The Royal Conservatory at Dresden has been in existence nearly fifty years.
The next contest for the Anton Rubinstein prize of $1000 for composers and pianists will take place in Paris in 1905.
To mark the one hundredth jubilee of the Royal Music School at Würzburg, a friend gave $2500 for indigent pupils.
Mascagni has opened a school of music in Rome. He is working on a new opera which he believes will rival his “Cavalleria.”
Carl Attenhofer, the well-known composer of music for male voices, has resigned his position as director of the Zürich Männerchor after thirty-eight years of service.
The conservatory at Bologna, Italy, will celebrate its one hundredth anniversary November 30th. A memorial tablet to Richard Wagner will be unveiled at that time.
In the August issue of The Etude an error was made as to the secretaryship of the Music Teachers’ National Association. The newly elected officer is Walter H. Overton, of Durham, N. C.
De Pachmann is to give a number of concerts and recitals in the United States next season. He will also appear with the Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati Orchestras.
Herbert Johnson, widely known as the composer of the song “Face to Face,” died July 21st, in Boston. Mr. Johnson was born in Providence, R. I., but lived in Boston the greater part of his life.
An American girl, Florence Austin, won the second prize for violin-playing at Royal Conservatory, Liege; recently she carried off the first prize with distinction, against twenty-four other contestants.
French musicians will be heard in Germany this season. Calvé will be “guest” at Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, Frankfort, and Vienna; the Lamoureux Orchestra, of Paris, will give several concerts in Berlin.
Madame Gadski will not appear with the Metropolitan Opera Company this season. She will give her time to recital work. Her tour will take her as far west as Vancouver, B. C., and other Pacific coast cities.
The Band Contest which was announced for the week of September 11th to 17th at the World’s Fair, St. Louis, has been taken off the program of events, as the number of entries did not warrant the large outlay proposed.
Julius Stockhausen, the eminent singing teacher, who recently celebrated his seventy-eighth birthday, has retired from the direction of the Frankfort, Germany, Conservatory, and will limit his teaching to a few private pupils.
The bodies of Johann Strauss (elder) and Joseph Lanner, the famous waltz composers, were exhumed in Vienna. Strauss’ violin, which was buried with him, had entirely fallen away to dust, but the body was in fair preservation.
At the last competition for the “Roman Prize” under the auspices of the Academy of the Fine Arts in Paris, one of the prizes was won by a woman, a pupil of Widor. This is the first time that prize has been awarded to a woman in this contest.
J. F. Runciman, the English critic, wants us to go back to Mozart. He says: “Palestrina and all the old church writers are too old; Bach and Handel are too old; Wagner is not what we want. Of all the composers of our era, Mozart alone knew exactly (as he said) how many notes to put in his scores.”
In the trial of three music students arrested at a concert in Paris for persistent hissing, on account of the introduction of a piano concerto in one of the programs of the Colonne Orchestra, the judge dismissed the case on the ground that since approval was not objected to, disapproval could not be restrained.
A chorus has been formed to rehearse and sing in public concerts nothing but the madrigals of English composers, such as Byrde, Morley, Weelkes, Dowland, Benet, Wilbye, and others. The beautiful specimens of vocal music should appear on the programs of American choruses far more frequently than is the case.
The ivory from the elephants of Abyssinia is much esteemed, as it is generally very beautiful and fine in quality. Hunting parties have so much reduced the number of elephants that the Emperor has prohibited the killing of any more for some years. The piano trade has been compelled to resort to substitutes for natural ivory.
The newly elected officers of the Indiana State Music Teachers’ Association are: President, J. W. Stabler, Noblesville; Secretary, J. S. Berger, Lafayette; Treasurer, Arthur W. Mason, Columbus; Executive Committee, Mr. H. W. Nussbaum, Miss C. R. Berry, Mr. C. W. Meyer; Program Committee, W. A. Ernestinoff, G. F. Lindner, and C. E. Condo.
Mr. Henry J. Wood, of London, the well known orchestral director, who conducted at several of the concerts of the New York Philharmonic Society last season, has made arrangements to organize an orchestral society for young players, with weekly rehearsals, thirty to a season. Mr. Wood will give a systematic course of instruction in orchestral playing.
The English Grand Opera Company, managed by Henry W. Savage, has arranged a very extensive tour for the coming season. It will consist of 150 singers, and orchestra of 40, and will give opera in sixty-five of the leading American and Canadian cities. The repertoire includes the leading French and Italian operas, with “Tannhäuser” and “Lohengrin” to represent Wagner.
For the month April 20th to May 19th the receipts for a single performance at the Paris Opéra were greatest for Erlanger’s new opera, “Le Fils de l’Etoile,” followed by Wagner’s “Tannhäuser” a close second, Gounod’s “Faust” and Verdi’s “Rigoletto” third. At the Opéra Comique “Carmen” showed the largest receipts, with Massenet’s “Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame” and Gluck’s “Iphigénie en Tauride” about $25.00 behind.
At the Milwaukee Saengerfest, the full chorus numbered 3500 singers, accompanied by an orchestra of 100, under the direction of Theodore Thomas. The audience reached the large number of 5000. Choral works rendered were: “Song of the Bell” and “Fair Ellen,” by Bruch; “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast,” by Coleridge Taylor, and several shorter pieces. The orchestra under Mr. Thomas played a number of representative classic and modern works.
The choral competitions at the World’s Fair, St. Louis, resulted as follows: Grade A, 100 voices, first prize, $5000, Scranton (Pa.) Oratorical Society; second prize, $3500, Evanston (Ill.) Choral Society; third prize, $2500, Denver (Col.) Choral Society; Grade B., 60 voices, first prize, $2500, Denver Select Choir; second prize, $1500, Pittsburgh Cathedral Choir; third prize, $1000, Ravenswood (Ill.) Musical Club. In 1902 the Scranton singers won an aggregate of $1640 at the Brooklyn Arion Festival.
A French ecclesiastic, educated in the Benedictine Monastery at Salesmes, France, which is the center of the cultivation of the old Gregorian music, spent some time in this country to teach the principles of this style of church music, which the Pope has indorsed. He did not meet with much encouragement in New York city, according to a local paper. The churchmen in this country do not think this style of music adapted to American audiences. Even if ultimately adopted as the foundation of church music, it is certain to undergo modifications. If it be accepted by us, our ideals of church music will need considerable change.
The research brought to bear on securing articles of historical value for the music loan exhibition under the auspices of the Company of Musicians, London, resulted in the discovery of several valuable works, two part books of Morley’s “Consort Lessons,” found in the Bodleian Library and the Library of Christ Church, Oxford, the original “Agincourt Song,” in the Pepys Collection at Cambridge, a piece of program music by Byrde, called “A Battel,” which is probably one of the first attempts at this style of music. Eighteen lectures with musical illustrations, covering the period of music from Byrde to Elgar, were delivered by leading musicians and critics.
Some interesting figures are given in a German exchange which show the hold that the opera has in the German cities. Coburg-Gotha, which together have a population of less than 60,000, had 111 opera evenings during the past season; in the Leipzig city theater 63 different works were given, and in other houses devoted to lighter operas 121 different works were performed; in Schwerin, with a population of less than 50,000, 40 operas were given on 97 evenings; in Strassburg, population, 150,000, 51 different works were given on 129 evenings; Cologne, population, 375,000, shows a record of 67 operas and 278 performances, “Carmen” leading with 10 representations, the “Flying Dutchman,” “Tannhäuser,” “Lohengrin,” and “Die Meistersinger” following with 7 representations each.
