Dvorak’s manuscripts are to be revised for publication by his son-in-law, Josef Suk.
Pauline Lucca, the one-time favorite singer, celebrated her sixtieth birthday in April.
The Royal Music School in Würzburg will celebrate its one hundredth anniversary on July 12th.
Von Lenbach, the celebrated German portrait painter, whose Wagner portrait is well known, died in May.
A meeting of the Indiana State Music Teachers’ Association was held at Fort Wayne, June 28th to July 1st.
The city of Frankfort, Germany, purposes to create a public musical library for the benefit of musical persons.
A Vienna note states that among the manuscripts of the late Antonin Dvorak three completed symphonies nave been found.
Mr. William H. Sherwood played Weber’s “Concertstück with the Festival Orchestra at the St. Louis Exposition, June 28th.
A new orchestra has been established in London on the co-operative plan. The members will elect their conductor annually.
The Philadelphia Orchestra plans for next season include fifteen afternoon rehearsals and fifteen evening concerts, two more than last year.
An English exchange gives an account of a chorister in Yorkshire, 86 years of age, who has sung in the village choir for seventy-three years.
The sixteenth annual convention of the New York State Music Teachers’ Association was held at Niagara Falls, June 28th to 30th. Jaroslaw de Zielinski, of Buffalo, was president.
Mr. George P. Upton, of Chicago, is to prepare a biography of Theodore Thomas. Such a work will have special value to the student of musical progress in the United States.
A New York paper says that the Philharmonic Society is negotiating with Arthur Nikisch to secure him to direct one or more concerts. It is expected that Ysaye will conduct a concert as well as appear as soloist.
Musical entertainments have a part in the list of “Open Lectures” at the summer quarter of the University of Chicago. These occur on Tuesday evenings, June 21 and 28, July 5, 12, 19 and 26, and August 2, 9, 16 and 23.
The manuscript of a score, “Rule Britannia,” overture, by Richard Wagner, is reported to have been discovered in Leicester, Eng. It bears the signature “Richard Wagner, den 15, März, 1837, Königsberg in Preussen.”
Carl Heinrich Döring, the eminent composer and teacher, will celebrate his seventieth birthday July 4th. He has been connected with the Conservatory at Dresden for forty years. His piano studies are well known.
The Minnesota State Music Teachers’ Association, third annual meeting, was held at Duluth, June 16th to 18th. An attractive program of educational lectures and discussions and recitals was given. Mr. E. C. Murdock, of St. Paul, was president.
At the Covent Garden Opera House, London, grand opera began last year at five o’clock, an interval being allowed for dinner, and closed at eleven. An attempt to begin at seven, and give a continuous performance was not well received by social leaders.
The attempt to popularize English opera in London has come to grief. The first week resulted in a loss of $3500. This failure applies only to the capital; in the other large English cities the public demand English operas, Wagnerian works barely paying expenses.
The yearly statistical return for 1903, issued by the English Board of Education, referring to school singing in England and Wales, shows the relative use of the Tonic Sol-fa system and that of staff notation. The former was used in 23,624 departments, the latter in 3235.
The Wagner festival season at Munich, this year, will take place August 12th to September 11th, the Mozart season, August 1st to 11th. Among the singers well known to American audiences, who will appear at the Dresden performances are Ternina, Fritzi Scheff, and Van Rooy.
A Paris note tells of the discovery of the autograph score of an opera by Liszt “Don Sanche,” which was supposed to have been lost in the fire at the Paris Opera. It was produced there October 17, 1825, when Liszt was 14 years old. It shows influence of Mozart and Beethoven.
A New York paper announces the likelihood that Jean and Edouard de Reszke will sing in concert in this country next season. The plan of the tour contemplates fifty concerts. A Wagnerian soprano will be with them, and the three artists will appear in scenes from Wagner’s operas.
Rudolph Hennig, a prominent Philadelphia ‘cellist, died in Philadelphia May 28th. Mr. Hennig was born in Germany, and was educated there, but spent the last thirty years in Philadelphia. He was ‘cello soloist in the various symphony orchestras of Philadelphia, and had given much attention to chamber music.
The third music festival at Nashua, N. H., was given May 12th and 13th. “The Crusaders,” by Gade, was the principal choral work. The festival was given by the Oratorio Society, one hundred voices, and a chorus of one hundred and fifty voices from the High School. Mr. H. G. Blaisdell was the conductor.
The Guildhall School of Music, which is under the patronage of the corporation of the City of London, proper, is one of the largest schools of music in the world. The past year there was a registration of over three thousand pupils, the fees paid amounting to about $135,000. There are one hundred and twenty-one teachers.
There seems to be a demand for new church tunes in England. The committee in charge of the new Congregational tune book have offered prizes of $15, $10, and $5 for “the best melodious tunes suitable for congregational singing.” This contest closed June 30th. The Sunday School Union, of Manchester, Eng., offered four prizes of $15 each for festival hymn tunes.
Last year an English music lover gave the Royal College of Music, London, $100,000, the income to be spent in procuring a public hearing for the younger British composers and in traveling scholarships for young musicians of exceptional talent. The college invited compositions for examination and received forty-two orchestral works, fourteen of which were recommended for rehearsal.
The Chicago Madrigal Club, for its second annual prize competition, offers $25 for the best setting of the poem “When the Heart is Young,” by Charles Swain, the setting to be for chorus of mixed voices, to be sung without accompaniment. The contest is open until October 15th. Full particulars can be had from the director of the club, Mr. D. A. Clippinger, 410 Kimball Hall, Chicago.
Musical events occupy a prominent place in the program of entertainments at Chautauqua, N. Y. A lecture, with musical illustrations on “Parsifal,” one on “Wagner,” and one on “Music of the American Indian” are announced. There will be a number of concerts; Handel’s “Messiah,” July 22d, Haydn’s “Creation,” August 12th, and a children’s operetta, “Cinderella,” are among the works to be given.
Richard Barth, conductor of the Hamburg, Germany, Philharmonic Concerts, will retire at the end of this season’s work. He was one of the few left-handed violinists who attained to eminence. An accident to his left hand after he had been studying the violin for a number of years prevented the free use of his fingers. Thereupon he readjusted his violin and took the bow in his left hand, and began his practice anew.
The Japanese have a national hymn known as “Kimigaio,” which is said to be the oldest existing tune of the kind. Translated, the text runs somewhat as follows: “May the reign of our sovereign endure for a thousand years, and for eight thousand more beyond that, until stones are not rocks any more, nor moss any longer grows thickly.” This has been the official national anthem since the country first began to occidentalize itself.
The Pittsburg Orchestra, under Emil Paur, will give concerts in other cities next season. The circular issued by the management announces that the orchestra can be secured for out-of-town concerts. Every town of sufficient size should have a series of two or more concerts during the musical season. Any one of the leading orchestras can be secured, so that it is possible for any section of the country to enjoy the opportunity of hearing the large works of the masters given by a fine orchestra.
Citizens of Andover, Mass., offered prizes of $5.00 in gold to such pupils as should prove themselves superior in the playing of certain pieces in three different grades - junior, intermediate, and advanced. Thirty pupils took part in the piano and the violin contests. Honorable mention was made of the work of competitors who stood second in the contests. It is expected that these tests will be made an annual event and that they will stimulate pupils of Andover to more thorough study of music.
