest possible. To-day there
* " * American violinist, whose career in are hundreds of fabricated pianists to
Europe has been most successful, returned whom nothing that exists in pianoforte
Thursday last on the Germanic.
She is music offers difficulties which cannot be
engaged for a large number of concerts conquered with a little patience and prac-
during the present season. Her first ap- tice.
pearance was with the Philharmonic
The improvements that have been made
Society at
Carnegie Hall
yesterday in the manufacture of pianos, the discovery
afternoon when she played a concerto of the extraordinary results in the matter
by Brahms.
of digital dexterity and agility which fol-
The young artist is a native of Boston low continuous and assiduous practice, the
and boasts of Revolutionary ancestry. growth of that optimism, stimulated by
When a child her family moved to Chicago. competition, which makes light of all prob-