May 11, 1922 aries are paid, a large orchestra is also maintained. They are miles ahead of us in their appreciation of good and clever organ playing for pictures.” Needless to say, Mr. Du Parc convinced the managers that his ideas of picture playing are most effective, and he probably will be invited to give a demonstration elsewhere after he completes his work in his present place._ Personally I have been much annoyed by the “jazz” playing by some of these picture organists, and also distracted by the inappropriate music played by the church organist who has no sense of humor, and I hope that managers wifi wake up to the need of well equipped organists who are musicians. T. W. Philadelphia Philharmonic Society Ends Season An exceptionally fine concert was given by the Philharmonic Society, Josef Pasternack, conductor, in the Academy of Music (Philadelphia) to close its 1921-22 season. The entire Philadelphia Orchestra took part and the soloists were Pablo Casals, cellist, and John Barclay, baritone. Leopold Stokowski wielded the baton for the Strauss tone poem, “Tod und Verklarung,” and did so in his usual artistic manner. “Russian and Ludmilla,” Glinka, and Liszt’s symphonic poem, “Les Preludes,” were conducted by Mr. Pasternack, who did not fail to bring out all there was to be gotten from the scores. His work in connection with the Philharmonic Society is highly appreciated by Philadelphians. “Vision Fugitive,” from “Herodiade,” was the aria selected by John Barclay, and Casals chose as his number the Saint-Saëns concerto in A minor. Both artists were well received. Griffiths Gives Musicale for E. G. Harris A musicale was given on Saturday evening, April 22, by Anne Griffiths in honor of Edward C. Harris, who left Pittsburgh on May 2 to make New York his permanent home. Mr. Harris has been associated with Miss Griffiths for the past six years. A number of his songs were sung by Rose Leader-Chislett, Anna Laura Cree, Jessie Yuille-Yon, Mabel King, Edgar Sprague and George Wahl. A quartet which Mr. Harris has dedicated to Miss Griffiths also was given. Mary Jones:Sherrill read parts of De Koven’s opera, “Rip Van Winkle’ to Mr. Harris accompaniment. Ryan and Willem van den Andel in Recital Patricia Ryan and Willem Van den Andel gave a joint recital before the Arts Club of Washington, D. C., on the evening of April 20, following p dinner at which they were honor guests with Byrd Mock as hostess. The audience was visibly and audibly moved, judging from the vigorous applause that followed each appearance of the artists and the number of recalls required. MUSICAL COURIER movement, and what could have more of a wail than that? Here and there, one heard bits of Schubert, Mendelssohn, Debussy and Mascagni. All of this was magnificent and uplifting, but when Charlie Chaplin was put on the screen Mr. Du Parc showed his great versatility. In this picture four drunks sing a parting good-night song, and the organist’s imitation of their drunken amateurish singing brought a big laugh from the audience. Most organists would either have played a simple tune in good harmony or they would have just made a terrible noise on the organ to indicate the drunken mood. Not so with Mr. DuParc; he played intelligent four-part harmony in a discordant manner; it was most ingenious. I saw Walter Damrosch in the audience enjoying a good laugh over it. In this same picture, Charlie is caught in the rain, and once again Mr. Du Parc, by the clever use of the vox humana stop, imitated the sound of rain perfectly, not thunder, but the actual falling of rain. When Charlie reached home he found his wife asleep, and I defy anyone who saw this picture to tell the difference between the actual snoring of the wife and the imitation that Mr. Du Part produced on the organ. In the “Pictorial,” which was fairly alive with the music that was constantly changing, there were popular tunes and effects that aroused many in the audience to remark that they had never heard such fine and clever organ playing in any picture house, and one of the outstanding features about it all was that the organist was always under the picture, never too loud and never distracting. I left the house with the feeling that I had been instructed; and let me add that there were no traps on this organ, so that Mr. Du Parc not only manufactured all of his effects out of the organ pipes, but I was considerably relieved by not hearing the usual “hurdy-gurdy.” I asked Mr. Du Parc why he did not take up this line of work as a permanent thing, and he said: “Do you realize that $75 per week is the usual salary paid by the finest houses in this section of the country for giving your time from 1:30 to 5:30 and from 7:30 to 11 p. m., and that not more than two houses are paying over this salary and they are not the largest houses? Why should a man give himself to this nerve-racking work for such small pay. Let’s call it under pay when he can make the same amount of money by teaching only seven to fourteen hours a week with prices ranging from five to ten dollars an hour. “A manager, as a rule, does not take into consideration the fine sensibilities of the musician, and works him like a dray horse and expects good results. _ An organist who knows his business should be well paid and allowed one day of the week off in which to get a breathing spell; his work will be better for it. The western managers are far ahead of the eastern managers in this respect. They not only pay much better salaries, but they also take good care of their men. “I personally know two organists on the coast who are getting $500 per week, and many of them are getting from $175 to $350 per week; but my advice to the musician and organist who has a good class of pupils is to keep out of organ picture playing until salaries become better in the East. In these same houses on the coast where large sal- 12 Leon Du Parc’s Picture Organ Playing “A Revelation and an Inspiration” His Ideas Prove Most Effective A few evenings ago the writer dropped into one of New York’s finest picture houses to listen to the organ playing of Leon Du Parc, who was demonstrating his theories regarding the character of music that should be played to pictures and the way it should be played. Mr. Du Parc, who is a very fine musician and a remarkable organist, says the majority of those playing organs in picture houses are “jazz” piano players, and they have taken up this line of work because it offered them a regular salary and because a large number of managers are under the impression that their audiences want to hear popular music during the showing of a picture. Again, he says, there is the church organist without a sense of humor, who not only fails to emphasize the life in a picture but actually takes all of the life out of it by his deadly and monotonous playing. Seeing the wonderful field for organ playing m picture houses, Mr. Du Parc claims that primarily the organist should be a good musician with ability to compose, and therefore improvise with intelligence. Secondly, he should be well equipped with organ technic and a repertory of the best in musical literature, including fine arrangements of the symphonies and other big orchestral works. Thirdly, he should have a keen appreciation of rhythms and then-values in picture playing, constantly changing them to avoid monotony, and he should have such a fine sense of humor that he can bring the laugh to the audience by playing appropriate music or producing some ludicrous effect on the instrument. Nothing, he goes on to say, tires an audience more than incessant playing of popular tunes, and nothing is more distracting; further than that, it is frequently an en-couragement to some in the second balcony to whistle the tune while it. is being played. , The writer, who has so often been disgusted with the organ music, or rather organ playing, in picture houses— I might say “hurdy-gurdy” playing, for these theater organs with their big equipment of traps are so abused by these would-be organists that the management might just as well put in a “hurdy-gurdy”—had a real treat, and I may say it was a revelation to hear Mr. Du Parc demonstrate his ld