Selected Content from the September 1914 Edition of The Etude
The salon has played a leading part in our country, particularly in the eighteenth century. It was at that period the meeting place of good company—not infrequently of bad—great nobles, famous financiers, illustrious gentlemen of the robe and of the sword, of the pen and of language well or ill put together, frequented the salon to talk about everybody and everything. New social orders, policies, scandals and slanders were formulated in the salon. Academicians were made, ministries unmade—such was the bill of fare, sugar and salt, at this charming resort. A little of everything was made there, but not much music. I cannot say a great deal about this period except from hearsay as I was not admitted into these select centres, for two reasons. First because I had not yet been born, … and that relieves me of the need of giving you the second. Read More
Breath management is the basis of vocal technics. This feature of the art of singing can with considerable degree of certainty be gained without the immediate aid of a teacher. The earnest hope of the writer is that this sane and safe system of breathing will reach and substantially aid many students of song who for one reason or another are unable to get in personal touch with a teacher of singing. Read More
The singer must form the habit of listening to the promptings of the inner guiding voice, and yield to it the ready and implicit obedience of the trained organs of sound. This is spontaneity of expression; artistic abandon. Read More
By AUBERTINE WOODWARD MOOREIncluding the Author’s Personal Recollections of Thalberg’s American Tours. Nothing could better illustrate the transitoriness of a virtuoso’s fame than the neglected centenary, January, 1912, of the once popular Thalberg. Although by no means the most eminent… Read More
John Barberis, ninety years old, says Musical America, was arrested recently for asking alms in front of the Metropolitan Opera House. He told the police that he had been an operatic tenor and had sung at the Academy of Music before the Metropolitan was built and as a member of the original Metropolitan company. He sang with Patti, Sembrich and Nordica, he said, but poverty had come to him with old age. The magistrate discharged him and a purse was made up for him among the spectators in the Night Court. Read More
The composer who has not written music in lighter vein is to be pitied. Greatness does not mean sombreness. Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Wagner and even Brahms have been responsible for some of the merriest music ever written. Whether it be… Read More
Hans Engelmann as a composer undoubtedly possessed a wonderful gift of melody, supplemented by a thorough practical and theoretical knowledge of music, thus giving to his compositions a character and finish so often lacking in the works of modern composers of salon and dance music. Read More
