Selected Content from the April 1901 Edition of The Etude
L. M. P.—If you have already acquired an assured technic under the Mason system, there is no particular reason why you should take up the clavier system. The clavier itself, however, is of unquestionable value in technical practice, especially in… Read More
Philadelphia has been the subject of many quips on account of alleged somnolence. A recent event would seem to show that, if she is still asleep, it is not for lack of effort to waken her. Ex-Postmaster-General Wanamaker, known as… Read More
“He has had a long experience as a teacher, but isn’t he getting a little old?” This is the remark one sometimes hears concerning a teacher whose name is well known in the community. The same thing happens to the… Read More
Josef Hoffmann is remarkable in other ways than music, being an inventor and a student of chemistry and astronomy… Mr. Leopold Godowsky is to become a resident of Leipzig, where he has already established a home. Mr. Godowsky will give his whole attention to concert-work, we are told… Sembrich says, in an interview, that Americans seem to know of but two opera-houses in Europe, London and Bayreuth, whereas every great city of Europe has its opera-house and a season which lasts nearly the whole year round. Read More
At the five-hundredth organ-recital at Carnegie Music Hall, Allegheny City, a suite written by Mr. Joseph Carl Breil, and dedicated to Mr. Carnegie, was played. It is called “Castle Skibo.” … Mr. Gustav L. Becker has been very successful with his lecture-musicales in New York City. The last lecture was by Mr. A. J. Goodrich on “Practical Musicianship.” One of Mr. Becker’s pupils played the illustrations… Mr. Leo Kofler, for many years organist and choirmaster of old St. Paul’s Chapel, Trinity Parish, New York City, has retired on a pension, and will give his time to private teaching at 5 E. Fourteenth Street. Read More
This is a city of strangers. New York is a place to lose one’s self in; a place where, tramping the same streets day by day, you may never meet one glance of recognition from week’s end to week’s end. It is a spot where mankind swarms like ants in a hill, but where the value of the individual is in inverse proportion to the mass. Isolated, lonely, poor, neglected, hopeless, there are thousands of musicians here hidden in hall-bedrooms of third-class boardinghouses who would be great people at home. They stay, they say, “because they can’t live out of the musical atmosphere,” but really because they have become demoralized. Read More
And how prone we of to-day are to extravagance! Extravagance of energy, of gesture, of emotion, of sound. Yankee thriftiness seems to have disappeared, and we seem to be intent only to spend, spend, spend, more than we have and more than it is pleasant to witness, until we seem musically to be all crises, and, through our extravagance, to have reached a new and painful monotony, for one can be as much upon a dead level on an arid table-land as upon the lowest of moorlands. Read More
In reply to a letter from The Etude as to his views on reforms in the teaching and study of the history of music, Professor Niecks, the biographer of Chopin and Professor of Music in the University of Edinburgh, sent us a copy of an address on the subject which he delivered before the Musical Association of England. We have selected the following from his very exhaustive paper. Read More
William Thomas Best was the son of a solicitor of Carlisle, England, in which town he was born, August 13, 1826, and where for fourteen years he lived. In those days the old Cathedral was the center of musical life… Read More
There seems to be something cruel and un-Christian in these “don’ts,” but they are based upon existing conditions. As long as it is the custom to place the choir right in front of the congregation these “don’ts” will hold good. The congregation do not like to look upon that which is not comely, and it matters not how beautiful a voice a singer may be blessed with, the congregation must not be shocked by the sight of anything unpleasant. Read More
Coombs, “At the Rising of the Sun” (Schirmer). Bartlett, “The Day of Resurrection” (Schirmer). Burdett, “Ye Sons and Daughters of the King” (Schirmer). Coombs, “Christ is Risen from the Dead” (Schirmer). Shackley, “The Light of Life” (Schmidt). Schnecker, “Come, See… Read More
When the reporters of the suburban daily and weekly papers attempt to “write up” an organ-recital they sometimes exhibit a greater knowledge of prize-fighting than of music, and oftentimes produce an account of the recital which is both ludicrous and… Read More
Mr. Edwin H. Lemare, organist of St. Margaret’s, Westminster, London, gave a recital at St. Bartholomew’s Church, New York, the last of February, playing several of his own transcriptions and original compositions, besides Bach’s “D- minor Toccata and Fugue.” … Read More
Mrs. H. D. F. asks if it is advisable to have a pedal-piano for organ-practice when one cannot practice at the church on account of the cold weather. A pedal-piano (if a good one) is a useful adjunct to any… Read More
In taking up “Studies for Advanced Pupils” I am aware that my audience is somewhat smaller in numbers, not altogether because pupils fall out before they become advanced, but because it is the American custom to employ repertory as a… Read More
The correct position while singing—chest up, not stiffly, but naturally; abdomen in and weight resting on the balls of the feet—has more to do with the singing than a great many would-be vocalists, beginners especially, seem to think. It does… Read More
It was once said of Mark Hopkins that he could make a university out of a log with himself at one end and a pupil at the other. But the average teacher, and many who think themselves far above the… Read More
It is easy to see why the professional music-critic “coaches” singers. His critical labors are thus made so much more pleasant and satisfactory. The professional critic would always prefer to praise rather than to condemn, and the singer whom he… Read More
The popular song is a real need of the nation. Whatever cheers an aching heart, whatever brightens a sullen tendency, whatever puts spring in feet lagging with discouragement, whatever turns the coarse jests of a vulgar company to disciplined rhythm… Read More
There are three national methods of vocal culture, viz.: the Italian, French, and German. The Italian method is that by which nearly all the famous singers of the past and present have been educated. The French school of voice culture… Read More
R. Q.—1. If you wish to learn sight-reading, and a teacher is not available, buy one of the many good systems in print and study it out by yourself, or get into touch with some teacher by correspondence; for a… Read More
CARL HOFFMAN, MUS. D., DIRECTOR OF MUSICin Baptist University, Raleigh, N. C., will accept engagement in Summer School to teach Piano, Harmony, and History of Music. Address: 228 Newbern Avenue, Raleigh, N. C. SINGERS AND OTHER MUSICIANS WHO ARE members… Read More
