A permanent orchestra is announced for Toronto, Can., under the direction of Mr. F. H. Torrington.
A number of autograph copies of Chopin pianoforte pieces have been received by the Paris Conservatoire.
A German contemporary notes that there seems to be a renewed demand for Liszt’s music in the concert- halls.
Josef Hoffmann is remarkable in other ways than music, being an inventor and a student of chemistry and astronomy.
The annual session of the Southern Music Teachers’ Association will be held in Chattanooga, Tenn. The date has not yet been fixed.
Mr. Frank Van der Stucken has accepted the post of Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for a period of six years.
Peter Benoit, a Belgium opera composer of prominence, died March 5th. He was general director of the Antwerp Royal Conservatory.
Piatti, the veteran ’cellist who retired a few years ago, is still living, in Italy, in his eightieth year. Musicians are not infrequently long-lived.
Most of the leading artists in the Metropolitan Opera Company live in the hotels near Central Park so as to have a convenient place for out-door exercises.
English papers are discussing certain proposed changes in the national anthem “God Save the King.” Some writers call for a new text and music for a national hymn.
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.
A number of wealthy citizens of Monterey, Mexico, have endowed a conservatory of music for that city. The plans include a building with a large stage, auditorium, and recital-halls.
The municipal theater of Trieste has been renamed “Teatro Verdi,” and a principal thoroughfare is now called Strada Verdi. Rome is also to have a street named for the composer.
Pugno, the French pianist, who played in this country a few years ago, has resigned his place as teacher in the Paris Conservatoire and will give his whole time to concert work.
Announcement is made that Mr. Grau will take a small opera company on a tour next season. Emma Eames, in Lohengrin, and Calvé, in Carmen, are to be the principal attractions.
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.
A new music-hall is to be erected in Chicago, at a cost of $300,000; the main assembly-hall is to be similar to that of Royal Albert Hall, London. Part of the building will be arranged for conservatory and music-studio purposes.
Manuel Garcia, the celebrated teacher of singing, has reached the advanced age of ninety-six. Born before Balfe, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Schumann, he is still with us, having seen the most striking changes in the history of the art.
Jacques Thibaud, a young violinist who created a sensation in Berlin, by his playing, was born in Bordeaux, France, in 1880. He was a pupil of Marsick, at the Paris Conservatoire, and is at present solo violinist in Colonne’s orchestra.
German papers have given considerable space to accounts of the Steindl Quartet, composed of Herr
Steindl, violinist, who now plays the viola, and his sons, Bruno, child pianist and prodigy, ten years old; Max, ’cellist, eight; and Albin, violin, six and a half.
In 1892 the London City Council made a grant of $15,000 for band concerts. This sum has now been increased to nearly $50,000. Last season 1045 performances were given. Programs were sold for the concerts and chairs furnished, about $5000 being realized.
A violin has been made by an Indiana man of which the back is from an old Scotch table known to be over 400 years old; the body is from an old log, a sort of cedar, that was dug out of a swamp in New Jersey and was pronounced by scientists to be fully 3000 years old.
The competition for the prizes offered to composers by the New England Conservatory of Music has been extended to June 1. The judges will be George W. Chadwick, Frank Van der Stucken, and Horatio W. Parker. The competition is open to anyone resident for five years in the United States.
In his will Verdi provided that two boxes in his villa at San Agata should be burned without anyone examining their contents. This may prevent the publication of letters which would in no way add to his reputation, or of music manuscripts which he never intended should be given to the public.
There is to be an American Institute of Music in New York; $2,000,000 is the sum desired to carry out the plan, and the 3000 active members of the people’s singing classes will be called upon to contribute ten cents a week each. A gentleman interested in the movement has promised $25,000.
The Brown collection of musical literature in the Boston Public Library has been increased by valuable full scores of operas by Auber, Bellini, Donizetti, Meyerbeer, Rossini, and Verdi. They were at one time the property of Sir Michael Costa and later of Colonel Mapleson, the famous opera impressario.
Concerts for school-children have received considerable attention in Germany. In Hamburg there was an average attendance of 2270, the admission being ten pfennigs, about two and a half cents, the deficit being assumed by a local society. In Breslau the city authorities appropriated $5000 toward a series of such concerts.
A performance of “Die Meistersinger” was given, by a good cast, in the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City, for an organization of Germans. The prices were almost down to half the usual rates, and the whole house sold out. This would seem to indicate that opera by a fair company, at moderate prices, can be made popular.
A vote as to popular pieces taken in connection with a series of concerts in Glasgow shows the highest number of votes for Tschaikowsky’s “Pathétique” symphony as the favorite; next comes Schubert’s “Unfinished”; then Beethoven’s “Pastoral,” Grieg’s “Peer Gynt” suite, and Beethoven’s “C-minor Symphony.” Among overtures the greatest two favorites are “Tannhäuser” and Beethoven’s “Leonor III.”
For the calendar year ending December 31, 1900, the value of the exports of musical instruments from the United States was $2,112,516: about $150,000 greater than the preceding year. If the instruments in warehouse and ready for exportation, on that date be added, it would raise the total over $60,000. These figures do not include instruments sent to Cuba, Hawaii, Porto Rico, and the Philippines since June 30, 1900.
Walter Ford, who wrote “The Sunshine of Paradise Alley” and “I Love You in the Same Old Way” died, March 5th, at the age of 34. He chanced to wander through a little by-way called “Paradise Alley,” running off one of the principal streets of Philadelphia, and met a little girl, poorly clad, with a beautiful face and golden hair. “The Sunshine of Paradise Alley,” said his companion, and that was the inspiration of the song.
The Prussian government has set aside $50,000 for the purchase of the autograph collection of Artaria & Co., publishers, of Vienna. It includes 6000 sheets of manuscripts of eminent composers, a large quantity of proofs revised by composers, and a number of unpublished works, among which may be mentioned 140 by Haydn, and some important works by Beethoven. The collection also contains about 2000 sheets of Beethoven’s sketch-books, including fragments of the “Ninth Symphony” and the Mass in D.
The Missouri State Music Teachers’ Association will meet at Columbia, Mo., June 18th-21st. Great interest is being manifested by teachers from all parts of the State. A new feature of the musical-festival part of the program will be a chorus of 40 voices from Sedalia under the direction of Mrs. W. D. Steele. The officers for the year are W. H. Pommer, president, 777 Euclid Avenue, St. Louis; H. E. Rice, Secretary-Treasurer, 1010 Olive Street, St. Louis; Mr. John Picard, Columbia, Chairman of Executive Committee; Mrs. Carrie F. Voorhees, Kansas City, Chairman of Program Committee.
Composers will be interested to learn that Mr. Lesley Alexander, of London, offers a prize of $100 for the best trio employing the rare combination of oboe, horn, and pianoforte. The work must be original, never having been performed in public, must not be altered from any other work written for a different combination of instruments, and must not be a solo for one or two instruments. The examiners will be Mr. Edward German and Mr. Hamish McCunn, with Sir Alexander Mackenzie as referee. Works must be sent in by January 18, 1902, to Dr. Yorke Trotter, 22 Prince’s Street, Cavendish Square, W., London.
