20 January 5, 1922 citement. It has the effervescence of champagne, if you know what we mean. The final number, “Death and Transfiguration,” is a tonal masterpiece of clairvoyant power. In this magnificent portrayal of the final act of the human drama the composer all but achieves the miracle of tearing aside the curtain and giving us a glimpse of the great beyond, “of that bourne from whence no traveler returns.” We are not only bathed in a sea of tone, but also we are momentarily transfixed, if not actually transfigured. The Cleveland Orchestra is truly “big league,” and we don’t want you to miss the opening play of the season October 20, 8:15 p. m., at Masonic Hall. •----■»---- EUTOPIA If President Harding cast Secretary of State Hughes into a dungeon for a few years and finally cut off his head on account of differences of opinion on religious matters, the school children of the United States might be better prepared for the history of England during the troubled times of Henry VIII. Such was the treatment Sir Thomas More received from his sovereign in 1535. But we very much doubt if Secretary Hughes is as enthusiastic a musician as Lord Chancellor More was. Every Sunday he laid aside his robes of office, put on a surplice, and took his place in the choir of Old Chelsea Church, beside “the silver, winding Thames,” in a village several miles west of London. Sir Thomas More sang in Old Chelsea Church for the last time May 13, 1534. The great city has spread far beyond Chelsea during the past 387 years, but the old church still stands, and the title of More’s famous book has become one of the standard words of the English language. Every music student has dreamed of an “Eutopia,” where everything is bright and cheerful and every effort is crowned with success. My Eutopian proposition at thé present moment is that the Peace Conference should set a limit to the size of symphony orchestras for the next ten years. _ Military historians have frequently noted that victory is not always on the side of the biggest battalions, and competent critics will agree with me that the best music is not always on the side of the largest orchestras. Therefore, in the interest of thetaxpayer and for the sake of international economies I propose that all wind instruments larger than a bass tuba shall immediately be scrapped. And along with the super-tubas should go sarrusophones, sousaphones, glockenspiels, celestas, E flat clarinets, piccolos, triangles, tam-tams, castagnets, xylophones, tambourines. Music, in fact, must be made safe for mediocrities, and the world is to enjoy a Ravel holiday. Naturally, all double bassoons, bass clarinets, and other cowardly, sneaking forms of submarine instruments, are to be banned entirely. But I fear I am more Eutopian than More was, and my dream is but a castle in Spain. -----3>---- IN ILLINOIS I he_ Southern Illinois State Normal University Bulletin for 1921, including announcements for 1921-1922, has just been received and indicates that this school is doing an admirable work for the advance of musical education. The musical faculty includes. Glenn C. Bainum and Julia Dickerman Chastaine, violin ; Helen Smith and Ruby Robertson, piano, and Harold K. Pritchard, cornet. Music is included in many of the regular courses. Free instruction in instrumental music is also offered, and the paragraph which carries this information states that, encouraged by the interest in the violin, cornet work, etc., the management has opened three music rooms, each provided with a piano, and an organ has been added to the equipment, so that any student who wishes to prepare himself to lead the music in his school with either the organ or piano, may be accommodated. The extent to which music is used in the general courses of study is not entirely clear from the data here given, but it appears that elementary music and “Music Method's,” which probably applies to musical pedagogy, are included in first, second and fourth year courses, both in the general course for eighth grade graduates, the language course, the art course and the household art course The bulletin gives, on pages 54 and 55, complete details of the several courses provided for the study of the theory and practice of music, and it is evident from the subjects here noted and the textbooks used that the education is very thorough both in theoretical and practical branches. In addition to violin and piano, the wind instruments are taught. There is also a university chorus, band and orchestra. The college is situated at Carbondale, 111., a city of 7,000 inhabitants, offering unusual inducements in the way of board and social advantages. The cost of tuition is extremely moderate. Such work as this school is doing m music must prove a distinct advantage to the progress of music throughout the Middle West. MUSICAL COURIER league is a new organization with a big purpose. It plans to bring more music and better music into its community life, especially to children. - First of all it proposes to cooperate with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra in presenting a series of orchestral concerts of bright, attractive programs by the great composers, designed to interest and please children. Little stories will be told about■ the pieces to be played, and the instruments of the orchestra will be shown and explained to the young people. The orchestra is to play these charming programs for a price all kiddies can afford—25 cents. If a grown person brings a child he may come for 25 cents also, but if he is selfish enough to come alone, he must pay 50 cents. The league has other splendid plans, but for this season its great purpose is the Children’s Symphony Concerts. Bravo, Nashville! Let us hope there will be no selfish grown-ups, and that everybody will gather in the children off the streets and take them to hear the symphony concerts. That is the real foundation of our future American life. ----3>—— “LOW-BROW NOTES” Here is some material from the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra which is worth quoting because of its wide bearing on the symphony situation in general. It consists of what the Cleveland Symphony business calls “Low-brow Notes,” and a letter from Adella Prentiss Hughes, general manager of the orchestra, tells why they were sent out. “The sending of these notes came about in this way,” says Mrs. Hughes. “A special effort was made to interest young business men in the- Cleveland Orchestra, as there was so large a number of them who had never heard it and were not even familiar with the civic work that it was doing. A good many season tickets having been sold to people who were not familiar with what a symphony concert was, I had the idea of having sent to such subscribers this letter in the vernacular to give their perfectly good minds something familiar to which to pin their attention and to take away the fear of the unknown. Take as a specific instance the Cleveland Advertising Club, members of which bought a hundred season tickets. We have received from every member the assurance of their pleasure and satisfaction in attendance at the concerts. One man said: ‘I bought those two tickets out of friendship to you, intending to give them away. I was ashamed not to be seen there at all, and so went to one concert and, to my surprise, found I liked it. Nobody else is going to get those tickets from now on.’ ” So much has been said about msuic and baseball that the “Low-brow Notes” which here follow will be of especial interest. They take the form of a letter: Dear Sir—We are giving you a little inside information about the Cleveland Orchestra and its first pair of concerts, October 20 and 22, at Masonic Hall. It has often occurred to us that the only other piece of collective human machinery that could be compared to a symphony orchestra in its perfection of technic is a baseball nine. You will agree with us on the particular merits of inside baseball if you are what is known as a “fan,” but we would like to add to your fanning proclivities by calling your attention to the inside working of a symphony orchestra. With a little initiation, we believe that you will soon be convinced that for smooth execution of the collective human brain, there is nothing in the category of our mundane activities that can hold a candle to the symphony orchestra. Instead of nine men “up on their toes,” here are ninety— the Speakers, Ruths, Cobbs of their profession—all of them out for season records, and every man of them not only ‘ on his toes,” but also on the tip of the conductor’s baton. We consider this a first rate fanning proposition, in the ocular as well as the aural sense, and we have an idea that as soon as any one knows the position of the piccolo and the tuba as well as he knows those of the short-stop and first baseman, he will get the symphony habit. We are enclosing a diagram of the players and their positions. The first half of the program will be the symphony No. 5 m C minor, op. 67, by Beethoven. This music has lived and been an inspiration to mankind for over a hundred years. No composer had quite the “punch” or the elemental vitality that_ Beethoven had. The symphony on the first program is in four divisions or movements. This is, to be sure, an “earful, ’ but it is a good, red-blooded message, and the composer is going to see that you get it. He drives home his text in the first movement with Rooseveltian power. In the second movement you will be transported on the crest of a glorified tune played by all the cellos in unison, while in the finale there is revealed a pageant of triumph and glory. We want to mention the works of two other composers that will be given during the second part of the program. Lhe Frenchman, Debussy, introduced into modern music what is known as impressionism, a “back to nature” method of expresion in tones. In the piece entitled “Clouds ” it is not difficult to imagine oneself lying prone on the ground and gazing upward into the azure to watch the floating softness of the clouds, with their solemn march, dissolving m gray tints lightly touched with white. In the second number “Festivals,” we are in the midst of a fantastic carnival. The infectious rhythms and the riot of industrial color set the nerves atingle with exhilaration and ex- JV\VSICAL(§VRIER Weekly Review Of TUB Worlds Music I Published every Thursday by the MUSICAL COURIER COMPANY, INC. ERNEST F. EILERT..............................................President WILLIAM GEPPERT...........................................Vice-President ALVIN L. SCHMOEGER......................................Sec. and Treas. 437 Fifth Avenue, S. E. Corner 39th Street, New York Telephone to all Departments: 4292, 4293, 4294, Murray Hill Cable address: Pegujar, New York Member of Merchants’ Association of New York, The Fifth Avenue Association of New York, Music Industries Chamber of Commerce, The New York Rotary Club. ALVIN L. SCHMOEGER LEONARD LIEBLING H. O. OSGOOD ^ WILLIAM GEPPERT l CLARENCE LUCAS J RENE DEVRIES \ J. ALBERT RIKER / OFFICES CHICAGO HEADQUARTERS—Jeannette Cox, 820 to 830 Orchestra Building, Chicago. Telephone, Harrison 6110. BOSTON AND NEW ENGLAND—Jack Coles, 31 Symphony Chambers, 246 Huntington Ave., Boston. Telephone, Back Bay 5554. LONDON, ENG.—Cesar Saerchingeu (in charge), Selson House, 85 Queen Victoria Street, London, E. C. Telephone 440 City. Cable address Musicrier, London. BERLIN, GERMANY—Cesar Saerchinger, Passauer Strasse 11a, Berlin W. 50. Telephone Steinplatz 3 4 73. Cable address Musicurier, Berlin. PARIS, FRANCE—Theodore Bauer, 10. Rue de TElysee. MILAN, ITALY—Arturo Scaramella, via Leopardi 7. For the names and addresses of other offices, correspondents and representatives apply at the main office. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Domestic, Five Dollars; Canadian. Six Dollars. Foreign, Six Dollars and Twenty-five Cents. Single Copies, Fifteen Cents at Newsstands. Back Numbers, Twenty-five Cents. American News Company, New York, General Distributing Agents. Western News Company, Chicago, Western Distributing Agents. New England News Co., Eastern Distributing Agents. Australasian News Co., Ltd., Agents for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Tasmania. Agents for New Zealand, New Zealand News Co., Ltd., Wellington. The MUSICAL COURIER is for sale at the principal newsstands and music stores in the United States and in the leading music houses, hotels and kiosques in Europe. Copy for advertising in the MUSICAL COURIER should be in the hands of the Advertising Department before four o’clock on the Friday previous to the date of publication. Entered as Second Class Matter, January 8, 1883, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. THE MUSICAL COURIER EXTRA Published every Saturday by Musical Courier Company Devoted to the interests of the Piano Trade. New York January 5, 1922 No. 2178 The Paris correspondent of the Musical Courier sends New Year greetings from his new office •at 10 Rue de l’Elysee. •----<$>--- Merely glancing through the latest issue of P. V. R. K.’s. M. D. taught us a lot of things we never knew before: for instance, that Frieda Hempel’s husband’s name is Otto C. Kahn; that Grace Bradley has changed her name to Alice, and that Ric-cardo Stracciari is going to sing at La Scala this winter. These are, indeed, exclusive bits of news, so exclusive that we shall not reprint them, with or without credit. ■------- Philadelphia has swung into line on the Music Week idea. The Art Alliance has voted to hold one the coming year, the date of which will be announced shortly. It is planned not only to have a large number of important public musical events, but also to carry the musical message into the homes, into the churches and into the schools. A series of musical contests will be inaugurated and some important mass chorus effects will be brought out. -----<$>--- There is in process of formation in New York a league of music students, whose organization meeting is to be held this (Thursday) afternoon, January 5, at 315 West Eighty-sixth street. The object of the proposed association is to bring about more social intercourse among the music students, a greater degree of artistic comradeship, and practical cooperation in the pursuit of material advantages, such as reduced prices of admission to concerts and opera, etc. The preliminary prospectus is a promising one and deserve much support. -----<$>---— Undismayed by the fate of “The Polish Jew,” Mr. Gatti-Casazza is thinking of putting on Max Schillings’ “Mona Lisa” at the Metropolitan next season. “Mona Lisa” is not as bad as “The Polish Jew” (nothing could be!), but it is an opera that achieved no real success even in Germany, any more than the other operas of Schillings have. One can go so far as to venture to believe that Schillings, a mediocre conductor and a more than mediocre composer, of no originality, would have remained a thoroughly insignificant figure in music indeed if he had had to depend upon his own efforts to earn him a livelihood. -——«>------ The Nashville Music League has issued a little folder entitled “Nashville Music League- a Great Inspiration.” The officers of this league are: President, Elizabeth F. Price; vice-president, Mrs. W. C. Hoffman; secretary and treasurer, Mrs. A. B. Anderson, and it appears from this folder that the