HBSr-THE PUBLISHER OF THE ETUDE CAN SUPPLY ANYTHING IN MUSIC.^gsir (an d MUSICA L WOPLb D ©H E GTUDE . R Monthly Publication iov the Teachers and Students of JVIusie. SUBSCRIPTION RATES, $1.50 per year (payable in advance). Two Subscriptions or two years in advance, . . . $1.3o each. Three Subscriptions or three years in advance, . . 1.30 each. Single Copy, 15 cents. Foreign Postage, 48 cents. DISCONTINUANCE.—If you wish the Journal stopped, an explicit notice must be sent us by letter, otherwise it will be continued. All arrearages must be paid. RENEWAL.—No receipt is sent for renewals. On the wrapper of the next issue sent you will be printed the date to which your subscription is paid up, which serves as a receipt for your subscription. THEODORE PRESSER , 1708 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Pa Entered at Philadelphia P. O. as Second-class Matter. Musical Items. HOME. ELEVEN thousand brass bands play for the Salvation Army. NINETY million dollars is said to be the sum that Americans spend annually for grand opera. THE Boston Leader takes up the cudgels for Brahms, severely scoring two prominent American critics in so doing. MR. CALVIN B. CADY, when abroad for his vacation, conducted a sight-singing class in Berlin, that was highly successful. A RECEPTION is to be tendered to Mme. Theresa Carreno in almost every city during her coming touring in the United States. THE daily press with but one exception—the Boston Transcript—is joining vigorously in the crusade for proper recognition of home musical talent. FRA U CAROLINE FISCHER-ACHTEN, wh o was , perhaps , the oldest living prima donna, died a few days since at Brunswick, in her ninety-first year. Miss FLORA PARSONS, a pianist of distinguished merit, has recently returned from Europe and is now concertizing with the violin virtuoso Remenyi. PROFESSOR HORATIO W . PARKER , occupyin g th e chai r of music at Yale, was honored recently by a testimonial concert and dinner given by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. THERESA CARRENO has been styled by Berlin critics the "Lioness of the Piano," so "intense is the passion she displays in interpreting the grand tone-works of the great composers.'' MR. MCDOWELL has laid out a course of music for Columbia College, that is said to be by all odds the best offered in any American institution. It includes not only the conservatory branches, but also the higher studies in the music realm, which have not heretofore been readily accessible to students. THE "Mapleson Opera Company" went to pieces at the very commencement of its season. Yet the redoubt-able Colonel is not to be disturbed by so trifling a mat-ter, but still beams as serenely as ever. WM. STEINWAY, head of the house of Steinway & Sons, Piano makers, died Monday, November 30th, from typhoid fever. He was conspicuous in musical affairs of this country and was known as one of the greatest patrons of the art. His death is a veritable loss to the musical world. Miss ADELE LEWING recently played at the first Hubermann recital at Carnegie Hall. She also appeared on December 9th, under the auspices of the Spanish-Ameri-can Club, at Steinway Hall, New York. Miss Lewing proved herself an earnest artist in the interpretation of various numbers, and her playing was greeted with warm applause. TUFTS COLLEGE, near Boston, has also established a course of music that aims to "broaden the foundations of musical criticism and to develop a cultivated appreci-ation and refined taste in music. It is especially de-signed for the benefit of the general students who wish to cultivate an appreciation of art but do not intend to prepare for professional work." UNDER the superintendency of Mrs. A. E. Smythe, the Texas State Fair, to be held at Dallas, during October, will contain a department of manuscript music, in which prizes will be offered for the compositions of Texan musicians, even for those of children under fourteen years of age. This is said to be the first time that music in any form has received attention at a State fair. SICKNESS and death have wrought serious havoc of late in the musical realm. Frau Klafsky, Campanini, and Mr. William Steinway, the greatest manufacturer of pianos the world has known, have recently passed into the land beyond the veil. Max Alvary and Brahms are slowly dying of painful and incurable maladies, and Moritz Rosenthal is still suffering from the effects of his serious attack of typhoid fever. A RECENT school, independent of publishing houses, that carefully and judicially compared the various musi-cal systems for school use, noting points of difference and the respective advantages of each system, is a hope-ful "sign of the times." "More schools of this sort," says an exchange, "must serve to prevent a warfare of systems that can but result in postponing the proper teaching of music in the schools." CALIFORNIA, too, is alive. The "Friday Morning Club," of Oakland, engaged Otto Bendix this season, to give them a course of lectures on musical subjects. The course included an analysis and discussion of Beet-hoven's "Moonlight Sonata," Scarlatti's "Pastoral," and Schumann's "Kriesleriana." Each of these com-positions was played twice during the lecture to empha-size the motive of the composer. Another branch of the club's work is a club for ladies' trio singing. VOCAL students in New York City have the privilege and advantage of admission, under conditions, to the physical laboratories of its colleges and higher institutions of learning. Says the vocalist: "A t Columbia University each Thursday afternoon of the school year is especially devoted to those who are interested in vocal study, and Prof. Hallock and his assistant Dr. Muckey are in attendance to demonstrate by experiment the laws of voice production as they understand them." THE Musical Courier suggests that we have an "Ameri-can Bayreuth." It says, and with truth, " A great place for the ideal performance of the classics and modern music dramas would do more for this country than all the schools, conservatories, and M. T. U. A. meetings; and then grand opera would find its level, for, let the general public once taste of the Bayreuthian quality, there will be no more star casts or overpaid stars. And after all, why not? " Why not, indeed! There is money enough in the country, and there ought to be brains enough. FOREIGN. BERLIN has a new musical journal—the Neue Musik-Zeitung. THE city of Hamburg devotes to art purposes 210,000 marks a year. LISZT said of Mme. Schumann, that others wrote poetry, but she lived it. THE late Ambroise Thomas bequeathed all his orches-tral scores to the Paris Conservatoire. PADEREWSKI will make his reappearance at the Gewandhaus, Leipsic, on February 11th. THE Emperor of Russia prefers the 'cello to all other instruments, and is himself a performer upon it. MADAME PATTI was recently invited to sing at Bal-moral before her Majesty, the Queen of England. BOTH Ireland and Jamaica are seriously discussing the question of establishing a national musical festival. SIMS REEVES will start on his seventy-ninth year by singing in South Africa, where he has gone with his wife and baby. THE city of Berlin has been offered 5000 marks, if the mayor will name one of the new bridges after Richard Wagner. WAGNER'S violin teacher, Robert Sipp, who is now ninety years of age, was present at this summer's per-formances at Bayreuth. DR. RICHTER says that "English singers produce their voices better, as a rule, than Germans, as the latter incline to tone forcing." THE first production of "Mataswintha," Xaver Scharwenka's new opera, was a pronounced success. Bernard Stavenhagen conducted. SCHUMANN wrote studies for the pianoforte when he
< Page 4 | Page 6 >