The Musical Standard of London announces a series of articles on living British composers.
Reyer, the French composer, is still living, at the age of eighty. “Salammbo” is probably his most successful opera.
Marc Burty, a French composer, whose pieces are well adapted for teaching purposes, recently died at Lyons, aged 77.
The soloists for the fall tour of the Duss Band will be Nordica, Edouard de Reszke, Louise Homer, and Signor Scotti.
A piano transcription of Richard Strauss’ “Till Eulenspiegel” was played some time since in Berlin by Edouard Risler.
A report comes from Vienna that Kubelik is to marry a Hungarian countess, and that the couple will live in that city.
Fanny Crosby, author of many of the hymns used by Ira Sankey, is still living. She recently celebrated her eighty-fourth birthday.
One of the great organs of the world was dedicated a short time ago in the Cathedral at Seville, Spain. It contains two hundred stops.
A new opera by Walter Damrosch, the title of which is “Cyrano de Bergerac,” libretto by W. J. Henderson, is soon to be published.
The first rehearsal for the Triennial Handel Festival, London, will be held May 11th. The chorus will number twenty-seven hundred voices.
The fifteenth annual convention and music festival of the New York State Music Teachers’ Association will be held at Troy, June 23d to 25th.
An international congress for historical science was held in Rome last month. A special group on the History of Music was included in the program.
During the month of May a Beethoven Festival will be held at The Hague in which the nine symphonies will be given in the order of their composition.
Bach’s “Magnificat” will be a feature of the closing concert for this season given by the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, W. W. Gilchrist, conductor, May 8th.
The number of performances in the season of opera just closed in New York City was ninety-one, of which Wagner’s operas furnish twenty-seven and Verdi’s twenty-one.
Weingartner, the conductor and composer, has lately appeared in Berlin in the role of pianist, in a sextet for piano, string quartet, and double bass, which is his Op. 33.
A work of interest to Chopin admirers is soon to be published, containing 512 hitherto unpublished letters written by the composer. They were in the possession of his niece.
An admirer of Arthur Nikisch has given $2500 to found a scholarship in the Leipsic Conservatory in honor of the great conductor. The prize will be for musical composition.
The Pittsburgh Orchestra, Victor Herbert, director, closed its eighth season, with a record of sixty-five concerts, at home and abroad. The amount of deficit is less than last year.
The official report of the Paris opera season shows receipts, from March, 1902, to February 28, 1903, of over $1,000,000. In addition to this there is the government subvention of as much more.
A great music festival has been planned for England next year, in which all the celebrated composers of the past and present are to be represented. The festival will consist of six concerts.
The Royal Choral Society, of London, numbers 860 singers. During the past six years 870 applicants have been accepted and 1430 rejected. Sixty singers have been members for upward of twenty years.
The management of the Prinz Regenten Theater at Munich believe in rehearsals. There were twenty-eight rehearsals of “Die Walküre,” Siegfried” is now in rehearsal, and at present three are held every week.
A Music Festival was held at Toronto, April 16th to 18th, directed by Sir Alexander Mackenzie, director of the Royal Academy of Music, London, who is now touring Canada. A guarantee fund of over $30,000 was raised.
A Richard Strauss festival is to be held in London, June 3d to 9th. The Concertgebouw Orchestra, of Amsterdam, a famous organization, has been engaged. Some of the concerts will be conducted by the composer.
Frederick Boscovitz, a Hungarian by birth, but a resident of the United States for many years, and a composer of many popular piano pieces, died in Denver in March, aged 67. He was said to be the last living pupil of Chopin.
The next convention of the Ohio Music Teachers’ Association will be held in Cleveland during the last week in June. Mr. N. Coe Stewart, of Cleveland, is president of the Association, and Wilson G. Smith chairman of the program committee.
The indications are that the citizens of Chicago will subscribe the $750,000 asked for the Chicago Orchestra to build an auditorium as well as form a permanent fund for the maintenance of the orchestra. Several persons subscribed $10,000 each.
The twenty-sixth convention of the Indiana Music Teachers’ Association will be held in Richmond, Ind., June 23d to 26th. At least 600 professional musicians are expected to be in attendance. Mr. J. S. Bergen, Lafayette, Ind., is the secretary.
The new buildings for the Cincinnati College of Music are being pushed to completion. The concert-hall for the use of the college recitals will have a seating capacity of 800. It will contain a new organ, and a stage equipped for operatic performances.
For nearly twenty-five years a feature of the week preceding Easter Sunday with the Swedish colony in Lindsborg, Kans., and vicinity has been a festival performance of Handel’s “Messiah.” The chorus consists of about five hundred voices, and is assisted by an orchestra.
The Minnesota State Teachers’ Association has engaged the Boston Festival Orchestra, Emil Mollenhauer, conductor, to assist in its second annual convention, to be held in Minneapolis, May 7th-9th. One of the recitals given by the association will consist of works by local composers.
A Bach Festival will be held in Bethlehem, Pa., May 11th to 16th. The Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra will furnish the accompaniments and orchestral numbers. The program is made up of Bach’s Oratorios and “Passion Music.” Mr. J. Fred. Wolle is the director of the festival.
A music trade paper says that the demand for piano-players (mechanical) is steadily increasing. According to the views of some musicians, an increase in this kind of business makes an increase in the number of persons who wish to know how to play without the intervention of a machine.
Dealers in wire for piano-strings note an increased demand for steel strings wound with copper wire for the low bass strings of the piano. The claim is made that these strings are more vibrant and give a bigger volume of tone and a more brilliant quality than the iron-wound strings used by some makers.
A Russian nobleman, Prince Joussoupoff, who has a magnificent art gallery in his palace, has just built a private theater in connection with his residence at a cost of $300,000. The czar and many members of the court were present at the dedication, when selections from “Faust” and “Traviata” were given.
The thirteenth annual May festival of the Connecticut Music Teachers’ Association will be held in New Haven, May 4th to 6th. A feature of the occasion is Verdi’s opera “Aïda,” to be given by the Gounod Society of New Haven, under the direction of Mr. Emilio Agramonte. The opera will be given in concert form.
The heirs af (sic) Paganini have offered to sell to the city of Genoa, for $34,000, the great violinist’s collection of medals and testimonials given to him by various rulers of Europe, and some violins and violas. If the city does not purchase the collection, it will be offered to the State; if the latter does not buy, it will be offered to the public.
The third annual convention of the Sinfonia, an organization of male music students of the United States, will be held at the Ithaca Conservatory of Music, Ithaca, N. Y., May 18th-20th. Delegates from six chapters will be present. Ralph H. Pendleton, New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, is the secretary of the general organization.
The Covent Garden Opera Season began April 27th. The hour for beginning the long Wagner Operas varies. “Das Rheingold” begins at 8.30 p.m., “Die Walküre” and Siegfried” begin at 5 p.m., and “Die Götterdämmerung” at 4 p.m. An interval for dinner will take place after the first acts of the last three named. The orchestra will consist of about 100 players. Dr. Richter will conduct the Wagner Cycles.
The directors of the Philadelphia Orchestra give some interesting details in their report of the season which has just closed. Seventy-one concerts were given, twenty-eight outside the city. The deficit this year is heavy, although less than last year. A call is made to increase the guarantors’ fund to $100,000. It is certainly uphill work to organize and maintain a symphony orchestra of the first rank in our American cities.
The city of Muncie, Ind., held a successful music festival, April 23d and 24th. A general organization of the musical forces of the city and vicinity was made and a hearty support accorded to the festival. A chorus of three hundred and fifty voices, accompanied by fifty members of Victor Herbert’s orchestra and thirty local musicians, formed the musical forces of the Festival. There were two choral and one orchestral concerts. This speaks well for a city of about 30,000 inhabitants.
In planning for summer trips the music-teachers of the East, South, and Central West should not forget the next meeting of the Music Teachers’ National Association at Asheville, N. C., July 1st to 3d. The program is not yet ready to announce, but it is sure to be interesting and helpful to all who attend. Asheville is a delightful place to visit summer as well as winter, the elevation of the country, 2200 feet above sea-level, giving a cooler temperature than would be expected from its southern location. Mr. Rossiter G. Cole, Chicago, is president; Mr. Francis L. York, 240 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, Mich., secretary.
A musical setting of Euripides’ tragedy “Iphigenia in Tauris,” by Dr. H. A. Clarke, of the University of Pennsylvania, was given in Philadelphia, April 28th and 29th, by undergraduates of the University, in the original Greek. A large auxiliary chorus assisted in the performance. The music for the soloists was in the Greek manner, a mixture of simple melody and recitative, and were accompanied by a string quartet and flute. Full orchestra was used in the accompaniment of the general chorus parts. Some years ago Dr. Clarke wrote music to the “Acharnians,” which was produced in Philadelphia with great success.
