Chaminade recently gave a concert of her own compositions in London.
A firm of music publishers in London have the suitable name of Doremi & Co.
An opera by J. Hubay, called the “Violinmaker of Cremona,” is to be given in Brussels.
A fine musical program has been arranged for the coming season at Chautauqua Lake, N. Y.
Mr. Edward Macdowell will spend next season in concert-work in the United States and Europe.
The last “Decoration Day” again revealed the fact that we have little or no national music of a memorial character.
Julius Hey, a singing-teacher of Berlin, who won much praise from Wagner, recently celebrated his seventieth birthday.
The Chicago Orchestra will give twenty-four public rehearsals and the same number of concerts during the season of 1902-03.
According to a recent census, the capital invested in the making of pianos in Boston, New York, and Chicago is $26,901,533.
The Illinois State Music-Teachers’ Association met at Joliet, June 17th-20th. A fine program of music and essays was given.
The Philharmonic Orchestra of Prague, Bohemia, is making a concert-tour with Kubelik, who has engaged Nedbal as conductor.
Mr. James Huneker, the well-known writer and critic, has begun a new work, to be called “Franz Liszt: His Art and His Times.”
An association has been formed in Poland to bring Chopin’s ashes to his native land. He was buried in Paris, in Pére Lachaise Cemetery.
Walter Damrosch has been elected conductor of the New York Philharmonic Society, succeeding Emil Paur, who has returned to Europe.
The Poles of German and Russian Poland have been prohibited by the authorities from singing their native, patriotic songs in their own language.
In a concert at Manchester, England, Dr. Richter, with a series of nine overtures, presented, practically, the evolution of the overture from Handel to Wagner.
Carl Baermann, the well-known Boston pianist and teacher, who has been in Europe for the past few years, is to return to the United States next season.
The piano that will stand the sea-air does not seem to be made. Dealers will not guarantee their instruments, and many refuse to rent pianos for use at the sea-side.
Dr. James Higgs, a well-known English organist, and writer of theoretical text-books, of which his “Fugue” and “Modulation” are best known, died a short time ago in London.
An association has been formed in Berlin by a number of prominent musicians for the cultivation of a capella singing; they will give their study principally to the old contrapuntal masters.
The chief librarian of the Berlin Royal Library has found a hitherto unknown composition by Beethoven written for the music-box of a clock. Mozart wrote several little pieces for the same use.
A Beethoven memorial is on exhibition at Vienna. It was made by the sculptor, Max Klinger, is composed of marble, bronze, ivory, and precious stones. It represents Beethoven in a sitting position.
A monument to Rossini was unveiled in the Church of Santa Croce, Florence, last month. Mascagni brought the chorus and orchestra of the Rossini Lyceum, at Pesaro, to sing the “Stabat Mater.”
The wax used in making phonograph-record cylinders is made from the leaves of a palm which grows in Brazil. The wax appears on the leaves as a fine powder, which is afterward boiled and strained.
A music-building is to be erected on Holmes Field, Cambridge, for the music-students of Harvard College, at an expense of $75,000. A large concert-hall equipped with a pipe-organ is to be one of the features.
In a music-festival to be given at Cardiff, Wales, a woman’s orchestra will assist. Madame Clara Novello-Davies will direct Saint-Saëns’ opera “Samson and Dalila” and the first act of “The Flying Dutchman.”
The committee in charge of the Baltimore Sangerfest has offered a prize of $150 for the best work to be sung as the prize song in competition for the Kaiser’s prize. The competition is open to citizens of any country.
The John Church Company, publishers of Sousa’s latest march, “Imperial Edward,” have prepared a presentation copy for King Edward. The music is reproduced by hand on parchment, illuminated with heraldic devices in gold and royal purple.
The latest popular success in Berlin was a series of Verdi operas given in Italian, the works given being “Ballo in Maschera,” “Aïda,” “Rigoletto,” and “Ernani.” And this success was won in spite of the great popularity of Wagner’s operas in Berlin.
The first annual meeting of the Minnesota Music- Teachers’ Association was held in St. Paul, May 19th and 20th. The meeting was an artistic and financial success. The association now numbers upward of two hundred members. The officers for the coming year are Mr. C. A. Marshall, Minneapolis, president; Miss Jennie Pinch, St. Paul, secretary-treasurer. The next meeting will be held in Minneapolis.
At a meeting in Vienna for the purpose of discussing a revision of the system of instruction in the Imperial Conservatory of Music, one of those present expressed the opinion that students should give up the study of the history of music and devote their time instead to learning the details of the construction of the instruments they play upon. No wonder American musicians and teachers are no longer awed by European reputations, but busy themselves with the study of music itself!
London papers call attention to the fact that a Guarnerius violin brought the price of $10,000, the claim being made that this is the highest amount paid for a violin. Mention is made of a Stradivarius the property of a collector in Edinburgh, for which $10,000 was paid. The Guarnerius mentioned above is dated 1730, the tailpiece and pegs are ornamented with diamonds and the instrument is in a silver case. It was at one time the property of the late George Hart, a well-known violin expert.
A new work recently produced in Paris is “Peleas et Melisaude,” the libretto based on a play by Maeterlinck, the music by Claude Debussy, a young French composer who won the Prix de Rome. There is not the faintest approach to an “air” in the entire opera; the action of the piece is supposed to be unfolded in the accompaniment, the end of an act being the only interruption to a stream of harmony. Debussy has some published songs that are remarkable even in these days of formlessness, chromatic writing, and absence of tonality.
A bill was recently introduced in Congress to establish an American National Conservatory of Music to be composed of four subsidiary institutions, one in New York, one in Washington, one in Chicago, and one in San Francisco. The author of the bill claims that the four schools can be carried on at an expense of $1,000,000 a year; while he points out that the amount spent yearly in Europe by American students will foot up to a large sum. There is no likelihood that the bill will get any further, certainly it can stand no show of passing when the national government has not yet established a national university, but left the matter to private endowment such as the late munificent gift of Mr. Carnegie.
