Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRKDE REVIEW
ARTISTS' DEPARTMENT.
TELEPHONE
NUMBER.
1745.--EIQHTEENTH
STREET
The Artists' Department of The Review is
published on the first Saturday of each month.
JOSEFFY REDIVIVUS.
'"THERE is no keener pleasure than to an-
* nounce that this great artist is again be-
fore the public as a pianist, for be it under-
stood that Joseffy is always in the eye of all
who know aught of music.. He has consented
to play a few concerts this season and since
his brilliant appearance in Toronto there are
endless requests for the great pianist who is
more to the true lover of all that is greatest
in music than he ever was before. Needless,
indeed, to tell of his personality, for the mod-
esty and the earnestness of the man is but too
well known, as is his art, which has never
been surpassed by any living pianist.
Joseffy is promised to New York later in
the season. He is now filling engagements
out of town and from all over come expres-
sions of delight that America is again priv-
ileged to hear its own Joseffy, who is unsur-
• passable and an American citizen. Our cover
page this week is adorned with an excellent
counterfeit presentment of this great artist.
for the beautiful, the chaste, the simple, the
genial melodies that the Salzburg composer
in his short span of life gave to the world.
There is also the plea for its perpetuation in
the hearts of the many.
No living singer is better qualified to be the
advocate of what Sembrich so gracefully
terms "pure, tuneful, fluent song," for she
sings music of the sort—absolute music—
better than any of her contemporaries.
It is a difficult task to sing simple music
well. In declamatory dramatic music all the
niceties of art, perforce, must be sacrificed,
and if a singer has not these niceties at her
command, their absence in her work is more
a matter to be theoretically deplored than
practieally observed. But every impurity of
tone, every slur of attack, every coarseness of
production, every imperfection of phrasing
asserts itself in Mozart's melodies.
The singer who triumphs in such music—
and Sembrich does—reaches the highest pos-
sible eminence in musical art.
For the sake of good taste in music, let
every one hope that Sembrich's New Year's
wish—for such it is—will be fulfilled.
OPERA FOR THE MASSES IN PARIS.
T" HE American who converses with the
' Parisian is often reminded by him that
opera in his city is not as largely confined to
those of wealth as it is in New York. Some
light has been thrown on this subject by
Pierre Lalo, who, in an article in the Temps
declares
that Paris is the only French city
BIO SALARIES TO SINGERS.
where
the
poor have no chance to hear good
IT appears that Jean de Reszke holds the
music,
and
that one can tell the Parisian from
* champion record in the matter of salaries
the
provincial
workman by the fact that the
received by male singers, having been paid
former,
in
his
workshop,
sings vulgar vaude-
$36,000 for sixteen appearances. Mme,. Pat-
ti, of course, ranks the highest in the matter ville tunes, while the other sings operatic airs.
of salaries paid the other sex. F. J. Crowest Various attempts have been made to give
states that she has earned a round five million cheap opera in Paris, but they have always
dollars with her wonderful voice. During failed, because one or more of half a dozen
the year she netted $70,000, a sum much conditions of success were lacking. The lat-
greater than many a successful lawyer or doc- est project is that of Albert Carre, director of
tor earns in a lifetime. Day after day, during the Opera Comique. He has the company,
one part of her career, she made within two the scenery, the experience, the repertory, the
or three hours over $5,000, and was coining promise of state aid, and a chance to secure
money at a rate which, if it could have been the Hippodrome, which seats 5,000, and
maintained, would have made her a million- would enable the management to sell tickets
aire within three years. The highest figure at ten to forty cents. All that is needed is the
ever paid to a singer at Covent Garden was co-operation of the city, and the city is hesi-
$48,000 paid to Mme. Patti in 1870 for six- tating.
teen appearances, or $3,000 for each appear-
WORTHY OF EMULATION.
ance. She has, however, beaten this record
A
T
the
recent meeting of the Incorporated
in her American tours, when she has obtained,
**
Society
of Musicians of Ireland, held in
as she did at New Orleans in the eighties, as
Dublin,
the
memory
of Sir Robt. Stewart, the
much as $6,000 a night. Her fees for sing-
great
Irish
musician,
and a widely known au-
ing have been "princely"; but she probably
thority
on
the
music
of that country, was
"bears the palm" in her profession for being
eulogized
by
those
in
attendance.
It is inter-
paid for not singing, for at one season at
esting
in
view
of
the
efforts
which
we
Covent Garden, besides her $4,000 a perform-
are
making
in
this
city
to
secure
a
permanent
ance, she was paid a "retainer" of $60,000 not
orchestra, as well as other plans for a wider dis-
to sing elsewhere for a certain period.
semination of musical knowledge, to read Sir
Robert's plans for educating Dublin in 1881.
MME. SEMBRICH'S FAVORITE.
VERY prima donna has her favorite com- They are worth patterning after:
His epitome included: (1) Historical con-
poser. Sembrich's is Mozart.. Writing
to the World recently in this subject she said: certs; (2) lectures on the scientific and philo-
"It pleases me to think that in spite of the sophical aspects of music; (3) a better style
popular taste for highly-spiced dramatic mu- of pianoforte teaching, with some attention to
sic the love for Mozart is still alive. It ought sight playing and the knowledge of classical
to grow day by day so that pure, tuneful, form; (4) the inclusion of sight singing as a
part of the course of every school through-
fluent song may not die."
Here we find expressed the singer's love out the country; (5) a resident orches-
tral band of sixty performers to refine and
guide the taste of the public; (6) a good con-
cert hall and a really fine organ erected there.
"To these suggestions," he said, "I would
add the inclusion of music as a voluntary sub-
ject in the curriculum of the universities,
some authorized qualifications for teachers of
music—quacks being discountenanced—and
the means of adequately trying over and, if
found worthy, of producing in public the
works of young composers who are now
placed at great disadvantage by the impossi-
bility of their works being heard."
In another place Stewart had said: "I do
not see the least likelihood of an orchestral
band being maintained in Dublin upon a self-
supporting basis, and it follows that we must
depend upon some sort of an endowment."
He went into the cost of this scheme and,
with something of a hopeful yet doubtful
look, he glanced toward the city fathers,
wondering if they could be moved.
^t
DESIRE TEACHERS TO BE MUSICAL
A BILL prepared by the Illinois Associ-
** ation of Music Teachers has been in-
troduced in the Legislature of that State,
providing for a board of five examiners, at
least two to be pianists, one a violinist, and
one a vocalist, to pass upon the qualifications
of teachers. The expenses are to be met from
an annual license fee of $3 on authorized
teachers of music.
A CHANCE TO BECOME WORLD-FAMOUS.
'"FHE latest scheme in the matter of the
' illustrated postal card fad—which by the
way, has never become here the same rage as
in European countries—is a proposition sent
to all musicians of any importance in this
city for their latest photograph that it may
be added to the series of celebrity postal cards
which the publisher is preparing. He is also
anxious to know if every person to whom he
applies will not be willing to promise at least
$40 toward defraying the expenses of print-
ing the card, which are to cost five cents
apiece. In view of this payment the subject
of the photograph will receive 200 copies. As
they supply the photographs and the cards
cannot cost more than a cent, the celebrities
who appear on these postal cards must be
prepared to pay for the fame they will ac-
quire. And it is not likely that American
interest in postal cards will be stimulated by
this device.
J»
THE SECRET AT LAST REVEALED.
A N interrogative man was talking to a
** singing teacher of some prominence a
few days ago and in the course of the con-
versation noted the coming and going of
large shoals of feminine pupils. Suddenly
he recalled a matter that had long puzzled
him. He again interrogated the teacher, who,
up to this time, had been a model of patience.
"Why are women in this country so much
more successful than men in singing?"
"Well, it's not because there are no good
male voices, as some people seem to think,
but simply because so few men study sing-
ing."
"Why is that, please?"
"It doesn't pay. Men can make more
money doing other things. Unless a man