MUSICAL COURIER
8
February 9, 1922
Austin Has Second Memory Test
Austin, Tex., January 18, 1922.—The second music memory contest of the Austin public schools was held January 14 at the Hancock Opera House. The stage had been made attractive in a setting of palms and ferns, where were seated the Austin musicians who played and sang the numbers of the contest. Phonographs were also used in order to illustrate a number of selections, thus making them more interesting.
Prof. Frank L. Reed, head of the department of music in the University of Texas; Mrs. F. L. Reed, teacher of piano in the Institute of Applied Music; Lester Brenizer, director of the Austin High School Choral Club; Coralie Gregory, Mrs. .Q. C. Taylor, Mary Louise Allen and Mrs■ Clarence Test were the artists who gave the program fior Miss Willie Stephens, supervisor of music in the public schools.
Elimination contests were held in each ward school and fifteen contestants and five alternates had been chosen, to represent each school. Music teachers in the schools had taught the fifty musical numbers of the course two days a week for the past three months, and of that number, twenty selections were chosen for the final contest. Children wrote at a given signal the name of the composition, the composer, and, if from an opera, the name. Of the 135 pupils who entered the contest fifty-eight perfect scores were made. Baker School was the winner of the first prize, making an average of 99.8 per cent. The first prize awarded was the large loving cup of the Amateur Choral of Austin, which is awarded each year to the winning school until it has been won by one school three consecutive years. Other prizes awarded were cash prizes, which went to the following:	Fulmore School, with an
average of 99.73 per cent., twenty-five dollars; Wooldridge School, average of 99.4 per cent., twenty dollars; Palm School, average of 98.83 per cent., fifteen dollars; Pea־se School, average of 96 per cent., ten dollars; and Mathews, average of 95.2 per cent., five dollars.
These awards were given by Austin citizens. Preceding the opening of the contest, Dr. J. L. Henderson, of the University of Texas, gave an interesting talk on “Music Appreciation,” while Superintendent A. N. McCallum, of the Austin Public Schools, made the short address of welcome.
The first «music memory contest was held in Austin in January of 1921, and has become an annual affair. The selections are taught chiefly by the use of the phonograph. A record library has been started in each school. The Parent-Teachers’ Association has been active in providing records for the schools, and a circulating library was established in the office of the music supervisor. The schools that do not purchase their own records use these records.
The contest is carried on only in the ward schools in Austin, as the Junior High School has no music teacher, and includes the children of the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. The details of this contest were very much more simple than the first. The use of the opera house was given by the management free of charge and practically no expense involved from any angle.	M. H.
from them. I have been hard of hearing and have been deprived of the enjoyment of all soft or faint melody; yet, tonight, over the wireless I ‘got’ every note you sang, even to the faint dying away of the last note of the ‘Last Rose of Summer.’ ”
The letter recalled an incident in Miss Peterson’s career. During the war, after she finished singing the “Last Rose of Summer” in a hospital, a nurse approached her and said, “Please come over here and talk to this soldier and tell me what he says.” Miss Peterson responded, and the soldier, suffering from shell-shock, listened to her conversation and then told her w'here he was from—and another boy recovered from shell-shock and regained his memory.	'	B.
American Academy in Rome Competition
Applicants for admission to the competition to be awarded by the American Academy in Rome are required to file with the secretary of the Academy not later than March 1, 1922, an application together with letters of reference as to character, education and artistic ability. They must also submit not later than May 1, 1922, two compositions, one either for orchestra alone, or in combination with a solo instrument, and one for string quartet or for some ensemble combination such as a sonata for violin and piano, a trio for violin, cello and piano, or possibly for some less usual combination of chamber instruments. The compositions submitted should show facility in handling the larger instrumental forms, such as the sonata-form or free modifications of it. A sonata for piano or a fugue of large dimensions will be accepted, but songs and short piano pieces will not be considered.
The award will be made only to a musician of exceptional promise already thoroughly trained in technic.
Manuscripts should bear, not the name of the composer, but a pseudonym and should be accompanied by a sealed envelope bearing on its face the pseudonym and containing within the name and address of the sender. Manuscripts and all communications should be addressed to the secretary of the American Academy in Rome, 101 Park avenue, New York, N. Y.
N. Y. State Teachers’ “Questionnaire”
A special meeting of the New York State Music Teachers’ Association to hear the report of the “Questionnaire Committee” was held in New York February 2, when President Haywood presided. Chairman Hughes read the replies from over a hundred members, past and present, from which it was evident that the present constitution, with its council and other features modeled after that of the American Guild of Organists, was not favored. So strong is this feeling, that it was unanimously voted, on motion of Louis A. Russell, to call a special meeting of members, at which an entirely new constitution would be adopted and new officers nominated. This appears to be the end of the Wright idea, whose immediate result was the killing of the annual conventions; none has been held for three years.
May Peterson Sings to 250,000
“Most wonderful radiophone audience, I greet you,” said May Peterson, soprano of the Metropolitan Opera Company, when she was introduced by the Westinghouse broadcasting station, located at Newark, N. J., to the invisible radiophone audience of 250,000, scattered from Prince Edward Island to Key West, and from Oshkosh, Wis. (where Miss Peterson received her early training) to New Orleans, and several thousand miles out to sea.
Before singing her first selection, “The Norwegian Echo Song,” she told her silent, waiting audience about the song, made famous in this country by Jenny Lind. “The Norwegian Echo Song,” she said, “is a call to the cattle in the Norwegian mountains. The cattle are to be branded and the lassie calling the cows and calves pities them. Her call “Come cow, come calf, come Bossy! Come Brindle, and Cherry and Flossy! Ye Bossies dear! Poor Bossies!’ echoes and reechoes through the valleys of the Norwegian mountains!”
Then Miss Peterson sang, and the echoes and re-echoes, seemingly coming from her very soul, were transmitted by the ether in the air to those who “listened in,” by wireless, to her wonderful voice. A number of other selections followed.
The radiophone audiences—in the mountains, . on the farms, in the villages, towns and cities and on the high seas—are quite receptive and impressive, but their applause can only be heard through correspondence and extracts from letters, the following, selected at random, describing the home scenes and true appreciation of Miss Peterson’s singing:
An ex-service boy, G. Clinton Weeks, now in Y. M. C. A. work in Newark, N. J,, writes:	“Your ‘Cornin’ Through
the Rye’ and ‘In the Land of the Sky-Blue Water’ brought back your welcome visits to Camp Lee, when I was in hut 55, and your brother, Royal, was in the O. T. C. there. I heard every word.”
A family group of five and three friends, in the home of J. C. Flynn of Mount Vernon, expressed their appreciation as: “Simply wonderful,” “just beautiful,” “grand” and “great.” Mr. Flynn admitted that he had to give it up and just say: “Miss Peterson, we all sat still, awfully still, and listened, and listened to the words of your songs as they floated in to us from the air—sat the whole concert through. I watched the expressions of the feminines’ eyes in the audience—you could see them glisten, scintillate, dilate back and forth. I didn’t need any expression from them to know what they were thinking about the songs and the singer; they plainly showed happiness, pleasure, appreciation, mystery! I f I ever meet you,” he continued, “I’ll just have to ask you to sing ‘Cornin’ Thru the Rye,’ ‘Cuckoo,’ and ‘Dixie’ just once more.”
Miss Peterson’s eyes moistened as she read a letter from Mathilda M. Horster (Mrs. Charles D. Horster, of Spring-field, N. J.), who said:	“We—my husband and I—would
like you to know what delight we had in your singing tonight. ‘Carry Me Back to Old Virginny’ and ‘The Last Rose of Summer’ were sung with such expression, sentiment and sweetness that we derived the greatest pleasure
HARRIET VAN EMDEN
N. Y. Eve. Mail, Jan. 25, 1922:
“Wide variety in program. She adapted herself and her pleasing voice well to the different moods.”
N. Y. World, Jan. 25, 1922:
“It is a pleasant experience to listen to Harriet Van Emden.”
N. Y. Eve. Journal, Jan. 25, 1922:
“One of the interesting song recitals of the season. Well schooled lyric soprano. Gave program of great variety.”
N. Y. Morning Telegraph, Jan. 25, 1922:
“Miss Van Emden proved to be an artist of ideal proportions for the concert platform. Silken texture of her tones was most pleasant to hear. Program of variety and interest. Exhibited voice of much beauty, eminently fitted for the works allotted to it. Succeeded in making fine impression on her audience.”
© Underwood & Underwood
LYRIC SOPRANO
N. Y. Staats-Zeitung, Jan. 25, 1922:
“Second recital again unusually great success.”
“Excellently trained, combined with her natural intelligence, imagination and feeling, gave the accomplishments of this artist great charm. Certainly one of the most welcome newcomers of the season.”
Boston Transcript, Jan. 19, 1922:
“Miss Van Emden’s notable voice.”
“Disclosed a lovely, almost a glorious voice. VOICE SUCH AS MISS RARE.”
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Boston Herald, Jan. 19, 1922, by Philip Hale:
“Harriet Van Emden is musical and emotional. She was most effective when she let emotion speak for itself through natural tonal beauty.”
New York Tribune, Jan. 25, 1922, by H. E. Krehbiel:
“Presented well chosen, unhackneyed list of songs. Possesses a refined sense of musical beauty and SHE HAS A VOICE OF RARE BEAUTY.”
New York Herald, Jan. 25, 1922:
“Miss Van Emden used her fine lyric voice with much skill and in interpretation she showed many charming gifts.”
New York Eve. World, Jan. 25, 1922:
“Afforded pleasure by her intelligent interpretation of exacting program.”
New York Eve. Telegram, Jan. 25, 1922:
“Harriet Van Emden is a very talented singer.”
Few Available Dates for Spring 1922
Mgt.: ANTONIA SAWYER, Inc.	Aeolian Hall, New York City