Music Trade Review

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THE
ANTONIN DVORAK IS DEAD.
Composer Expires Suddenly From Apoplexy at
Prague—Was Three Years in America—His
Theory as to the Possibility of Founding a
National Style of Music in This Country.
A dispatch from Prague, Bohemia, dated May
1, reports the death of Dr. Antonin Dvorak, the
noted composer, director of the Conservatory of
Music at Prague, and formerly director of the
New York Conservatory of Music, which occurred
from apoplexy. He was sixty-two years old.
Dr. Dvorak was the son of a butcher and inn-
keeper at Mulhausen, Bohemia, and was himself
a butcher in his youth. From such humble be-
ginnings he became one of the master musicians
and composers of his time.
There is a tinge of romance in his life story,
which is one of manifest destiny, of signal tri-
umph over obstacles and discouraging environ-
ment. In his personal character and his work
he emphasized the highest ideals, nevertheless
he was so tolerant as to admire the melodies of
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
phony, "From the New World," first performed
by the Philharmonic Society under Anton Seidl
on December 15, 1893. The theories underlying
the work aroused much discussion, but there
has never been any question as to the great
beauty and striking originality of the music.
Other important compositions of Dr. Dvorak
are his orchestral ballads, two sets of symphonic
variations for orchestras, his second set of Slav-
onic Dances, the four symphonies preceding the
American, the secular cantata, "The American
Flag" (produced in New York in 1895), his Re-
quiem, his chamber music works, especially the
piano quintet in A; the six-string quartets, and
the two piano quartets, and many charming
songs.
Dvorak music was all characterized by exquis-
ite clarity of form and spontaneity of melody.
His fancy seemed to be inexhaustible and his
grasp of the elements of form so complete that
it was once well said of him, "He thinks in sym-
phonies." One of the charms of his larger works
was the exquisite orchestration. He was regard-
ed as one of the best teachers of composition
and orchestration, and pupils were always at his
door.
As a man he was extremely modest and retir-
ing. While he was in New York he made no at-
tempt whatever to attract attention to himself,
and the prolonged enthusiasm with which his
American symphony was received appeared to
embarrass him greatly.
OPERA'S GREATEST YEAR
In New York Has Just Closed—Director Conried
Makes Splendid Report and is Warmly
Thanked.
ANTONIN DVORAK.
the American negro and to believe that in the
music of the colored people was to be found the
real folk-songs of this country.
Dvorak's greatest composition was his "Stabat
Mater," which produced a sensation when brought
out in London in 1883, and has ever since held
one of the highest places in music. In contrast
to the celebrated and intoxicating "Stabat Mater"
of Rossini's, it breathes the reverential and sor-
rowful spirit of the tragedy of the Cross, and
has been widely favored in the services of the
ritualistic churches.
Dvorak was the director at Prague when, in
1892, he came to America at the invitation
of Mrs. Jeanette Thurber as principal of her
National Conservatory of Music. He made his
first appearance at a concert at Carnegie Hall,
when he conducted the triple overture, "Nature,
Life, and Love," and a "Te Deum," the latter
composed for the occasion. He remained in this
country three years, in the course of which he
took up seriously the study of the possibility of
founding a National American style of music.
His theory was that, as the people as a whole
had no folk song on which to base National
music, the composer must take that which most
nearly supplied the conditions. This he found
in the negro melodies and the Indian chants,
both of which he regarded as having certain es-
sentially American characteristics, as indigenous
to the soil, and as peculiarly sympathetic to the
people.
He wrote several compositions on these lines,
of which the most notable was his E minor sym-
The Conried Metropolitan Opera Company,
which put up $150,000 capital stock for its first
year and stood to lose exactly that much as a
five-year investment, heard good news at the final
meeting at the Opera House last week. The di-
rectors gave to Mr. Conried as impresario a vote
of thanks. They paid a dividend of 6 per cent,
on stock and then declared an "extra"—amount
not stated. Mr. Conried later gave out some
official figures.
Grand opera's receipts in a year of theatrical
panic were $1,150,000. The new management paid
$600,000 to the star singers, in addition to the
cost of dancers, chorus and "extra people"; $98,-
980 for the orchestra and $46,600 to carpenters
and stage hands—an unprecedented sum, this
last.
As the new stage and the scenery and
costumes for "Parsifal," the "Ring" cycle,
"Tannhauser," "Rigoletto" and "Aida" were
counted on for the whole five years of the Opera
House lease, only one-fifth of their cost was
charged against the first year's profits. The to-
tal amount spent on staging "Parsifal" and re-
fitting the others was $250,000. The company
lost $25,000 in Boston, and $40,000 on the six
weeks' spring tour as a whole.
Mr. Conried's second season will open on No-
vember 21 next. The renewal of old subscrip-
tions is about the same as last year. The num-
ber of new applications is about 150 per cent,
higher than last year at the same time. The re-
turn of Conductor Mottl is said to depend only
on another leave of absence from Munich. Lau-
tenschlager, the "technical director," is re-en-
gaged. Of this year's singers, Mr. Conreid says
he has not re-engaged Ackte, Gadski, Ternina,
Kraus or Naval, but that some of these also may
return. He hopes to have individual contracts
with his steamfitters and stage hands next year,
if not with such other humble but useful persons
as the De Reszkes, Nellie Melba, Lillian Nordica
and Emma Eames.
OLD MUSIC HALL TO DISAPPEAR.
St. James Hall, London, which is one of the
oldest concert halls in that city, will be demol-
ished on June 30, and will be replaced by an im-
mense hotel. This familiar concert hall was
opened in 1858, and since that date there have
been many notable concerts in the building in
which the world's greatest artists participated.
MASSENET ON AMERICAN MUSIC.
Evidently Expects Great Things of Us—Scala
Theatre Will Hear the Choice of His Works for
the Next Four Years.
It is announced from Paris that Massenet has
signed an agreement to give the Scala Theatre of
Milan the choice of his works the next four years,
receiving $20,000 as a bonus. So the Italians will
hear his new opera "Cherubin" before the French
do. The libretto was written by the French
dramatist, Francis de Croisset.
Talking of Massenet brings to mind that he
has evidently given considerable attention to
the subject of American music, and expects great
things of us. Louis Elson relates in his "His-
tory of American Music," just issued by the Mac-
millans, that Massenet once said to him regard-
ing the inspiration that ought to come to the
American composer: "Were I in America, I
should be exalted by the glories of your scenery,
your Niagara, your prairies; I should be inspired
by the Western and Southern life; I should be
intoxicated by the beauty of your American wo-
men; national surroundings must always inspire
national music."
NEW OVERTURE BY ELGAR
Recently Produced at the Elgar Festival in Lon-
don—The Subject of Which He Treats so Ad-
mirably.
At the recent Elgar festival in London a new
orchestral work by Dr. Elgar was given for the
first time. It is an overture, Op. 50, called "In
the South (Allassio)," and is the outcome of the
composer's recent visit to Italy, and is said to re-
produce the feeling aroused by a glorious after-
noon in the vale of Audora. The personal ele-
ment, says The Standard, is very prominent in
the music, which, indeed, may be said to be
more typical of the composer than of the Sunny
South. "The joy of life" finds a somewhat fever-
ish expression in the opening of the work, but
contrast comes with a pastoral episode suggested,
to quote the composer, "by a shepherd with his
flock and his homemade music." The subsequent
development at a first hearing seems too long,
but it leads to a very stirring section, inspired
by the sight of some remains of the works of the
ancient Romans, "an old stone track which
Crosses the valley, and the bridge which is still
used." These prompted the composer to "en-
deavor to paint the relentless and domineering
onward force of the ancient day, and give a sound
picture of the strife and wars of a later time."
This episode is the strongest portion of the over-
ture.
MACDOWELL'S FUTURE.
Suggested That We May Now Hope for More Liter-
ary as Well as Musical and Concert Work.
Now that MacDowell has given up his onerous
duties as professor, it is to be hoped, says Henry
T. Finck, that he may find time not only to com-
pose and give concerts, but to do some literary
work, for which he has gifts second only to his
musical. What could be better for instance, than
his description of one of his teachers, Karl Hey-
mann: "He was the one pianist I have ever heard
who, get as near the pianoforte as you could, re-
mained a mystery as to how he did the things we
heard. The simplest passage became a spray of
flashing jewels in his hands. A melody seemed
to have words when he played it. He produced
tone-colors that, like Alpine sun effects, were in-
exhaustible; yet each one, fleeting as it was, more
beautiful than the last. His technique, while
always of the "convulsive" order in quick pass-
ages, seemed mysteriously capable of anything.
He was a marvel: he had a poor wrist, and yet
sometimes when he sat down to show me a wrist
passage, a kind of quiver would run over him—
then, behold, the thing would be trilled off in the
same supernatural way as all the rest. . . .
He dared to play the classics as if they had
actually been written by men with blood in their
veins. A sonata was a poem under his fingers, if
it was in the bounds of human possibility to
make it so."