Members of the Appy family of Seattle, Wash., have an interesting album containing autograph letters from great composers and artists to their father, Mr. Henri Appy, the distinguished Dutch ‘cellist. Among the letters are some from Beethoven, Liszt, Gade, Ferdinand Hiller, Clara Schumann, Berlioz, also music autographs by Mozart, Brahms and others.
Max Reger, who divides musical attention in Germany with Richard Strauss, is still quite young, being in his thirty-third year. He is a Bavarian by birth and was a pupil of Riemann. He now lives at Munich, and teaches organ and composition in the Royal Academy of Music in that city.
The report of the Census Bureau, for the year ending December 31, 1904, contains statistics interesting to musicians. There were in the United States 343 firms engaged in the manufacture of pianos, organs and attachments and 101 in making piano and organ materials, 180 making miscellaneous musical instruments, and materials. $72,205,829 of capital were invested. $23,667,641 were paid in salaries and wages, the number of persons on the pay rolls being 38,166. The total value of the product in 1904 was $69,571,490. These figures and others given in the report show a gain in all points over 1903.
Edvard Grieg received the honorary degree of Doctor of Music from Oxford University in May.
It is a hopeful sign that efforts are being made in nearly all the larger cities to organize symphony orchestras or a regular series of symphony concerts by a visiting orchestra.
Joseph Lhevinne, the Russian pianist, who was so well received by critics and public in his recitals a few months ago, will remain in Paris and the vicinity all summer preparing for his tour next summer. The fine notices he won from the American papers had much to do with his being released from military service.
The Council of Leipzig voted $3,750 toward the erection of a new and worthy memorial to Bach in the yard of the St. Thomas Church.
The Minnesota State Music Teachers’ Association met in convention at Minneapolis, June 7 to 9. A program, musical, literary and pedagogic was given by members of the association and visitors. A Minnesota composers’ concert was a feature.
The New York Oratorio Society, Mr. Frank Damrosch, director, will produce Pierne’s new cantata “The Children’s Crusade” next season, which received the City of Paris prize in 1904.
The annual meeting of the Ohio Music Teachers’ Association was held at Cincinnati, O., June 20 to 22. The program included papers, discussion of topics germane to the music teacher’s work, and musical numbers.
Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly” is to be given by the Henry W. Savage Opera Company this next season.
Mr. Edward MacDowell is in New Hampshire, his physicians hoping that a change of air and surroundings will aid in his recovery.
Members of the Metropolitan Opera Company’s orchestra lost heavily in the San Francisco fire, the violins, violas, ‘cellos and basses amounting to more than $12,000. Among the number were a fine Guarnerius, a Guadagnini and a Santa Seraphin ‘cello.
The town corporation of Schoenberg, near Berlin, has advanced $300,000 to a local company to build a theatre, stipulating for low prices of admission, except as to boxes and a portion of the parterre. In the main part of the house seats must not be more than thirty-five, twenty-five and fifteen cents.
Mr. M. Steinert, of New Haven, Conn., purchased a fine collection of antique instruments recently in Europe, his special aim being to secure instruments that preceded the piano. Among the instruments he secured were ten clavicytheriums, four harpsichords and three spinets of the early part of the fifteenth century.
The American Federation of Musicians at their recent convention in Boston, attacked the Boston Symphony Orchestra for refusing to recognize the “Union.”
The St. Paul, Minn., Orchestral Association now has two hundred guarantors and a fund of $25,000. A series of symphony concerts will be given next season. N. B. Emanuel has been engaged as director.
Hugo Heermann, the celebrated violinist, has been engaged to succeed Emil Sauret, as head of the violin department of the Chicago College of Music. Mr. Heermann is a graduate of the Brussels Conservatory and also studied in Paris. Since 1878 he has been head of the violin department in the famous Hoch Conservatory at Frankfort, Germany, and leader of the popular Hermann String Quartet.
Manager Conried is planning for a chorus school at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City, where persons with good voices may be trained as chorus singers, and have an opportunity, later, to join the Metropolitan Opera Co. chorus.
New Orleans is to have a series of ten symphony concerts next season, by a local orchestra. Mr. Ferdinand Dunkley will have charge.
A Handel festival will be given in Berlin next October. Among the works to be sung are “Israel in Egypt,” “Ode to St. Cecilia,” and “Belshazzar.”
The College Entrance Examination Board, which met at Columbia University in April, adopted a plan by which music may be offered in the entrance examination at the colleges represented in the board. Examinations will be held in “musical appreciation,” harmony, counterpoint and musical performance. Harvard has already adopted the plan of accepting music as a qualification for admission to college.
Mr. Rafael Joseffy has withdrawn from the National Conservatory of Music, New York City, and will devote his time to private pupils at his home, North Tarrytown, N. Y.
The Wagnerian tenor, Winkelmann, has given up public work and will hereafter occupy himself with teaching. He was connected with the Vienna Opera for the past twenty-three years.
Music week at Chautauqua for 1906 comes July twenty-third to twenty-eighth inclusive. The program for this week includes besides the regular events of the Assembly program:
Rossini’s “Stabat Mater;” “The Elijah;” Illustrated Lecture on a musical theme by Mr. N. J. Corey of Detroit; American Composer’s program with solos by Mr. William H. Sherwood and Sol Marcosson; “The Messiah;” Lecture series by Mr. Corey, illustrated at the piano.
Friday of this week is to be Choral Competition Day and invitations are being widely extended to choirs and choruses of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana to participate in the Competition. Substantial prizes will be given for the best rendition of the following selections:
I—Choral Societies, 40 to mixed 75 voices. “By Babylon’s Wave”—Gounod. Prize—$75.
II—Church Choirs, mixed voices. “The Wilderness”—Sir John Goss. Prize—$40.
III—Male Chorus, 25 to 50 voices. “The Spring Has Come”—Dudley Buck. Prize—$40.
IV—Female Chorus, 25 to 50 voices. “Rockin’ in de Win”—Neidlinger. Prize—$40.
V—Mixed Quartet. “The Sea hath its Pearls”—Pinsuti. Prize—$10.
VI—Male Quartet. “Annie Laurie”—Dudley Buck. Prize—$10.
An entry fee of fifty cents for each competing individual will be charged and if the number of entries will justify the change, the amount of the prize will be proportionately increased.
Members of competing choruses will have free admission to the grounds and to all open lectures and concerts therein from Friday morning, July twenty-seventh, until Saturday evening. July twenty-eighth. Special railroad rates are available at this time.
Correspondence on any question arising in connection with the Competition is invited by Percy H. Boynton, Secretary of Instruction, 5711 Kimbark Avenue, Chicago.
English publishers and composers at present seem to have no legal protection in the rights usually belonging to copyrighted music. Unscrupulous printers issue cheap editions by the thousands, and these are hawked around the streets by venders. Mr. Walter Slaughter, a well-known composer, fortified by legal advice that “the public are entitled to help themselves to copies of pirated music free of charge without incurring legal responsibility,” siezed (sic) a number of copies of “The Dear Homeland” and tore them up. Signor Denza, whose popular “May Morning” has been extensively pirated was gravely advised to use a similar method. The queer thing about this copyright muddle is, that while English composers and publishers are amply and carefully safeguarded in their property rights on the continent and in the United States, they are not protected at home.
A German paper announces that Hugo Becker, the famous violincellist, has accepted a position on the faculty of the Chicago Musical College.
The deficit of the Pittsburg Orchestra, this season, was $31,194, or about $6,000 less than that of the season of 1904-05. The receipts for the concerts given on the several tours were greater than those at home.
The vote for a “Request Program” by the Peoples Symphony Orchestra, New York City, had the following results of interest to musicians, and especially to program makers: Overtures, “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Tannhäuser,” “Meistersinger,” favorites in the order named; Symphonies, Beethoven, No. 5, Beethoven, No. 2, Beethoven; No. 6. dividing equally with Tchaikovsky. No. 4 and “Pathetique;” Symphonic Poems, “Tasso,” “Tod und Verklärung,” “Les Preludes ;” Suites, “Peer Gynt,” “Nut Cracker,” MacDowell, Op. 42; March, Waltz, or any single movement piece, “Marche Slav,” by Tchaikovsky. “Dance of the Apprentices” from “Die Meistersinger.” “Marche Militaire” by Schubert; Vocal Works with Orchestra, Rudolf’s aria from La Boheme, Aria from II Re Pastore, by Mozart, Prologue from “Pagliacci” and Walther’s “Prize Song” from “Die Meistersinger.”
The Ocean Grove musical festival will be on a large scale this year. The important concerts are given Saturday nights from June 23 to Sept. 3. The works to be sung are “Messiah,” “Elijah,” “St. Paul,” “Redeemer,” “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast,” “Kingdom of Heaven,” “Queen Esther.” A Children’s Festival Concert, 1,000 voices, will occur Aug. 9. The orchestra will number about 65 players. Experienced choir or chorus singers who wish to take part in these concerts during their stay at Ocean Grove should address Mr. Tali Esen Morgan, Musical Director, Ocean Grove, N. J.
