Berlin has 118 music schools.
Franz Rummel will teach in Berlin this winter.
A new opera by de Koven is announced. The title is " The Three Dragoons."
Chaminade's projected visit to the United States has again been postponed. Is her price too high?
A movement has been started in Louisville, Ky., to raise a fund to support a permanent orchestra.
According to the "Ladies' Home Journal," Wagner received for the score of "Lohengrin'' only $80.
Rosenthal is reported to have three homes—at Vienna, Ischl, and near Trieste, overlooking the Adriatic.
The late Sir Augustus Harris, the London manager, said that "Romeo and Juliet" was the best drawing opera.
A Berlin correspondent reports a decrease in the number of American students at the Royal "Hochschule.''
Eugen d'Albert has been engaged as a teacher in the Leipsic Conservatory. He will begin his duties next spring.
"The piece Liszt composed after hearing a lecture by Dante," is the way a young lady described "Après une Lecture de Dante."
Indianapolis is talking symphony orchestra. The leaven of progress is working in many of the larger cities of the country.
Dr. Richter, the great conductor, has been compelled to give up directing on account of rheumatism, which affects his right arm.
Cleveland, O., is to have a musical festival under the auspices of the choral organizations. It will celebrate the return of peace.
Xaver Scharwenka has returned to Berlin to the Scharwenka Conservatory. Richard Burmeister will be his successor in New York.
It is announced that the first representation of Paderewski's much-talked-about opera, "Stanislaus," is to take place at Dresden in December.
A book of reminiscences of the late Anton Seidl is to be issued shortly. Contributions will be made by a number of eminent writers and artists.
The statement is now made that it was writers' cramp, due to arduous work on his opera, that threatened Paderewski with the loss of two of his fingers.
Sir Arthur Sullivan has become a member in a company to publish operatic music. Actor-managers and composer-publishers seem to be the proper thing now.
Liverpool, Eng., has taken up with the idea of giving concerts in the courtyards of the poorer quarters of the city. The same experiment has been made in other English cities.
A new opera house in St. Petersburg, to be built under the patronage of the Czar, is to cost about four million dollars. Like the Bayreuth Theater, it will have a concealed orchestra.
The extreme Northwest is calling for a great conservatory of music, to be located either at Portland or Tacoma. A growing interest in music is evident in the Pacific Coast States.
Fauconier, a French composer, died several months ago. Many of his pieces for piano with violin, flute, and other similar combinations have had a large sale. He was a fine violinist.
The musicians of Canada are up in arms against a proposition to conduct examinations there under the auspices of the Associated Board of the Royal Academy and Royal College of Music, London.
That the Boston Symphony Orchestra has a strong hold on the people of that city is shown by the fact that $325 was bid for a certain seat. This, with $12 for a season ticket, makes $337.
An English paper announces that Dr. Stanford has nearly finished a new opera on an English subject. He is one of the few English composers whose works in grand opera have been successful.
César Thomson, the famous violinist, is a great advocate of the value of calisthenics and special exercises for developing the muscles used in playing, and insists on such practice by all his new pupils.
Edward Lloyd, the well-known English oratorio and concert tenor, who has sung in this country, announces a series of farewell concerts prior to his retirement from public work. He is fifty-three years old.
Franz Schalk, the new director of the German opera in New York, was born in Vienna, 1864. He was a pupil of Hellmesberger and Bruckner. Will he introduce some of the latter's symphonies to the American public?
An Austrian has designed a new system of musical notation in which the different notes are represented by different-shaped characters, as circles, squares, diamonds, etc. Has a stray book in the old "buckwheat" or "patent-note" system reached Austria?
According to the "Musical Standard" of London, some of the teachers in the Guildhall School of Music had quite fair success last season. Six teachers received over $3600, five over $3000, twelve over $2000 for their services. These teachers also give private lessons at their own homes.
A movement is under way in Philadelphia looking toward the establishment of a permanent orchestra and a series of concerts similar to those given by the Boston organization. Several wealthy patrons of music have offered to guarantee a considerable amount of the expense. Rumor has it that Walter Damrosch will be the conductor.
A number of talented young American violinists now studying abroad and playing in fine orchestras should be available for "concert-meister" positions in the course of several years, as well as to furnish the rank and file of strong players in our established American orchestras as well as those which may be organized in the next few years, thus escaping the domination of the ultra- German element.
The Congressional Library at Washington contains nearly two hundred thousand musical publications, forty thousand photographs of singers and actors, besides many other things of interest to the profession which come under the provisions of the copyright law. A music practicing hall is attached to the Library, in which one can play or sing such pieces as he may wish to try. In the coming days this Library will prove a useful place for research.
The following account is given of the invention of the cornet. The elder Distin received a bugle from an instrument-maker, through which, by carelessness in packing, a nail had been driven. Mr. Distin tried the instrument and found that it contained a new note— keyed bugles were unknown then. He bought an old instrument and made a number of holes in it, which he corked up when he did not want to use them. From this was developed the idea of the keyed bugle and pistons.
signor Alessio Coradini, an Italian pianist, has invented a system of arranging piano-strings so that they can not lose the tension imparted to them, or get out of tune on account of the weather. The invention affects all the strings alike, and preserves their harmonic distances from each other in such a way that, though it may be possible for the whole pitch of the pianoforte to rise or fall, it is impossible for any single note to get out of tune. The apparatus is simple, and is said to be applicable to all kinds of pianos.
Mr. Fidelis Zitterbart, of Pittsburg, was a successful competitor for two of the prizes offered by the Art Society of that city recently. The first prize for an overture was divided between him and Ad. M. Foerster. He also won first prize in the contest for the best pianoforte composition.
The Peabody Conservatory of Baltimore will give instruction along the lines of the Faelten fundamental training system.
A conservatory of music has been established in connection with the Chattanooga Normal College, Chattanooga, Tenn.
Frederic Archer has begun his new season as organist at Carnegie Hall, in Pittsburg, with his two hundred and twenty-fourth recital. He will also continue his free instruction.
Mr. Philip Goepp, of Philadelphia, author of "Symphonies and Their Meaning," spent the summer abroad, making a bicycle tour of Europe.
Mrs. E. Aline Osgood-Dexter, formerly a well-known concert singer, has opened a studio in Philadelphia, and will make a specialty of training for oratorio and ballad singing.
Miss Mary E. Halleck, of Philadelphia, who received her early training from Mr. Maurits Leefson, and later was with Leschetitzky, in Vienna, will play an engagement with the permanent orchestra of New York this season.
The chorus for the next May Festival in Cincinnati will be under the direction of Mr. E. W. Glover.
Mr. Henry Schradieck, of Brooklyn, N. Y., one of the world's great violin teachers, has been engaged as the head of the violin department in the Broad Street Conservatory of Music, Philadelphia, G. R. Combs, director. Mr. Schradieck will be in Philadelphia every Saturday.
Mr. Ralph D. Hausrath, of New York City, has accepted a position as organist of the Church of the Atonement. Mr. Hausrath is preparing for a concert soon to occur.
Mr. Charles A. Fisher, of St. Paul, Minn., spent the summer in study at Frankfort, Germany, with Bellwidt, a pupil of Stockhausen.
Mr. James A. Tracy, formerly of Des Moines, Iowa, has accepted the position of director of the piano department in the Denver Conservatory of Music.
Mr. Bernard Boekelman, of New York, has gone to Europe for the winter season. He will spend a considerable portion of his time with Leschetitzky. He will return next January.
Mr. Herbert E. Carse has located in Galveston, Tex., where he will teach during the coming season.
Mrs. Edith L. Winn, formerly of Geneva College, Beaver Falls, Pa., has become a member of the musical faculty of Hollins Institute, Hollins, Va. A very fine musical program was given by the faculty shortly after the opening of the school season.
Henry E. Holt, prominent in public school music and joint editor of the "Normal Course in Music," died October 19th, aged 62.
Miss S. C. Very, of New York, will give another series of illustrated lectures on music under the patronage of a number of prominent society ladies in that city.
The Hudson River Institute, Claverack, N. Y., Burrit L. Marlow, director, has issued a brochure containing the programs given at the various faculty and pupil recitals during the past year.
Mr. Lynn B. Dana, Lima, O., is meeting with great success in his teaching and concert work. Mr. Dana uses the Mason system of "Touch and Technic."
Mr. William E. Snyder, formerly of Detroit, Mich., a contributor of The Etude, is now a member of the faculty of the Sherwood Piano School, Chicago.
Dr. Henry G. Hanchett, Brooklyn, N. Y., has resumed his analytical recitals, Beethoven readings, and classical and popular concerts. He reports a very large number of engagements for this next season already booked. There is no finer type of lecture recitals than these of Dr. Hanchett.
"Musical America" is the name of a new journal, issued weekly, in New York City, under the editorial direction of John C. Freund. Correspondents in the leading musical centers at home and abroad supply the current musical news.
Perlee V. Jervis, associated with Miss S. Louise Hardenbergh, has established a piano school in Scranton, Pa., to be known as The Jervis-Hardenbergh Pianoforte School.
All graduates of the New England Conservatory of Music who may read this notice are requested to send their names and present addresses to F. W. Hale, the manager of that institution.
Mr. Edwin Klahre, pianist, opened the season of faculty recitals at the New England Conservatory on October 5th with a program comprising selections from Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Rubinstein, Joseffy, Weber, Tausig, and Liszt.
The improvement in business throughout the country is making itself gradually felt. The New England Conservatory in Boston reports more pupils than at the corresponding season for many years. About one-third of the graduating class of '98 have returned to continue their studies, and the post-graduate department is larger than ever before.
Mr. Franz Bellinger, formerly of Philadelphia, has opened a school of music in Indianapolis, Ind.
Mr. Maurits Leefson spent the vacation season at his home in Amsterdam, Holland.
Mr. Charles Frederic Stayner, of Salt Lake City, has published a very interesting little brochure on "The Underlying Principle of Pianoforte-touch."
We have received an advance program of the Anniston Musical Club, Anniston, Ala. The leading classical, romantic, and modern composers are represented on the program.
