June 8, 19 2 2
Robert Foresman at Seymour School
Robert Foresman, for many years a pioneer in the work of placing our public school music on a more effective basis, spoke Wednesday afternoon, a week ago, at The Seymour School of Musical Re-Education before a distinguished group of educators, teachers and supervisors of music. Collaborating with Mr. Foresman was Anita Rio, whose clear, sweet soprano voice lent itself perfectly to vocal illustration of the exquisite collection of songs for children which Mr. Foresman presented.
Mr. Foresman made a dramatic appeal for the idea which to him is a life-cause, namely, the teaching of music through the principle of emotional response rather than through the intellectual processes which have been so long in vogue. Briefly, but succinctly, he analyzed the difference between music and the other subjects of the school curriculum. “We live in feeling, not in intellect,” he said. “Music is the one subject offered in public school education capable of cultivating and directing the feeling, the emotional nature. Instead, what do we do with it? We make it fulfill the functions of geography, in teaching us location of notes on the staff, etc.; the functions of mathematics in teaching us relative values, structure; the functions of language in teaching informatively instead of through experience. And the mighty opportunity of developing and directing the emotional side of the child's nature we neglect almost utterly.
“What then, is the ultimate result? Instead of teaching music in a way which must finally make for cultivation of the feeling attributes of idealism, love of harmony, beauty, justice and the rest, we force music, the fourth dimensional subject par excellence, into a groove where it must function uniformly with the intellectual subjects, i. e., first, foremost and almost exclusively along mental and mechanical lines.
“Apparently we imagine,” said Mr. Foresman, “that some day, by starting at the point of departure farthest removed from that realm of musical feeling which we wish to approach, we shall ultimately by some miracle get there.” How vain that hope must be is amply proved, he feels, by the negative results so far attained.
Those who are acquainted with Mr. Foresman’s splendid work as a writer, editor and creator of music books will be interested to know that he has now joined the Seymour School of Musical Re-education as a member of its faculty.
Students who attend the summer courses of the School will have an opportunity of hearing him as a lecturer in musical psychology. Among the topics discussed in his lectures will be: ,'How Musical Psychology Differs from General Psychology,” “Analytical Differentiation Between Tonal Feeling, Musical Feeling and Emotional Reaction,” “The Mistaken Identity of Sight Reading,” “The Acquisitive Sense vs. the Responsive Sense,” “How the Active Memory Interferes with the Passive Memory in Musical Expression,” and other topics which give equal opportunity for delving deep into the heart of musical psychology.
Walter Spry Appears Before Music Teachers
Walter Spry gave a piano recital with explanatory remarks before the Wisconsin Music Teachers’ Convention, held May 10 at Wausau. A review of the recital appeared in the local newspaper as follows: “Mr. Spry attracts first by his pleasing manners and unassuming speech; he later holds his audience enthralled as he delineates phases of development, types and classes, all given with the finished touch of a master. Mr. Spry was given an ovation aft״׳■ his rendition of his own waltz—“Moonlight Dreams,” and in response gave two additional numbers.”
The Columbia School of Music, Chicago, has engager Walter Spry to give a series of ten lectures before the Summer School on the History of Music. Mr. Spry will also hold weekly interpretation classes this summer, pre senting useful material for piano teachers, besides giving private lessons in piano playing.
Schumann Heink to Open Rubinstein Season
Although the official season of the New York Rubin stein Club, of which Mrs. William Rogers Chapman i! the efficient president, closed with the annual meetinf early last month, there were a number of social event! preceding Mrs. Chapman’s departure for her summer home in Shelburne, Vt. Mrs. Alexander Candlish enter tained the officers and directors at her home in Pough keepsie, N: Y., on May 12, and her husband, Dr. Cand lish, entertained with a tea at the hospital. A number o the ladies remained for over the week-end and according to all reports had a most enjoyable time. Helen Barrett a member of the board, also gave a luncheon for th< officers and directors.
Ernestine Schumann Heink will be the opening attrac tion of the Rubinstein Club season for 1922-23, the dat( being November 18.
Moiseiwitsch to Come Back Again
Benno Moiseiwitsch will come back next October for hi third American tour under the management of the Wolfsohr Musical Bureau. He will arrive here late in October anc remain until the middle of March. His tour will includ the Pacific Coast, and from America he will go direct tc Australia, where he begins his second tour in that country in April next under the Tait management.
MUSICAL COURIER
part:	Idylle Schumacher, Sophie Muth, Caroline Taube,
Jeanne Allaine and Josephine Torre. These evenings of song are given monthly, and the delightful program always gives pleasure to the friends and pupils who hear them at the affiliated College of Music, 114-116 East Eighty-fifth street, New York.
March King Sousa a “Staple Product”
John Philip Sousa’s manager, Harry Askin, an impresario whose experience goes back to the palmy days of light opera in the United States, when he was the manager of Lillian Russell, Marion Manola, De Wolf Hopper, Digby Bell and other celebrities of the American stage, has recently sent out a folder which tabulates the gross receipts of the March King’s long, exhaustive tour of the United States, Canada and the West Indies in the season of 1921-22, ended in April; and the figures are startling in view of the poor conditions that existed.
Thus, the lowest gross receipts for any Sousa concert on this comprehensive, nation-wide tour were $2,500—a sum obtained in cities and towns where even the best of the traveling theatrical attractions reported “houses” ranging from $150 to $600. The “top” was reached in engagements in Montreal, Los Angeles and Havana with “$18,000 and more,” in Mr. Askin’s tabulation.
Asked by a representative of the Chicago Herald-Examiner, in April, for an explanation of Sousa’s immense prosperity in a season marked by so much disaster for amusements in general, Mr. Askin said:
“I can reply, to be truthful in my opinion, only that Sousa is a staple product. He is as essential, in the
VICTOR
GOLIBART
TENOR
New York Times—“Displayed a voice of always manly quality, yet of artistic delicacy of style and diction.”
New York Herald—“Correct style, taste, clear diction, and a musical feeling quite capable of producing thrills for the listener.”
New York Sun—“His final efforts in the songs of Head, Hail-, Watts, and Ganz were crowned with wild enthusiasm.”
New York Telegram — “He is skilled in phrasing and in many of the little things which are nee-Towles Photo essary to artistic singing.”
Personal Representative
ELBERT BRANDER, 124 East 39th St., New York
minds of a vast body of Americans, as, say, white cotton thread or black silk or calfskin shoes. This season has proved my contention.
“Let me confess that, in July and August of 1921, we seriously considered a cancellation of all bookings, although this would have meant in forfeits on rentals not less than a loss of $15,000, and besides complete pay for the band of eighty-five men for the entire season, under their contract. We were advised by many a seasoned observer to ‘lay off’; and men outside the amusement business also told us that it would be a good season for Sousa to devote to hunting and shooting and riding and some composition, and to let his clientele ‘get hungry for him.’
“Commander Sousa and I talked it over, and reached this conclusion:	That periods of depression had never
operated against him in all the years of his touring; that he occupied without effective opposition a field which he had been the first to plough, sow, cultivate and harvest; and that there was an element of sportsmanship in ignoring the calamity-cries of other enterprises. So we clinched our bookings, went ahead with our railroad contracts, and fared forth. We proved to be the season’s notable exception. Why, we even gave a sort of postcript season, taking up requests from cities whose dates fell within the period of Mr. Sousa’s illness, that we squeeze in a spring engagement. That was how we happened to play Cincinnati, Chicago and a number of other large cities after the tour’s scheduled end.”	G.
Howell-Greene Joint Recitals Successful
Dicie Howell, the young American soprano, and Walter Greene, baritone, have enjoyed exceptional success this season in specially selected duet programs and have proved beyond a doubt that good programs are acceptable anywhere and everywhere when well sung. Besides the dates enjoyed by'Miss Howell as a solo artist the soprano has appeared with Mr. Greene in Brooklyn, at the Brooklyn Institute on November 25; twice at Columbia University in New York, November 3 and April 6; in Superior, Wis., October 28; in Pottsville, Pa., April 18; and in St. Joseph, Mo., April 28. Next season these two young artists will be heard in a series of concerts just booked for them by their manager.
10
Washington Heights Club Plans Busy Season
Six “Closed Meetings,” for members only, and two “Open Meetings,” for the general public, are announced for the coming season by the Washington Heights Musical Club, Miss J. R. Cathcart, 27 West Fifty-seventh street, president. The club offers unusual opportunities for amateurs and students to accustom themselves to public playing, to try themselves out, as it were, to test their composition if they happen to be composers, to have a mutual good time together with musicians interested in the same sort of thing that they are interested in whether they are amateurs or professionals. There is no more important work being done anywhere in America than the work of this club, because it is reaching down to the people, to small musicians, to amateurs. The members, instead of getting together to drink tea and talk about “the world and his wife,” get together to talk about music, and, what is more to the point, to make music. Proficiency has nothing to do with it. There is plenty of proficiency in the concerts and recitals given in endless number by artists, native and foreign, and by orchestras and choral societies, in the various halls of New York during the winter.
But there are at these concerts too many mere listeners, listeners who are more or less musical but who never play anywhere except in the privacy of their own home or in the almost equal privacy of the studio of their teacher. These listeners develop almost no “get-together” spirit because they are afraid to be criticised for their mistakes, their small technic, their general inefficiency as musicians. Every one knows that this is a fact, and can present to his mind’s eye a perfect picture made up of individual personal memories and a knowledge of what is going on around him.
And when clubs are formed—so-called “musical clubs” —they almost invariably turn out to be a benefit only to members or their professional friends who are such good musicians that they are able to give a “program” or something of the sort. That is like college athletics, which strengthen greatly the few members of the teams—superior athletes who do not need the physical upbuilding—and leave all the rest of the student body on the bleachers. College faculties. are fighting this selectiveness and are insisting more and more upon every student getting some physical culture during his college days.
The Washington Heights Musical Club is doing the same thing in music. It is getting the spectators off of the bleachers and indue ng them to take an active part in the exercises. It has been found necessary to have some professional musicians associated with the club to act as guides, and some concerts and recitals by professionals to keep up interest and to stimulate the activities of the members. But the closed meetings are for members only, and it is reported that some of the playing and singing is “awful.” It ought to be! The very moment the “awful” performance is barred the utility of the club will vanish. It is easy to predict this because other similar clubs have been organized in the past and invariably went on the rocks as a result of the selective principle or the competitive principle being introduced.
If you are a musician of moderate attainment, and you desire to meet other musicians of moderate attainments who will not crowd you out by their superiority, with whom you can have a good time by making music just for the fun of it—join the Washington Heights Musical Club!	p■
Maitland Scores Success in “Elijah” in Cincinnati
Following his appearance in Cincinnati as soloist with the Bach Society in “Elijah,” the Times-Star of May 10 said in part: “Emma L. Roedter, president of the Bach Society in Cincinnati, is opening her home for a gala party that the vocal section of the society will give on Wednesday evening for the distinguished baritone, Robert Maitland. Mr. Maitland, who sang the Elijah in the Mendelssohn ‘Elijah’ on Sunday evening before a ‘standing room only’ audience, is spending a few days in town between engagements. Not only were all the seats filled to hear him on Sunday, but many stood throughout to hear the program and many were turned away. He is a leading Bach exponent, and the Bach Society, in honoring him Wednesday evening, will enjoy a little informal music also.”
Mr. Maitland is now under the management of Fred O. Renard, the well known New York manager.
Mengelberg to Give Grasse Concerto
Last month, Dr. Noble, of the Juilliard Foundation, showed Willem Mengelberg the score of Edwin Grasse’s new concerto for violin and orchestra, which had its initial performance with the Johns Hopkins Orchestra, Baltimore, the composer playing it. Mr. Mengelberg has agreed to produce the concerto in Amsterdam next fall with the Con-certgebouw Orchestra, and if it makes a success it will be performed with the Philharmonic Orchestra in New York.
American Conservatory Song Evening
The monthly evening of song by students at the New York American Conservatory of Music, Hein & Fraemcke, directors, had on it five representative arias—by Puccini, Lortzing, Halevy, Thomas and Mozart—sung by Delphine Goodwin, Marie Oufinger, Mrs. Wilkinson and Evelyn Schiff. Beside these singers, the following vocalists took
LA FORGE-BERÜMEN
Studios Will Be Open the Entire Summer
Special Courses in Voice Coaching, Programme Building, Piano (Leschetizky) and Accompanying
Address: THE LA FORGE-BERÜMEN STUDIOS, 14 West 68th Street	New York
TELEPHONE COLUMBUS 8993