Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
NOVELTIES IN MUSIC.
CALVE OFFER DAZZLES MAESTROS.
MUSIC AT THE NATIONAL LIBRARY.
Victor Herbert Promises Some in Lighter Vein
and a Serious Work.
Singer Is Ready to Tour America in Concerts,
With Three Very Big "Ifs."
The Collection Amplified Within the Past Few
Years, Particularly in Americana.
Mme. Emma Calve will go on a concert tour in
the United States if—
(1) A manager will pay $2,000 an appearance.
(2) A manager will deposit $10,000 to Mme.
Calve's credit in Paris.
(3) A manager will guarantee Mme. Calve im-
munity from a lawsuit in case she breaks her
contract.
Letters to this effect have been received by the
well-known directors of concert tours in New
York, and, although Calve is promising as a mu-
sical asset, none of the maestros seems eager to
accept the terms. The whimsical prima donna,
from her chateau in the Pyrenees, has written to
five New York directors that she will go a-touring
under the conditions named.
Last spring Mme. Calve listened to several
similar propositions, but she snapped her fingers
with Gallic disdain and scouted the idea of one-
night stands and monotonous recitals. At that
time she expected Director Conried, of the Metro-
politan Opera Company, to offer her $2,000 a
night on a golden salver. Conried has not both-
ered with the capricious "Carmen," and so she
has written her naively worded notes from
France to American directors.
The Librarian of Congress has published a "Se-
lect List of Recent Purchases in Certain Depart-
ments of Literature," of which the musical de-
partment makes an interesting showing. The Na-
tional Library contains a great collection of mu-
sic and books about music, and the Librarian,
Mr. Herbert Putnam, is working wisely, with the
co-operation of O. G. Sonneck, Chief of the Divi-
sion of Music, to enlarge it. The division is in a
curious situation. It was made separate in 1897;
the accumulations of more than a hundred years
of entries under the copyright law had already
made a vast and unique collection. But there was
very little else. Of European publications prior
to 1891 the library possessed very few, and those
chiefly the works of American composers. In
1891 many foreign works were entered for inter-
national copyright, and this fact has greatly in-
ci eased the representation of contemporary music.
But within the last three years there has been
a systematic effort and a very considerable ex-
penditure to enlarge the scope of the collection.
How the gaps have been filled is shown in this
list. The effort has been to obtain the works of
the classical composers in complete editions so
far as they have been published, those of the
more notable modern masters, and the literature
of music relating to history and theory. Special
attention has been paid to early American
psalmody, civil war music, and serial publications
of a historical character. The collection now
numbers about 400,000 items—books, pamphlets,
and pieces of music—and it is the enlightened
desire of the Librarian and his subordinate at
the head of the division to increase its useful-
ness to everyone interested.
Victor Herbert, in an interview at the close of
his concert season in Pittsburg, Pa., last week
said:
"I expect to give New York something new in
the concert line when I open at the Majestic The-
atre on October 7. Several well known soloists of
world wide reputation are now under contract
and will assist in the entertainments.
"In addition, I expect to play a number of new
and yet unheard compositions. Two of these are
in the lighter vein, while the third, I think, pos-
sesses merit enough to live in musical history."
The composer is already at work on the pro-
gramme, which in addition to the new numbers
will include selections from "Babes in Toyland,"
"Babette," "The Irish Rhapsody" and several
ether well known pieces. Mr. Herbert is also writ-
Ing a new opera which will bo ready next year.
COLOR=VISUALISAT1ON OF SOUND
Although Much Discussed, No Definite Proofs
Have Yet Been Produced.
At short intervals the papers fall to discussing
the color-visualisation of sounds to which some
people are subject. Though there evidently is
such a relation, no conclusive work on it has as
yet been done. The matter is by no means
simple. Some people attach one color to one in-
strument, whatever the note it plays. A good pro-
portion of these, for instance, associate with red
all the notes of a trumpet. It is possible that
careful investigation would show that in these
cases the shade of red altered towards crimson
or rose, the higher the scale was ascended; but
this has not yet been shown. Another source of
confusion lies in the fact that named notes have
no definite pitch. The note C, for example, ac-
cording to one scale of pitch, is B-flat or D in
others. To say that a person sees C as red there-
fore means very little.
Again: a note would surely appear as of a dif-
ferent color, according as it was viewed by the
mind as a keynote or as some other note in the
scale. C is a keynote in its own scale, but a
dominant in the scale of F. This may account
for the difference of the colors attached by dif-
ferent people to the same note. It is possible,
too, that each person may have his own favorite
keynote, belonging in some way to his physical
being; and to that, as a keynote, he may uncon-
sciously refer any isolated note he may hear, giv-
ing it the color belonging to that relation. Clear-
ing uy» of these points needs experimentation.
LAUGHTER AND SONG GOOD FOR HEALTH.
"It is good to laugh," says Health. "There is
probably not the remotest corner or little inlet
of the minute blood-vessels of the body that does
not feel some wavelet from the great convulsion
produced by hearty laughter."
The same, and much more, may be said of song.
One can imagine that laughter may be outgrown
by humanity—but not from sadness. We may de-
cline to be seized by the songs of the merely in-
congruous and shaken to pieces.
But song is natural speech, the perfect outcome
of feeling, and a directly formative power acting
upon the body of him who generates it, and upon
everything which its vibration reaches. It is a
form-maker. Health advises laughter as a re-
medial agent. Very good—provisionally; but
where most needed it will not come. And no one
can laugh for you. But while you are learning
to play music upon your larynx (and no one can-
not and everyone should), others can make it for
you. A musical instrument? By all means, but
sing also; use the instrument nearest, and the
whole body and nature will profit. Who can
speak can sing, can at any rate take his voice
from between his teeth and the back of his nose,
place it where it ought to be, and—if he have but
three notes compass—make them musical. And
his three would soon be more. Natural speech is
musical, and because nothing in our civilization
is natural, our speech is—what it is.
THE WORCESTER MUSICAL FESTIVAL.
The Worcester County Musical Association
held its forty-seventh annual festival in Mechan-
ics' Hall, Worcester, on September 27 and 30, in-
clusive. The following was the programme: On
Wednesday evening, September 28, "Samson and
Delilah" was given; on Thursday evening, "The
Dream of Gerontius"; a second symphony con-
cert on Friday afternoon, the 30th; and on Fri-
day evening the usual artists or opera night was
on the programme. The usual public rehearsals
were also given.
Wallace Goodrich conducted the choral works
and Franz Kneisel the orchestral programme.
The Worcester Festival Chorus of 400 voices and
sixty players, from the Boston Symphony Orches-
tra, formed the fundamental basis of the pro-
gramme for the five concerts. These artists par-
ticipated: Louise Homer, mezzo-contralto; Mary
Hissem de Moss, soprano; Ruth Thayer Burn-
ham, contralto; Marie Nichols, violinist; Ellison
Van Hoose and Edward P. Johnson, tenors; Fred-
eric Martin, Emilio de Gogorza and Francis
Archambault, basses. The piano solist was Al-
berto Villasenor, Heinrich Schuecker, harp solo-
ist, and Arthur J. Basset, accompanist. There
was a large attendance at the various concerts.
BRUGIERE'S NEW MUSICAL COMEDY.
Mr. Brugiere's new musical comedy to which
reference was made in The Review recently, is
entitled, "The Baroness Fiddlesticks." A very
important cast has been selected, including such
well-known artists as Nella Bergen (Mrs. De Wolf
Hopper), Toby Claude, Anna Fitzhugh, May Ten
Broeck, John Henshaw, Minnie Methot, Etienne
Girardot, Henry E. Dixey, Alfred Blake and Phyl-
lis Rankin. The musical director is Arthur Weld,
and the piece will be staged by Gerald Coventry.
To insure an excellent road production, the
management will carry an orchestra of sixteen
pieces which with local available talent will in-
sure a proper rendition of music no matter where
produced.
ANTON HEKKING, THE DUTCH 'CELLIST.
HOW EUROPEANS GET IT.
Foolish European newspapers have printed the
information that Kubelik took two weeks to con-
sider an American offer of $200,000, besides free
traveling and hotel accommodations for himself,
his wife and twins, and a suite of fourteen cooks,
seven secretaries, forty servants, and seventy-nine
press agents. The sum offered him, says the
Evening Post, was in reality $200,000,000, and he
accepted at once. He has pledged himself to give
at least ten concerts, to insure his managers
against loss.
SUNDAY CONCERTS SUCCESSFUL IN
LONDON.
New Yorkers, who are musically and philan-
thropically inclined, should take note that more
than 600,000 persons attended the concerts given
in London last season by the Sunday League. The
seats cost from six to fifty cents, yet the receipts
exceeded the expenses, and the surplus was de-
voted to all sorts of poor funds. The programmes
of these Sunday concerts are remarkably varied.
They include Tschaikovky, Schubert, Mendelssohn
and Wagner, Handel, Sullivan and Edward Ger-
man, with plenty of old English Ballads, etc.
Speaking of Anton Hekking, the Dutch 'cellist,
who is to come here in November, for a tour,
after an absence of nearly ten years, Davidoff, the
famous composer for that instrument, once said:
"Whenever I hear Hekking play, I learn some-
thing." It is said by eminent European author-
ities, that Hekking combines more admirable
qualities than does any living 'cellist.
NINA DAVID'S PROGRAMME.
Nina David's programme for her debut on
October 24 at Carnegie Hall is said to include
the waltz song from "Romeo and Juliet," Felicien
David's "Le Perle du Bresil," and the "grand
aria" from Mozart's "Magic Flute." Mme. David
will be assisted by Maurice Kauffmann, violinist;
Elaine de Sellem, contralto; Anton Hegner, 'cel-
list; George W. Jenkins, tenor, and Walter Dam-
rosch's New York Symphony Orchestra.
SUCCESS OF "THE SCHOOL GIRL."
Owing to the great success of "The School
Girl" at Daly's Theatre, arrangements have been
made for its transference to the Herald Square
Theatre on October 24, on which date "The Cinga-
lee" is to be produced at Daly's.