Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
in most cases the shallowness of the hearers.
But it is a fact that more people are inter-
ested in music than formerly, because music
has become a part of the most ordinary edu-
cation and it is appreciated much in the same
way as is literature which has a thousand
admirers of Marie Corelli to one of Homer
or Shakespeare.
In order to fill the requirements demanded
by the public at present, an artist must be a
fad or he must be super-human. If he have
a most colossal technic then will he be
abused because he has too much technic and
no soul, delicacy and poetry. If he has
enormous intellectuality, he will be dubbed
dry and pedagogic. If New York critics
agree in his praise (which could not occur, as
no two criticisms ever show that they were
written at the same occasion), then Boston
hastes to denounce him; if Boston calls him
an artist, New York immediately represents
he is an impostor.
In the face of such conditions who is there
to-day whose word could go down as his-
tory? Who could rely upon anything? No
one, for there is nothing upon which to rely.
On the one side there are nauseating praises,
praises which could not be realized and
which every body knows on the face of them
represent money or personal interest; on the
other hand there is such abuse that any one
with sane judgment knows that if an artist
were really so deficient he would never at-
tempt to appear nor could a manager at-
tempt to exploit him.
If history which is being created to-day
is so absolutely unreliable and untruthful,
why should we believe that the same con-
ditions did not exist in the past? Therefore
down with history; there is none. There is
nothing but the expression of this one or
that one's opinion and no one's opinion is to
be relied upon, for there is no telling upon
what it is based and may be the result of
any thing from a champagne supper to a
disordered liver.
In all lines of business there is protection
but not for the artist; he is the football of
.whoever is able to secure a pen and a piece
of paper. His reputation is his stock in
trade, not his actual worth, unfortunately,
and that reputation is up to receive mud
from any one who wishes to sling it. There
is no more unfortunate calling than that of
the artist. He lives to endure the slurs of
all who wish to injure him. and he dies to
leave no history.
CROTCHETS.
\\J HERE harmony should reign supreme
it hardly ever fails that there is the
home of discord. It is doubtful if anywhere
within the whole radius of musical life there
is so much discord as among choirs. This
time Mrs. Louise Sabin of Brooklyn sends
forth the fiat that the surplice chorus girls
should wear neither pompadours nor colored
ribbons, and upon this hinges tropical words,
salt tears, and frigid feelings. From the side
of aestheticism Mrs. Sabin is perfectly correct,
and it is doubtless that if she had presented
it from this standpoint, not one of the girls
would have disagreed with her; but when she
denounces pompadours and ribbons as "un-
seemly in the eyes of God," it makes one
stop to think of one or two other things and
"it is to laugh"—also to cry.
""T HE gigantic ignorance displayed by the
New York audiences in matter of ap-
plause is no less annoying than it is laughable.
( )rjewho is sensitive upon this subject can not
refrain from the thought of the east side melo-
dramatic shows where the people yell at the
hero and hiss at the villain. Probably Jean
De Reszke is enough of an artist to admit
that it makes his flesh creep and his blood run
cold with shame for the ignorance of those
who break in upon the music to "give him a
hand." When the people can be made to
realize that an artist lives for his art and not
for applause these glaring breaches of art and
indeed etiquette will cease.
j*
A ND this brings us face to face with the
artist and his devotion to art. How
many artists think of anything except the
round of applause which awaits them after
the last note (and it must be a high one) has
been sounded ? How many accompanists can
tell a shameful story of the singer who cuts
out four to six measures of accompaniment
with the remark,"Just close that with a chord.
I don't want you to hold off the applause."
And worse yet, if there are a few measures
interlude, they must be hurried and distorted
just to suit the vanity of the singer who for-
gets everything except that the song is a ve-
hicle whereby he may display himself and
his voice. And the high notes! What are
rhythm, interpretation, phrasing, what is any-
thing compared to a high note upon which
a singer may suspend himself for half an
hour while the applaudists prepare for a fu-
silade, and true musicians are disgusted.
Jt
O PEAKING of things inartistic, what is
to be compared to the new fad of carry-
ing a tiny electric contrivance with which to
scan the libretto at an operatic performance ?
What is more inartistic than the libretto de-
votion itself? If it is worth while attending
opera at all it certainly should be worth while
knowing what is going on, and this should
be done not by any means at the opera, but at
home. It would not be amiss for some clever
musician to give a series of talks with illus-
tration of motive and points of especial im-
portance. That is the place to read or study
the libretto. That is the place to discuss the
symbolism, the music, the composer, even the
styles of dress if you please, but at the opera
—never. That is a clear confession that you
know nothing about it.
T^HE enthusiasm which was displayed at the
Sunday night concerts during the opera
season when choral works were given in their
entirety would make it seem as though the
people could enjoy more choral concerts than
they get. As the matter now stands there
are only two or three concerts by the Musical
Art Society and the same by the Oratorio
Society, Frank Damrosch conductor of both.
Of course there are private concerts by the
Arion, the Liederkranz, but these the hoi
polloi, the great musical unwashed, may not
attend, as they are private affairs.
The Apollo and Rubinstein clubs are for
fashionable people, which is enough said, and
they too give no concerts for the public, so
that every thing seems to be propitious for
more public choral concerts.- But the most
important feature is that the conductor, cho-
rus, orchestra and soloists be first-class. By-
the-way, Walter Henry Hall is a conductor
who has too long been overlooked in New
York, because he lives on the other side of
the bridge. His familiarity with oratorio,
his savoir faire in general, could well serve
New York.
je
. |
JOSEF HOFJ1ANN.
T T is unnecessary to introduce to our readers
the eminent pianist Josef Hofmann, for
wherever music has found its way, so has the
name of the wonder child who could play
with marvellous skill almost before he could
talk plainly. His removal from the public
until years of practice had passed over his
head has been of invaluable benefit to the art
and to music lovers, for it has developed an
artist of the rarest qualities and it has given
music an interpreter that will serve it honest-
ly and devotedly. Not the least to be ex-
pected from Hofmann are his compositions,
which even now, while he is scarcely out of
childhood, are wonderful in conception
sanity, construction, dignity and grace. He
is an acquisition to the age, and his extreme
youth leaves unbounded, immeasurable pos-
sibilities before him, for he ranks to-day with
anyone before the public.
J*
FESTIVAL NEWS.
The only definite announcement for the
Worcester Festival is that Gertrude May
Stein will create the role in George Chad-
wick's new work entitled "Judith."
Suzanne Adams and Campanari have been
engaged for the Maine Festival in October.