Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
glance, but students are criminal in the
laxity of their work. They rarely think
of art as art, but as a medium for making
money. Hard work they absolutely will
not do. A tea or a dressmaker's appoint-
ment is of more importance than a lesson
let alone a study hour, and then the
slipshod, careless manner in which they
practice is more dangerous than to let
practicing severely alone. How many
pupils have ambition to rival Sem-
brich, who would not put themselves
out, to the extent of learning a major from
a minor chord, who would not devote one
hour a day to the technic of the voice, and
after all this worthless work if a kindly,
well-meant criticism be offered, the deadly
enmity of the aspirant for fame is as
certain as the dawn of day. Teachers
thrust unripe pupils on to the public,
not always because they want to, but
because the pupils are determined to ap-
pear, and it means the loss of a pupil if
this be denied them. This is the first de-
cadent step. Then come press notices for
reproduction; a word is eliminated here
and a sentence there, until a notice in which
a few agreeable things were said in order
to leave a little ray of hope has been trans-
posed into a blaze of words to which noth-
ing could be added if it were written of
Sembrich or De Reszke. Then come the
hundreds of other teachers with their
thousands of green, unripe and totally
indigestible pupils who thought they were
not quite ready, but if Number One
made such a success, and "got along" on
that sort of thing, there is nothing on
earth to prevent them from doing the
same thing. So they do—and that is what
we have to listen to; that is vocal art as
she is traduced. Angels and Ministers of
Grace defend us!
ness, hatred; but D'Indy must be suffer-
ing from art's bitterest enemy, jealousy, to
have so far forgotten dignity and truth
as to make a statement of that sort
while at the head of an institution which,
he knows, if he knows anything, will be
largely supported by the Semites who
never fail to support art, to educate their
children if they show the slightest ten-
dency to musical talent. The truth of
this statement and the untruth of D'Indy's
is proven by one hasty glance at the his-
tory of the great artists of to-day, of
the past, and could we but look into
the future the Semitic blood would be
distinguishable in music's heart throbs
just as it has been from the day that the
children of Israel sang in the desert. It is
possible that D'Indy has the excitable tem-
perament of the Frenchman, but that is
by no means the temperament which, as in
the case of the Semite, has grown from
suffering, oppression and sorrow. For cen-
turies, nineteen in number, the Jew has
been knocked from pillar to post, his home
has been pillaged and destroyed, his family
has been scoffed at and scorned, and
in return for all this let us see what he has
gained. Endurance, mental discipline and
a soul that knows suffering and rises supe-
rior to the emergency. Consequently the
Jew's relation to music could not be more
intimate, for to him for centuries has been
given that note which comes from a soul
crushed until it gives forth its purest and
best, and that song reaches the heart as it
came from the heart. D'Indy's remark
may be another seed of hatred planted
against the Semite, but he cannot prevent
the race from producing Rubinsteins and
Joseffys, and Rosenthals, and Bernhardts,
and Goldmarks and—but wherefore enu-
merate?
D'llNDY AND AINTi-StfllTISn.
CROCHETS.
T H E Schola Cantorum has just opened 1\|EW YORK is an admirable dumping
ground for assorted styles and sizes
new quarters in Paris. Upon this
of
musical
aspirants. They come from the
occasion, Vincent D'Indy, director of mu-
sic, gave a most interesting address, part East, from the West, from the North, from
of which is translated from Le Monde Mu- the South, from Europe, from Australia,
from Canada, from—well, what matter?
sical in another column of this issue.
At the same time there was one clause They come, that is all that absolutely con-
which was not translated; it was a clause cerns New York. This helps to make New
which would have degraded the article from York cosmopolitan; it also helps to show
the height which it otherwise attains. The many of New York's students what not to
clause in question was the following: "My do. Would that it might affect New York's
dear friends: That which we should seek music committees and its managers and
in our works of art is not the profit. its promoters of music in general in the
Let us leave such negotiations to the too- same manner.
numero s Semites who encumber music T UCKY Paderewski! Is his wife also his
since it has become a source of revenue."
press agent besides being his business
Such a remark can only come from a manager? If so, gentlemen, hats off to
country reeking with the Dreyfus horror one who can at a moment's notice have
—entirely a case of Anti-Semitism. One him killed in a duel, his picture in the
can understand prejudice, narrow-minded- papers while he is calmly enjoying an after-
dinner smoke. However, this statement
before his marriage would have carried
more advertising power, as it would have
been signal for all of the dear, adoring, wil-
lowy girls to drape his photo and wear a
band of crepe on the left leg of their pi-
anos. It is to be hoped, however, that De
Pachmann will not hear of this as it might
make a parallel case with the man who,
when told that his mother-in-law was dead,
exclaimed, "Don't, please don't make me
laugh; I have a cracked lip."
Jt
M E V E R a concert in New York but the
hot water pipes at Mendelssohn Hall
are out with their little hammers, and such
pounding and beating no one ever heard.
There is no danger that any one might
drop to sleep during a Beethoven sonata,
even the Opus i n would be perfectly safe,
as the pipes would be insurance against
somnolence. But if managers and concert-
givers pay forty or fifty dollars, it would
seem that the proprietors of the hall might
pay a boy fifty cents to drain off the water
accumulated in aforesaid pipes.
j*
\ 1 7 I T H January ist, 1901, the works of
the following composers will have
become exempt from royalties and will
henceforth become cheaper: Ignace Mo-
scheles, Charles de Beriot, Joseph Strauss,
Theodore Oesten and M. Balfe. Even at
a bargain sale, who wants Balfe and Oesten
in the twentieth century? There are doubt-
less many violinists who will revel in the De
Beriot pyrotechnics, and Moscheles—dear,
good, simple, old Moscheles—will always
retain respect; Joseph Strauss will always
be the great and only original Waltz King
and Johann will run him a close second,
but even now Richard is no longer afraid
to be just plain Strauss, for every one
knows that the great Strauss in the public's
eye at present is he of Zarathustra fame.
Jt
A NOTICEABLE fact during the holi-
day season was that most of the ab-
sent-voiced beggars who sang on the
street to attract the financial attention of
the passersby sang La Marseillaise. Is it
that they are French, or do they know
that there is no Frenchman alive who
could refuse a quarter to the tune of his
national hymn? Too bad that America
has not a song equally valuable to these
poor wanderers, but then "A Hot Time in
the Old Town" goes a long way.
j*
TT would be interesting to know what are
the qualifications necessary for an ap-
pearance as soloist with the Rubinstein
Club, also where the program committee
picked up such a gem as Massimo Massimi,
the tenor who climbed up and down the