There is a movement in London in favor of a permanent subsidized national opera.
Ysaye, the great violinist, has been engaged for a series of concerts in the United States next season.
The Neue Musikalische Presse, a well-known musical journal of Vienna, has been transferred to Leipzig.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has been put on a permanent basis, as a local paper says, "to be an institution for all time."
A lecture recital in New York City, March 14th, by Hermann Klein and David Bispham, on "The Singing and Speaking Voices," was quite a novelty.
The Czar of Russia is the latest royal recruit to the ranks of composers. He wrote text and music to a Christmas hymn which was published in Russia.
G. A. Heinze, a well-known Dutch composer, the nestor of Holland's muscians (sic), died recently aged eighty-three. He was conductor of the celebrated "Euterpe" male chorus.
Mr. Edgar Stillman Kelley, the American composer, at present in Berlin, has met with considerable success with his lectures on the Nikisch Symphony Orchestra programs.
At a song recital in London recently the artists were very generous, thirty songs being on the program. The audience surely received full value for the money paid for the tickets.
A German musical paper says that Mascagni is to make an artistic tour in 1905, beginning at Weimar, and visiting the cities of Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg, Prague, and Vienna.
Several, of the recent English music festivals have omitted "The Messiah" from the program. Complaint has been made that its annual use keeps other works from a more frequent hearing.
A Paris musical patron has offered a prize of $200 for the best chorus suitable for the use of pupils in the French schools, in certain grades of which music study was recently made obligatory.
Franz von Vecsey, the young violinst (sic), a short sketch of whom appeared in The Etude for March, will play in London, May 3d. He should score a financial success that will help to further his musical education.
At Elberfeld, Germany, recently, a concert of music of the time of Frederick the Great, was given; compositions by the king, his sister, and of his chamber musicians, Graun, Quantz, Hasse, and Benda, were played.
A prize contest of interest to anthem composers has been opened by the Lorenz Publishing Company, Dayton, Ohio. There are two prizes of $50 each, two of $35, and two of $25. The conditions governing the contest can be had by addressing the company.
During a recent performance of "Tristan und Isolde" in Rome, Queen Helena entered her box. The conductor gave a sign, the singers withdrew to the wings, Wagner's music was stopped, and the Italian royal hymn "Marcia-Reale" was struck up by the orchestra.
Women have been made eligible to receive degrees from the Dublin University. Oxford and Cambridge are the only two universities in Great Britain that do not receive women on a parity with men. Perhaps we shall see a number of women Mus. Doc's as a result of this new move.
Some of the companies who present operas in English have been aroused by the great success of "Parsifal" as given at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City. There is some talk of giving "Parsifal" in English, by the Savage Opera Company, using the Corder translation.
The Chickering Piano Company gave a series of four orchestral concerts. Special care was taken to give most interesting programs. The executive committee included some of Boston's most distinguished musical personalities: B. J. Lang, Arthur Foote, C. M. Loeffler, F. S. Converse.
The annual music festival of the South Atlantic States will be held at Spartansburg, S. C., April 27th to 29th. There will be five concerts in all. The Converse College Choral Society, R. H. Peters, director, will give the festival, and will be assisted by the Boston Festival Orchestra.
The next meeting of the New York State Music Teachers' Association is to be at Niagara Falls, June 28th to 30th. Among the discussions will be one on "What is Musical Education?" to be participated in by Wm. H. Sherwood, Professor Sleeper, Dr. Goetschius, and Louis Arthur Russell.
Nine cash prizes aggregating $30,000 will be offered in the Band Tournament at the St. Louis World's Fair, commencing September 12th and continuing to the 17th. A pamphlet containg (sic) rules governing the Tournament can be secured from Mr. George W. Stewart, manager of the Bureau of Music.
The concert tour of Mme. Adelina Patti was abandoned, and the diva sailed for Europe March 19th. According to the manager the original idea was to give sixty concerts, but it was found that there are not enough big cities in the country to guarantee so many concerts at the high price demanded by the singer.
According to the list of receipts at the Opera, as published in a Paris exchange, from November 20 to December 20, 1903, Gounod's "Faust" is the best drawing work, Wagner's "Tannhäuser comes second, Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette" third, followed by Meyerbeer's "Le Prophete," and Vincent d'Indy's "L'Etranger."
In the opera season at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City, a repertory of twenty-seven operas received a total of one hundred and one performances. "Parsifal" was given eleven times, "Cavalleria Rusticana," eight; "Aïda," six; "Rigoletto," "Tannhäuser," "Pagliacci," and "Lohengrin," five each.
The Société des Concerts, of Turin, Italy, are following the lead of the New York Philharmonic Society, having engaged a number of conductors for their concerts. During May they will give a series of symphony concerts directed by Hans Richter, Edward Colonne, Luigi Mancinelli, Guiseppe Martucci, and Safanof, the Russian conductor.
Musical and dramatic instruction in the Paris Conservatoire is free, but pupils, on being admitted, sign an agreement by which on finishing their studies they are obliged to sing or play during three years for a very modest remuneration, if the director of the Opera or the Opera Comique, or of the Théatre Français finds their talent sufficient for an artistic career.
The prices charged for tickets to many London concerts are quite moderate. Considerable stir has been made by the announcement that the price of the cheapest seat at the concerts of the London Philharmonic Society is to be raised from one shilling (25 cents) to half a crown (62½cents). This society annually admits between 400 and 500 music students to their concerts at a merely nominal charge.
The third annual music festival of the Nashua, N. H., Oratorio Society, E. G. Hood, director, will be held May 12th and 13th. Verdi's "Requiem" will be sung by the Oratorio Society, and Gade's "Crusaders'" by the High School Chorus, also under Mr. Hood's direction. An orchestra made up of the New Hampshire Philharmonic and some Boston Symphony Orchestra members will furnish the accompaniments.
During the year from July, 1902, to July, 1903, there were on German stages 1406 representations of Wagner's operas, "Lohengrin" was given the greatest number of times; then follow in succession "Tannhäuser," "Flying Dutchman," "Mastersingers of Nuremberg," "Valkyries," "Siegfried," "Gotterdammerung," "Rheingold," "Tristan und Isolde," "Rienzi." Berlin had the greatest number of Wagner evenings.
Friedrich Wilhelm von Kornatzki died in London January 21st. His compositions, which belong to an earlier generation than the present, were at one time fairly popular. "The Hunter's Horn" is best known at the present day. Mr. Kornatzki was born at Memel, East Prussia, May 11, 1827. He served in the Prussian army and won the Order of the Iron Cross. Later he gave up a military career for the music profession. In 1862 he located in London.
A Chicago musical paper says that it is understood that Mr. Alfred Reisenauer, a piano virtuoso, who is now touring the United States, expressed surprise at a program offered by one of Chicago's artist-teachers. He did not expect to find a local artist who could play such a program. Too many foreign artists forget that it was during his stay in the United States that Godowsky made the wonderful strides that now place him in the first rank of piano virtuosi. The foreign artist will one day learn to give us credit that is due.
March 17th was the ninety-ninth birthday of Manuel Garcia, the celebrated singing master. Seventy-eight years ago he assisted his father and his sister, the distinguished prima donna, Malibran, in the first performance of Rossini's "Barber of Seville," at New York. In his time modern music has developed; Beethoven lived twenty-two years after Garcia was born. He is truly the "Grand Old Man" of music. Jenny Lind was one of his pupils. So, also, were Mme. Marchesi and Stockhausen, the celebrated German singing teacher.
Arthur Hartmann, the young violinist, who received the greater part of his education in this country, and has recently won much success in Europe, has been playing the viola d'amour at some of his concerts. It is one of the old instruments, seldom used at the present day. It is larger than the viola, and has the flat back of the viol family. The f holes have the "flaming sword" shape. It has fourteen strings, seven of which are played by the bow, the other seven being sympathetic strings, not touched by the bow. They vibrate when any note in harmony with them is played by the bow.
Mr. Otto Bendix, of San Francisco, Cal., died March 1st, of heart failure. Mr. Bendix was a native of Copenhagen, Denmark, where he was born about fifty-three years ago. His father was a talented amateur musician, and at his own home, where the Royal Orchestra frequently rehearsed, the boy became imbued with a musical spirit. From his tenth year on he devoted his attention to music, studied in Copenhagen, Berlin, and Weimar, coming under Liszt's teaching in the last-named city. He returned to Copenhagen as a teacher in the National Conservatory, where he remained thirteen years. In 1880 he came to the United States and located in Boston, accepting a position with the New England Conservatory, where he was very successful as a teacher. About ten years ago Mr. Bendix went to San Francisco, where he organized the California Conservatory of Music, of which he was director at the time of his death.
The Sixteenth Biennial Cincinnati Musical Festival will be held May 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, under the direction of Theodore Thomas, who will bring the Chicago Orchestra, augmented to 100 players. The chorus Will number 500 voices, and for the past two years has been preparing for the festival under the direction of Mr. E. W. Glover, chorus master. The choral numbers to be sung are: Bach, "B Minor Mass"; Brahms, "Rhapsody," Op. 53; Beethoven, "Missa Solennis"; Beethoven, "Ninth Symphony"; Berlioz, "Hymn," Op. 26; Elgar, "Dream of Gerontius." Among the important orchestral works to be given are: Beethoven, "Symphony, No. 8"; Bach, "Suite, No. 2 in B Minor"; Bruckner, "Symphony, No. 9, in D Minor"; Mozart, "Symphony in E-flat" (Köchel 543); Strauss, R., tone poem, "Death and Transfiguration," Op. 24. Inquiries in regard to seats and tickets can be addressed to Mr. Geo. H. Wilson, care John Church Co., Cincinnati, Ohio.
The trustees of Columbia University have accepted the resignation of Prof. Macdowell, of the Department of Music, to take effect at the close of the present academic year. The trustees authorized Pres. Butler to tender an invitation to Dr. Cornelius Rübner, now director of the Grand Ducal Conservatory of Music at Carlsruhe, Germany, to become head of the department. Dr. Rübner is well known to some present members of the Columbia Faculty as a man of great personal charm, and as a teacher who has been markedly successful. He is by birth a Dane, and is about forty-four years of age. Dr. Rübner has had many American pupils at Carlsruhe, and they have warmly united in urging his election to the chair of music at Columbia. It is confidently expected that Dr. Rübner will accept his appointment and enter upon his duties in New York next autumn. At the same time the trustees voted to strengthen the teaching staff of the department by advancing Leonard Beecher McWhood, now tutor in music, to the grade of adjunct professor.
A Bach concert was given in St. Louis, February 13th, under the direction of Mrs. A. S. Hughey.
The Austin College Quarterly contains an excellent article by Miss Iola M. Gilbert, director of music in the Conservatory, entitled "The Concert Bore, the Musician, and the Audience."
The Camerata Chorus, of Alton, Ill., Miss Katherine Dickinson, director, gave a miscellaneous concert program, March 8th, including the cantata, "The Lady of Shalott."
Mr. J. Francis Cooke, of Brooklyn, N. Y., a frequent contributor to The Etude, has accepted a position as American correspondent to the Musikalisches Wochenblatt, of Leipzig.
The second concert of the Atlanta, Ga., Orchestra Association, J. Lewis Browne, conductor, was given February 29th.
"Hiawatha's Wedding Feast," by Coleridge Taylor, was given by the chorus of Dana's Musical Institute, Warren, Ohio, and the choir of the First M. E. Church, Mr. Lynn B. Dana, conductor.
A Laramie, Wyo., paper gives a good report of the work done at the State University School of Music under the direction of Mary Slavens Clark.
Mr. Carl G. Schmidt, organist of St. Paul's M. E. Church, New York City, gave his fifty-ninth and sixtieth recitals March 14th and 21st. The latter was devoted to works by Wagner.
Miss Edith Lynwood Winn gave a lecture recital of Russian music at the Northfield, Mass., Seminary, February 29th.
The Mansfield, Ohio, Choral Society, Albert Bellingham, conductor, gave Handel's "Messiah" March 2d. The chorus numbers 125 members.
A concert of familiar and old-fashioned music was given by the Philharmonic Class of Fairfax College, Winchester, Va., under the direction of Miss Glass, February 22d.
A number of the younger pupils of Mrs. V. L. Bean, of Duluth, gave a recital January 21st. Mrs. Bean's little daughter, twelve years old, is to go to Germany shortly to study the violin in Berlin.
Prof. E. D. Nestell, of Albany, N. Y., has retired from his work as organist at the Ash Grove M. E. Church, after a service of twenty-five years.
The American Organ Players' Club, of Philadelphia, has been giving recitals every Saturday afternoon from November 7th to March 29th. They have been well attended.
A sacred cantata, "A Song of Praise," by Frederick N. Shackley, was given in the Central Congregational Church, Newtonville, Mass., February 14th.
The 1200th concert of the Detroit Conservatory of Music, Francis L. York, director, was given February 16th, by members of the Conservatory Faculty.
The Church Choral Society, of New York City, under the musical direction of Richard Henry Warren, gave a recital February 24th in St. Thomas' Church. The second of the season will be given in St. Bartholomew's Church, April 20th, Wagner's "Good Friday Music" was a feature of the first recital. Other works given were H. L. Hassler, Passion Chorale, Coleridge Taylor, "The Atonement," J. S. Bach, Fugue in E Minor, for orchestra and organ. At the second recital, H. W. Parker's "Concerto for Organ and Orchestra,," Bach's Cantata "God is a Sun and Shield," J. Cruger's chorale, "Now Thank We All Our God," Liszt's Psalm XIII, Dvorâk's "Te Deum," and Bach's "Toccata in F," for orchestra and organ will be given.
Mr. J. Austin Springer, of the Mason Piano School, Albany, N. Y., gave a recital of compositions by Dr. William Mason, to commemorate the latter's seventy-fifth birthday.
Mr. Clarence G. Hamilton, a frequent contributor to The Etude, and winner of one of the prizes in the last essay contest, has been appointed associate professor of music in Wellesley College. Mr. Hamilton is a resident of Providence, R. I., a graduate of Brown University, having also received the degree of M.A. in music from that institution.
A recital was given by pupils of Miss Mary Baldwin, Zanesville, Ohio, February 22d.
The St. Cecelia Club, of Aurora, Ill., gave a public recital, February 8th. The program consisted of compositions by Beethoven and Schubert.
A number of programs sent us by Mr. W. H. Pontius, of Dubuque, show great activity in his studio work. His pupils' recital programs are well made.
