At Home.
Fritz Kreisler, the famous, violinist, is repeating his former successes in this country.
The New York Sun speaks of Victor Herbert as "the greatest American composer ever born in Dublin and educated in Germany."
The biennial meeting of the National Federation of Musical Clubs will be held in Chicago from April 1st to April 25th, 1913. A large attendance is already indicated by the interest taken.
Ysaye, the Belgian violinist, met with a most cordial reception on his first appearance during his present American tour, at Carnegie Hall, New York. He has lost nothing of his old power.
The Spanish prima donna, Lucrezia Bori, who made her American debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, in the title role of Manon Lescaut, is a descendant from Lucrezia Borgia. Her success was emphatic.
When Godowsky played in Philadelphia a delightful reception was tendered to him by the South Broad Street Conservatory, under the direction of Gilbert Raymond Combs. Godowsky was formerly one of the regular teachers in the institution.
The first "novelty" at the New York Metropolitan Opera has been a revival of Mozart's Magic Flute. A crowded audience showed keen appreciation of the refreshing tunefulness of the music.
A movement is on foot to erect a memorial tablet to the late Siegfried Behrens in the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, where Mr. Behrens ably conducted so many successful performances.
Paul Dufault, the Canadian tenor, and Eleanora de Cisneros have just returned from a tour in Australia. They speak very highly of the remarkable interest in music which the Australians take, and of the cordial reception extended to visiting artists from abroad.
The Fifth Annual Convention and Music Festival of the Kansas State Music Teachers' Association was held December 4th, 5th and 6th at Manhattan, Kansas. Charles W. Landon is the president of this organization.
Mr. William C. Carl recently gave his one hundred and fiftieth organ recital at the Old First Presbyterian Church. This, of course, does not include the innumerable recitals he has given elsewhere.
New York is to spend $49,500 on public concerts in the parks next summer. This is an increase of $9,500 over the amount spent last summer. This increase is remarkable in view of the fact that other items in the city's budget have been cut down. The Park Commissioner is much delighted at the appropriations.
The first concert of the season of the New York Philharmonic augurs well for the future. Owing to increased financial resources, the conductor, Josef Stransky, has been able to alter and arrange the personnel of his orchestra to suit his own exacting tastes.
The Boston Music School Settlement has established a Fellowship amounting to $150,000 a year, to be awarded annually to one student from the following colleges and universities: Boston University, Harvard, Radcliffe, Tufts and Wellesley. Students at these colleges will now have an opportunity to do social service in a direction new to them.
The Chicago opera season opened with Puccini's Manon Lescaut. The audience extended a greeting which, according to one report, is best described as "frenzied." There seems to be but little doubt that the Chicago season of opera will be the most successful yet held in that city.
Now that the Dippel forces have commenced their ten weeks' engagement in Chicago, Philadelphia is dependent for its opera upon the visits of the Metropolitan opera from New York. The Dippel season has been a remarkable one in many ways, but the most signal success in Philadelphia, so far, has been that of Titta Ruffo, whose singing aroused phenomenal enthusiasm.
The first appearance of the much-heralded pianist, Gottfried Galston, took place at the inauguration of New York's new concert room, Æolian Hall. Both the new pianist and the new hall won the emphatic approval of the large audience. Galston comes from Munich with a big reputation which he will evidently have no difficulty in maintaining while in this country.
Louis Persinger's début with the Philadelphia Orchestra proved to be of more than passing interest: Mr. Persinger is an American violinist who has been winning great favor abroad, but it remained for him to prove himself before his own countrymen. He passed through the ordeal with flying colors, and proved beyond doubt that he is entitled to a place among that select band of American violinists with an international reputation.
Late in November the new organ in Grace Hall, at Williams College, was inaugurated. The organists officiating upon the occasion were: S. A. Baldwin, W. C. Hammond, H. C. MacDougall, and the Professor of Music at Williams College, Sumner Salter. The organ was built by Ernest M. Skinner. It contains several well-tested innovations; has four manuals and an echo organ. There are 4,680 pipes and 88 stops. The instrument is enclosed in a magnificent case, and is easily one of the finest instruments in the country.
The success of Titta Ruffo in Philadelphia has been more than equaled by his success in New York. Few singers of late years have created such a sensation. Fifteen years ago this wonderful baritone was an ironworker in Rome, earning forty cents a day. On a recent visit to the Baldwin Iron Works in Philadelphia, he gave a practical demonstration of the fact that he has not forgotten his old trade. His present earnings are said to amount to $2,000 a night. On this basis, a statistic crank in the New York World has figured that in Hamlet he uses his voice in solos, duets, etc., for a total of 114½ minutes at the rate of $17 a minute.
The début of Leopold Godowsky in his present tour of America was made at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Josef Stransky. Upon this occasion he played the Brahms Concerto in B flat. Little may be said of Godowsky's playing that has not already been said—his exceptional mentality, his limitless mechanical accomplishments and his emotional fire are the unmistakable attributes of real pianistic genius. The Brahms' Concerto is rarely played because of its innumerable complexities, and because it is caviar to all but the most enthusiastic music lovers. However, a few living men can play Brahms in a way that will arouse great enthusiasm at a large concert, and Godowsky is probably the foremost of them.
The début of Dr. Kunwald as conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra was recently made. His almost unlimited experience as conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic has given him an unrivalled knowledge of the resources of the modern orchestra, and it is not surprising that his first appearance with the Cincinnati Orchestra was a pronounced success. The program consisted of Liszt's Les Préludes, Beethoven's Coriolanus Overture and the Eroica symphony, and the prelude and liebestod from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde—surely enough to test any conductor's virtuosity. His readings were sane and well balanced, unmarred by any effort to capture public favor through sensational means.
The death of Siegfried Behrens, the well- known operatic conductor, has occasioned much regret in the musical world of America. Mr. Behrens came over to this country when in his seventeenth year, and already having something of a reputation as a pianist. He was born in Hamburg, Germany, 1839. Five years before landing in New York he had had the honor of playing accompaniments for Jenny Lind. He soon entered the operatic field, and for many years was associated with the Anna Bishop Opera Company, the Gottschalk-Carlotta Patti Concert Company, the Caroline Richings English Opera Company, the Parepa Rosa Co., and Clara Louise Kellogg's English Grand Opera Company. His latter years have been spent in Philadelphia, where he has long been a favorite. From 1906 until his death, he was conductor of the remarkably efficient Philadelphia Operatic Society. His successor will be Mr. Wassili Leps. His memory of musical people and musical facts was phenomenal, and his services to the art of music in America untiring and inestimable.
Goldmark's Cricket on the Hearth was presented at the Philadelphia Metropolitan Opera House by the Philadelphia-Chicago Opera Company early in their season. The work was finely given, and the singing, acting and "spectacle" left little to be demanded. Goldmark's music is extremely melodious, even though it suggests an occasional recollection of Grieg, Wagner, Mozart, and even Johann Strauss, Jr. This is not to imply that the master is a plagiarist, for he has a character and style all his own, as those who have heard the Sakuntala overture well know. The opera was given in English, the translation being by C. H. Meltzer. The English pronunciation of the artists was particularly good, Maggie Teyte, Helen Stanley, Riccardo Martin, Hector Dufranne, Mabel Riegelman and Henri Scott taking the principal parts. The latter made the hit of the evening by his unique impersonation of Tackleton and by his splendid diction.
The death has occurred of Prof. Otis Bardwell Boise, head of the department of harmony and composition at the Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore. He was born at Oberlin, Ohio, in 1844, and studied at Leipzig under Moscheles, Wenzel, Plaidy, Hauptmann and Richter, and in Berlin under Kullak. He also enjoyed the advice and assistance of Liszt. Mr. Boise taught harmony and composition for many years in New York, but in 1888 went to Berlin. He returned to this country in 1901 to assume his position at the Peabody Conservatory, and has been in Baltimore ever since. He composed symphonic suites, cantatas, piano concertos and many smaller pieces. He also wrote the books, Harmony Made Practical and Music and Its Masters. He is survived by his wife and four daughters.
The reports of the death of Minnie Hauck have fortunately proved untrue, but her name will bring back many happy memories to the old-time operagoers. She was born in New York, November 16th, 1852, but when a child was taken West. Kansas at this time was still peopled by Indians, and conditions were by no means settled. The family again moved to New Orleans. The vessel in which they moved was owned by Minnie Hauck's father, but was wrecked during the trip. They arrived in New Orleans safely, but only to meet new dangers, as the city was besieged during the War of the Rebellion. Nevertheless, in spite of wars and inundations, the young girl kept on singing. She made her first operatic appearance in New York when she was twenty years old. Success in London, Vienna and Berlin followed almost immediately. In those days Wagner opera had not taken possession of the boards, and her success as a dramatic soprano was won in the older operas. She was particularly successful about twenty-five years ago as Carmen, at the Academy of Music, Fourteenth Street, New York; and also famous for her playing of the roles of Marguerite, Aida, etc. After her marriage she retired from the stage and spends most of her time in Europe, her husband being a native of Germany.
Abroad.
It is said that Efrem Zimbalist, the well- known violinist, is writing a comic opera.
The Sociedad Beethoven, a remarkably progressive organization in Santiago de Cuba, gave a concert in memory of Massenet.
There were 324 performances of Massenet's operas given at the three subventioned opera houses in Paris last season.
The new opera of Mascagni, Parisina, is now complete. The text is by the well-known Italian poet d'Annunzio.
Dr. George Henschel has accepted the conductorship of the London Handel Society in succession to the late Mr. Coleridge-Taylor.
Lovers of Gilbert and Sullivan opera in London are deploring the death of Richard Temple, a much-loved "Savoyard" of former days.
The late Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, the Anglo-African composer whose works are so deservedly popular, left an estate valued at $4,370.
Gustave Charpentier has been elected to succeed to Massenet's place in the Académie des Beaux Arts. He is the composer of the well-known opera Louise.
A new opera, L'Arabesca, by Monelone, which is to be performed in Rome, is looked upon as a work of great promise. It was the winner in a national competition for a work of this kind.
When Mme. Melba reappeared in London at the Royal Albert Hall, after a year and a half spent in her native Australia, she was made the recipient of a unique memento of the occasion. She was presented with a "Teddy kangaroo" six feet in height.
A statue of Mozart has been erected at Heluan, Egypt, to commemorate the performance of The Magic Flute, given last season at the foot of the pyramids. It is the work of a French sculptor named Avère.
The opera Knig (sic) Harlekin, by George H. Clutsam, the Australian composer, has been produced successfully in Berlin. He is said to be the first British composer commissioned by a German manager to compose an opera.
Teresa Carreño recently performed MacDowell's Keltic Sonata in London on the occasion of the jubilee of her first public appearance. It will be remembered that the great Venezuelan pianist was one of MacDowell's earliest teachers.
The death has occurred of Edgar Tinel, the Belgian composer and director of the Royal Conservatory of Music. His best-known work is Franciscus, an oratorio founded on the life of St. Francis of Assisi. He has composed many other works of considerable importance.
Sir Frederick Bridge, organist of Westminster Abbey and a distinguished musical antiquarian has disclosed the fact that Hamlet's soliloquy, beginning "To be or not to be," was set to music with a lute and viol de gamba by some unknown composer within, at most, fifty years of Shakespeare's death.
Undaunted by his own previous failure and that of Oscar Hammerstein, Thomas Beecham is going to make another attempt to develop London as an operatic field. He has announced a six weeks' season of German opera and Russian ballet at Covent Garden. The season will include the first performance in England of Strauss' Rosenkavalier, as well as special performances of Salome, Elektra, Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger.
The composer Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, whose Jewels of Madonna met with such success at the hands of the Chicago Opera Co., last year, has just completed a new opera founded on Molière's comedy, le Malade Imaginaire. He is also working on an opera entitled Honny soit qui mal y pense, the libretto of which will be by Enrico Golisciani.
Gustave Charpentier, the composer of Louise has just completed an opera triology (sic) upon which he has been working for years. The first part, entitled Amour au Faubourg, will be produced this winter at the Opéra Comique in Paris. The two other parts of the triolgy (sic) are entitled Comediante and Tragediante. Another work by the same composer, written twenty years ago, La Vie du Poete, will also be produced this season.
The following is the extremely interesting program given out by the Music Teachers' National Association for its annual convention at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., December 31st, January 1st, January 2d. The present convention is the thirty-fourth to be held by this organization, which was founded by Theodore Presser:
December 31st.—Formal opening of the session. Address of Welcome on Behalf of Vassar College, President James M. Taylor, D.D., LL.D. ; Greetings from the New York State Music Teachers' Association, Walter L. Bogert, President; Greetings from the Dutchess County Association of Musicians, John C. Griggs, President; Church Music and the Gregorian System, Wallace J. Goodrich; College Calls, Leonard B. McWhood; History of the American College of Musicians, Edward M. Bowman; New Lights on Beethoven from His Conversation Books, Henry E. Krehbiel; Physics and Music, Clark Wells Chamberlain, Ph.D.; The Singer and His Environment, Mrs. Caroline Gardner Bartlett. Voice Conference—This conference is based upon a paper by Frank E. Miller, M.D., of New York City, on "Vocal Art Science from the Standpoint of Use and Abuse of the Voice." Organ Recital, Wallace J. Goodrich; Song Recital, Miss Carrie Bridewell.
January 1st.—Theory Conference, Hamilton C. Macdougall, Orlando A. Mansfield, Leonard B. McWhood. Public School Conference, Osbourne McConathy; Paper, "Closer Relations Between School Music Teachers and the Professional Musician." Miss Etta Crane. President's Address, The Teacher and His Material, George Coleman Gow. Annual Business Meeting. Open Meeting of the International Musical Society, American Branch, Waldo S. Pratt, President; "A Contribution to the Theories for the Fixing of the Intervals of the Major Diatonic Scale," Fritz Krull; "The Granting of Degrees in Music," Charles H. Mills; "The Possibilities of Thematic Indexing", Leo. R. Lewis. Business Meeting of the International Musical Society. Piano Recital, Tina Lerner. Reception tendered by the Dutchess County Association of Musicians.
January 2d.—Piano Conference, Mrs. Thos. Tapper. This conference is to be a Round Table on the subject "Present Day Needs in Piano Teaching." Leaders in the discussion will be the Chairman, Mme. Helen Hopekirk, Miss O'Brien, Miss Kate S. Chittenden and Miss Lockwood. The Conservatory of Music, J. Lawrence Erb; The Regeneration of Philistia, Leo, R. Lewis; The Professional Accompanist, Charles Gilbert Spross; Modern English Organ Playing and Writing, Orlando A. Mansfield. Demonstration of the Jaques Dalcroze System of Rhythmic Gymnastics, Miss Clara Brooke.
The New York Commissioner of Correction has asked for a small appropriation to pay for teaching instrumental music to the inmates of the reformatory. "Music," he says, "is extremely beneficial in the general scheme of social reform, for which this institution is established, and is necessary as part of the special reform work there."
The wisdom of such a plan can hardly be questioned. The refining influence of music, both artistically and morally, is so great, the wonder is that it has not been used more widely in social reform schemes. It is not an accident that the churches make so much use of music. Neither was it accidental that the ancient Greeks gave music so large a place in their plan of education. It fills a big human need, and is a power, when rightly wielded, in shaping character.
The introduction of music in penal institutions would not only have a wholesome effect in itself, but the study of it would give useful and agreeable occupation to men otherwise prone to solitary and melancholy brooding in their leisure hours. Some of the houses of correction, particularly the Cleveland workhouse, have established night schools for prisoners, using volunteer teachers, many of whom are prisoners themselves, and has reported admirable results. Such a school, including musical instruction, might well be established in every such institution.—The Scherzo
