MUSICAL COURIER
22
April 6, 1922.
York is hereby authorized and empowered in its discretion to acquire title in fee to a site for a building to be used for the advancement of education in music, drama and other arts. Such site shall be within the borough of Manhattan in said city and shall be selected by the mayor of the city of New York, subject to the approval of said board of estimate and apportionment. The said board of estimate and apportionment may in its discretion acquire the said site by gift or by purchase and may agree upon the purchase price of the lands or interests therein so selected and approved, or in its discretion may acquire title thereto by condemnation proceedings in the manner provided by chapter twenty-one of the Greater New York charter as amended. Such site when acquired shall be set apart for erecting a building or buildings thereon for the purpose aforesaid, the same to be erected with money raised by private donations and endowments.
§ 2. The board of estimate and apportionment is authorized in its discretion to make and enter into a contract or contracts with any person or persons, or corporation or corporations, to construct and maintain without cost to the city of New-York, a building or buildings for the purposes aforesaid on said site when acquired. Said board may enter into a contract or contracts with any person or persons, corporation or corporations, as to the use and occupation of the building or buildings, after the erection thereof, upon such terms and conditions as the board of estimate and apportionment shall in its discretion determine, but such building or buildings shall be devoted only to the advancement of education in music, drama and other arts.
§ 3. For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act, and for paying the expenses of the acquisition of the site and the expenses of any such condemnation proceeding, it shall be the duty of the comptroller of the city of New York, upon being thereunto authorized by the said board of estimate and apportionment, to issue and sell the corporate stock of the city of New York in such amount as may be necessary and at such a rate of interest as may be fixed by said comptroller.
§ 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
Note:—This act was passed by the Assembly on March IS, 1922, and the Senate on March 17, 1922.
of the world. It will lead in other fields, and why not in these beautiful arts? Our citizens have shown themselves equal to demands made upon them to describe which the English language hardly contains words to fittingly express.
New York stands out with its big charities, its wonderful aid and assistance to our government, its marvellous gifts and contributions to our museums, etc., and this proposed institution would become the Mecca to which would turn the native talent, not alone of the city and the State, but of the country, to embrace an opportunity beyond the reach today of so very many. And who can describe the pleasure it will afford the patron and lover of these arts.
The project would mean the democratization of music and the drama with its attendant power to relieve the monotony and drudgery of the human family generally, to every unit of which music, the universal language, makes an instant appeal.
Very respectfully,
Philip Berolzheimer,
City Chamberlain;
Joseph Haag,
Secretary of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment.
February 27, 1922.
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AN ACT (See footnote)
To authorize and empower the City of New York to acquire a site for a building to be used for the advancement of education in music, drama and other arts.
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The board of estimate and apportionment of the city of New
ENCOURAGEMENT NEEDED
In the list of the novelties and revivals for which Mr. Gatti-Casazza has been responsible at the Metropolitan in the fourteen seasons he has ruled here, beginning in 1908-09 and including the present one, there are eight American operas: “Pipe of Desire,” Converse; “Mona,” H. W. Parker; “Cyrano,” Walter Damrosch; “Canterbury Pilgrims,” Reginald De Koven; “Shanewis,” Charles Wakefield Cadman; “The Legend,” Joseph Karl Breil; “Temple Dancer,” John Adam Hugo; “Cleopatra’s Night,” Henry Hadley. Against these the grand total of novelties and revivals amounts to ninety-eight, so that the American operas produced represent a trifle more than eight per cent, of the total, the other ninety-two per cent, being divided among Italian, German and French works in that order of preponderance. In exactly half of the fourteen seasons no American works were produced.
A discouraging thing is that most of these works have been flat failures. Two of the more recent ones —Cadman’s “Shanewis” and Hadley’s “Cleopatra’s Night,” are the only operas to remain in the repertory for more than one season. Perhaps in view of this Mr. Gatti cannot be blamed for not having offered more encouragement to native composers. At the same time, we cannot help but feel that, were it a definite policy of the Metropolitan to produce at least one selected American work in each season, the result would be a steady improvement in quality and finally the production of an opera which would be taken up by stages outside of America as the first American item ever to go into the international repertory. The average composer knows that the preparation of an opera score means simply a lot of time and expense to him, with practically no chance of production. If it were certain that at least one work, chosen strictly on its merits, would be produced each season, there certainly would be an increase of activity in the production of opera which would sooner or later be bound to result in improvement of quality. The Metropolitan Opera is known as the only great operatic institution in the world that actually makes money. It does not make much money perhaps, but there is no reason why it should; and there is every reason, on the contrary, why it should devote at least part of its credit balance to fostering the development of an art which American composers never can learn as long as performances of their operas are never to be seen. ------------------<s>-
REGARDING HAYDN
A recently submitted manuscript bore the title of “A Comparison of the Lives and Works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven,” and the author modestly used only 400 words in handling the trifling subject. Kipling, counselling brevity and condensation, somewhere has a remark to the effect that it took only that number of words to tell the story of the Creation, but the writer of that surely would have expanded had he had access to the amount of material available about the three geniuses named,
matinee, “Thais,” $18,362; Saturday night, “Aida,” $12,387. Incidentally, Uncle Sam absorbed the neat little sum of $7,263 for war tax on the tickets.
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WILLIAM BYRD ON SINGING
Modern writers on singing often employ many more words, and say very much less, than the founder of the English Madrigal School, William Byrd, wrote in 1588. In the same year that witnessed the destruction of the Spanish Armada and saved England from the blight of the Inquisition, an earnest composer worked quietly in seclusion at his part songs, as if there was no such thing as war and no enemies on the high seas.
While Drake was getting his ships together and Queen Elizabeth was in the saddle, haranguing her troops and volunteers, William Byrd set down his reasons why singing should be cultivated:
Reasons briefly set down by th’ auctor, to perswade everyone to learne to sing:
First, it is a knowledge easely taught and quickly learned wher there is a good Master and an apt Scoller.
2.	The exercise of singing is delightfull to Nature .and good to preserve the health of Man.
3.	It doth strengthen all the parts of the brest and doth open the pipes.
4.	It is a singular good remedie for a stutting and stammering in the speech.
5.	It is the best means to procure a perfect pronunciation and to make a good Orator.
6.	It is the onely way to know where Nature hath bestowed the benefit of a good voyce: which guift is so rare as there is not one among a thousand that hath it: and in matly that excellent guift is lost, because they want Art to express Nature.
7.	There is not any Musick of Instruments whatsoever comparable to that which is made of the voyces of Men, where the voyces are good and the same well sorted and ordered.
8.	The better the voyce is the meeter it is to honour and serve God therewith: and the voyce of man is chiefly to be imployed to that ende.
Omnis spiritus laudet Dominum.
Since singing is so good a thing I wish all men would learne to sing.
William Byrd is careful not to say that instruction in singing will supply a good voice. Good voices, as he asserts, are very rare.
He also says that learning to sing is easy when the teacher is good and the pupil is intelligent.
As a stut cure, however, it will probably attract very few students, and we must add that the finest instrumental music today is a more serious competitor for public favor than it was in the days of Byrd. He, however, judiciously remarks that the voices must be good and the choir well trained to compete successfully with instrumental music.
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NONE NECESSARY
We asked a composer friend of ours the other day to write an article for the Musical Courier giving his reasons for composing the kind of music he produces. “No article is necessary,” said he. “I write as I do because I cannot write any better. And, believe me, that is the only sensible reason any composer can give.” He is probably right.
THE MAYOR SIGNS THE BILL
From the Aldermanic Chamber of the City Hall I am rushing this report to the Musical Courier so as to reach the press before closing time on Tuesday, April 4. The Mayor has just expressed his approval of the bill—it is 12.15 p. m.—amidst wild applause on the part of those present. All that remains now is for Governor Miller to join his signature to that of Mayor Hylan and then the municipal music school begins to become a reality. There is no likelihood of a veto from the Governor, as the measure passed both legislative houses in Albany unanimously and within one week, a most unusual record. The fulfillment of a long cherished dream is about to be realized by the art lovers and the people generally of New York. It is a great event in the progress and cultural development of our city, and deep thanks are due Chamberlain Berolzheimer and Secretary Haag for bringing the idea before the . Mayor, and to him for appreciating and endorsing it so promptly and whole heartedly. The benefits which will arise from the founding of the proposed school are so numerous and so important that there is not time at this moment to specify them or to discuss them. That will be done at the proper time in these columns. The Musical Courier congratulates Mayor Hylan in the name of all musical New York; nay, in the name of all the musical persons and interests throughout our land. Among the speakers, all of whom were in favor of the bill and the conservatory, were Messrs. Berolzheimer and Haag, of course, and then followed Otto H. Kahn, John C. Freund, Dr. Eugene A. Noble, Leonard Liebling, Isabel Lowden, Edwin Franko Goldman, George A. Gartlan, Park Commissioner Hennessy, S. Walter Krebs, John J. Glynn (representing the New York Piano Merchants’ Association) and others. Letters from prominent financiers, merchants and musicians were read. About 300 persons were present, and frequently broke into applause as the speakers scored telling points. The Mayor interspersed the remarks with many wise and witty comments of his own. He asked Otto H. Kahn whether he believed that the present plague of robbers and bandits could be alleviated through music and how. Mr. Kahn replied that he thought a piano should be put in the homes of all the people. Mr. Liebling offered the amendment that the pianos be placed also in the homes of the burglars. L. L. --------------------<s>--
FACT AND FIGURES
Portland is very proud indeed of the success of the Chicago Opera season of five performances which took place there beginning March 22. Sixty-two public spirited citizens of the city pledged a guarantee of $72,500 against possible deficit. Receipts for the five performances, however, amounted to $72,633, so that the guarantors were not called upon for a cent. The receipts for the five performances were as follows:	Wednesday, “Monna
Vanna,” $20,144; Thursday, “Lohengrin,” $10,114; Friday, “Romeo and Juliet,” $11,626; Saturday