Emil Paur will make his residence in Vienna.
Josef Hofmann has arranged for a five months’ tour in the United States in 1904.
Mme. Schumann-Heink will arrive in this country this month, to remain about a year and a half.
The choicest seats at the Boston Symphony Concerts in Boston did not bring as high price as in previous years.
A colossal “Temple of Music” is to be built in Berlin, which is designed to hold the same position as the “Albert Hall,” in London.
In July the Musicians’ Company, of London, one of the oldest Guilds, will celebrate the granting of its charter of incorporation by Edward IV.
The first performance of Beethoven’s “Fidelio” was given in Vienna, November 20, 1805. Since then it received 300 representations in the same house.
Mr. Charles D. Blake, a composer whose works were very popular with players of drawing-room pieces, died at Brookline, Mass., November 23, 1903.
The music hall at the St. Louis Exposition will contain the largest pipe organ ever built. It will have 145 stops. Some of the pipes will be five feet in diameter.
Two music publishers of Germany have paid $50,000 for the unpublished manuscripts of Hugo Wolf, who died a short time ago. His works seem to gain in popularity.
Paris correspondence says that there is talk that Mesdames Bernhardt, Réjane, and Calvé, who are warm personal friends, will join forces and take a theater in Paris.
An effort is being made to organize an orchestra of forty players in Atlanta, Ga., to give a series of symphony concerts, and also to visit a number of other Southern cities.
A correspondent from Prague writes that Sevcik’s class in violin-playing numbers one hundred and thirty violin pupils, some of whom receive but one lesson in two weeks.
In the prize contest offered by the Chicago Madrigal Club, the prize was awarded to Mr. Arthur Dunham, of Chicago. The club will offer a prize for small choral works every year hereafter.
Gustav Kogel, one of the European conductors who were engaged by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for this season’s concerts, was associate conductor with von Bülow for several years.
The celebrated piano-making house of Blüthner, in Leipzig, Germany, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its business existence. The sixty-four thousandth instrument, just finished, was placed on exhibition.
Papers of incorporation have been granted to “The Lyric School of Opera,” to be located in New York City. Homer Moore, lately of St. Louis, will be the director. The school will have quarters in the Lyric Theater building.
The Bayreuth season of Wagner’s operas will consist of seven performances of “Parsifal,” five of “Tannhaüser,” and two complete cycles of “The Ring,” the dates ranging from July 25th to August 20th, inclusive. The seats will be allotted in March.
Arrangements have been made which assure permanence to the Chicago Orchestra. It is likely that within a year the orchestra will be giving its concerts in a home of its own, a building to be erected on Michigan Avenue at a cost of $350,000.
Mme. Nordica has received from the Prince Regent of Bavaria the gold medal for art and science founded by King Ludwig II. A letter accompanying the decoration expressed the appreciation of the great success Mme. Nordica has achieved as Elsa, Isolde, and Brünnhilde.
H. P. Danks, a composer whose songs were widely known and used a number of years ago, died in Philadelphia. November 20th, aged 79 years. He was the composer of “Silver Threads Among the Gold,” and “Don’t Be Angry With Me, Darling,” He wrote a great deal of church music.
Herbert Spencer, the great philosopher, who died last month, was a lover of music, which subject received discussion in his essays. In his young days he was gifted with a fine bass voice, and sang with taste and good effect. He was a frequent attendant at concerts and. operas.
The first piano was made by Cristofori in 1711. The musical public of Florence, Italy, where Cristofori lived, are planning for a great musical festival to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary. Recitals on instruments exhibiting the development of the piano will be a feature of the festival.
Wagner’s works seem to have gained a wider hearingin Paris. In 1901 they were played in forty-four concerts in 1902 fifty-four, in 1903 two hundred and twenty-four “Siegfried” was given for the first time January 3, 1902 and repeated nineteen times. “Lohengrin” had twelve representations; “Die Walküre,” eleven; “Tannhaüser,” six; “Die Meistersinger,” five.
The People’s Choral Union of New York City has seventeen classes in that city and vicinity for the study of sight-singing and choral music. The elementary classes accept any young woman over 16 years of age, and any young mat. beyond 18 without requiring a previous knowledge of music. The union is self-sustaining, the dues, although moderate being sufficient to defray expenses.
Jules Levy, the celebrated cornetist, died in Chicago November 28, 1903. aged sixty-six. He was born in London, Eng., April 28, 1838. While still a small boy he showed love for the cornet and at seventeen was an accomplished artist. In 1866 he made his first trip to the United States After that he played in all parts of the world, and was considered the greatest living artist on his instrument Several years ago he made his permanent residence in this country.
The Civic Club, of Philadelphia, made arrangements with the management of the Philadelphia Orchestra whereby series of “People’s Concerts” will be given in the outlying sections of the city, and the first was given December 15th. The program was made up of good, but not heavy, music, and the complete orchestra was present, conducted by Fritz Scheel. The admission fee was 10 cents. It is hoped that sufficient encouragement will be given by the masses to warrant an extension of the enterprise.
A. E. Bosworth, of the Neue Musikalische Presse, No. 26 B Konigstrasse, Leipzig, offers a prize of $50 to the composer of the best sonatina in three movements, for piano solo, of about the same difficulty as the Sonatina in F major of Alban Förster Manuscripts bearing mottoes, and also envelopes containing composer’s name and address, bearing same motto on outside, should be in the publisher’s hands not later than February 1, 1904. The sonatina must be of instructive character and should be fingered and phrased.
A permanent symphony orchestra has been established in San Francisco, which is backed by a committee of wealthy women of that city, with Mrs. Phoebe Hearst as chairman. The orchestra will consist of the best orchestral players of San Francisco, reinforced by a number of members of the Phiadelphia Orchestra, the whole body to be under the direction of Fritz Scheel. The orchestra will play in San Francisco after the regular orchestral season in Philadelphia shall have closed. Concerts will be given in the leading Pacific Coast cities.
Frederic Grant Gleason died in Chicago, December 6, 1903, of pneumonia. He was born at Middletown, Conn., in 1848, studied under Dudley Buck, and later in Germany, at Leipzig. In 1875 he returned to the United States and for several years worked in Connecticut cities. In 1877 he removed to Chicago, where he rendered yeoman service to the cause of American music. At the time of his death he was director of the reorganized Chicago Conservatory. Mr. Gleason’s compositions included works in the larger forms, such as operas, overtures, and symphonic poems.
Among the curiosities in the Museum of the Académie des Sciences of Paris is an air violin, which resembles the common violin with the strings extended between two wooden (or metal) blades. It is vibrated upon at one end by a current of air, while at the other the player shortens the strings by the pressure of the finger. In fact the strings of this instrument are acted upon by the current of air instead of by the common bow. The sounds are said to vary between those of the French horn and the bassoon. Were it possible for the invention to come into ordinary use, the violin would have to be classed as a wind instrument.
Theodor Kirchner, a noted German composer, died in September at Hamburg. He was born December 10, 1823, at Neukirchen, near Chemnitz. In 1838 he came to Leipzig and studied piano, organ, and composition, later spending some time under the instruction of Schneider, the celebrated organist. His professional life included positions in such cities as Winterthur, Zürich, Meiningen, Würzburg, Leipzig, Dresden, and Hamburg. The past thirteen years he lived in the last named city. A German paper calls him “a specialist in the realm of the small piano piece,” which he developed in a masterly and wholly individual manner.
Edouard Colonne, the French conductor who directed several concerts of the New York Philharmonic series, said, speaking of certain defects in the orchestra: “These things will never change in America until it is as with us in Paris—that an institution like the Paris Conservatoire gives you the musicians. Why, genuine artists actually ooze out of the sidewalks; no matter what the quality or the ability of the man we lose, his place can be filled twenty times over.” He could not understand that a country like ours should be without an endowed Conservatory of Music, in which the greatest teachers in the world are engaged and the expense on the pupil a mere nothing.
