MUSICAL COURIER 20 June 15, 1922 THE VANISHING HOST Find me a book on music that does not say that there are no such artists today as there were yesterday! Art died—how long ago? Once in every year, once, at least, in every generation. The great names of the past are nothing but memories— there are none like them today. That phrase—you can read it in many a book, you can hear it on many a lip. Probably in the days of Bach they said the art-world had come to an end—that there was none living like Palestrina or Hue bald. In the days of B eethoven already the bel canto of the past had been irrevocably lost. In the days of Wagner there was no longer a Mozart. No one was then living who could write real opera, and there would have been no one to sing it if they had. Today there is no such singer as Patti, no such violinist as Joachim or Sarasate, no such pianist as Liszt. Strange that all of these names of great artists that come instinctively to mind and tongue should be so recent. Who were the great pianists and violinists and singers of the days of Bach, of Mozart, of Beethoven? No doubt they were so great that those who came immediately after howled in the desperation of grief that now the world was at an end. The king was dead, and there was no king to take his place. Every day one hears: There will never be another Caruso!” “There will never be another Patti!” “There will never be another . . .” But why pile on the agony? Middle age finds !itself as stupid, as fatuous, today as yesterday and will find itself as stupid tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow forever and ever. t Forever and ever middle age will find youth hopeless-going to the dogs.” “What is the world coming to?” IF hat is there about middle age that makes people pessimistic? And what is the world coming to, in very truth, if people are to be unable to see what is right before them and to be forever mooning and sighing for the past, the good old days? As if they ever existed, those good old days! They were not old, in the first place, for every day is new while it lasts. And they were certainly not good as compared with today, for everything has improved, including the health of the world. And including, you may be sure, even the bel canto of the singers, which, according to some of the singers, is the deadest of the dead. Including, you may be sure, also, the playing of the soloists, pianists, violinists, and the rest— including, likewise, the playing of the orchestras. Good old days, indeed! When Beethoven had to give most of his concerts without a single rehearsal, when even the soloist sometimes had to read the concerto at sight, when they were actually unable to play the music of Wagner, and abandoned one of his music-dramas after sixty rehearsals as “impossible.” Today the average orchestra can play any one of them at sight — and Strauss and Schoenberg into the bargain. Imagine any one of those old time singers putting into his interpretation the force, passion, emotion that are essentials in the singing of today! They could not have had such a thing in mind. They did not even know that it existed, as is very evident from the sort of music they were called upon to sing, the sort of music the composers wrote for them. And the wonderful playing of the pianists, even up to Beethoven’s day, tinkling gaily on their feeble voiced clavichords—the playing of the great violinists of that long distant past, who never dreamed of producing the effects that are the common property of all good players today. All this pessimism that finds nothing in the present equal to the past is nothing more or less than the outcropping either of personal failure or vast conceit. “Since / am not good, nothing is good,” says the failure. “I am the only living example of the great past. With me the world ends,” says conceit. Meantime happy, healthy humanity goes its way and is pretty welt satisfied with the present. It ought to be. position to be given at the 1923 festival. A detailed account of the festival was given in the June 8 issue of the Musical Courier. It only remains to congratulate all concerned upon its unprecedented success. The Musical Courier learns with sincere regret that Sir Henry Heyman is still seriously ill. Latest reports state that there is no especial improvement in his condition. Progress seems very slow and he is still under the constant care of physician and nurse. --------- Following a most interesting European trip, Carrie Louise Dunning is again in her native country—“the best in the world” she calls it—and is at present resting in Portland, Ore. Mrs. Dunning will not be idle long, for her normal class in New York has been announced for August 1, and present indications show that it will be a busy one. -----<$>---- The Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires was scheduled to start May 19 with the German contingent of Walter Mocchi’s company in “Parsifal” and the second night was to have been Mascagni’s “Piccolo Marat” with the composer himself conducting. The steamer on which the company was traveling from Italy was delayed, however, and it is probable that the opening had to be put off for two or three days. --------- Rene Devries, general representative of the Musical Courier, is in Europe at present; Leonard Lieb-ling, editor-in-chief, sailed June 13, and H. O. Osgood, associate editor, departs June 17. Clarence Lucas and César Saerchinger are resident in Europe in the interests of ■this paper, and in consequence there will be five staff members of the Musical Courier abroad this summer, all of them making studies which will redound still further to the advantage of our foreign department, always the most complete and authoritative of any musical journal in the world. ------------ That Nellie Melba’s Australian countrymen really love her is proved by the success of the “Concerts For the People” which she has been giving in the cities there, fourteen at Sydney and the same number at Melbourne. What is most remarkable is that she sang only one program, repeating it time after time, the idea being to accommodate each and every one who wanted to hear her. The tickets were sold at much lower than the usual Melba prices and the constant repetition of the same program prevented them from going into the hands of speculators. She sang to full houses at practically every concert and later, it is reported, gave a shorter series at Brisbane and also at Adelaide. -----^-------- In prize competitions, it is nearly always required that the competing works be submitted, not with the composer’s name upon them, but with whatever cipher he may choose; thus the name of the winner is not known to the judges until after they have made their choice. It goes without saying that anonymity of the composers should be complete; half-way anonymity is worse than none at all. Teachers of the branches of music included in the competition, who may be, and, indeed, are very likely to be, the teachers of some one of the contestants, should not, under any circumstances whatever, be selected as judges. It is perfectly obvious and evident that they must know their pupils’ work (or former pupils’) and, however honest their judgment may he, and no doubt is, those who do not win the prize will naturally harbor a suspicion that the anonymitv of the competition was not as complete as it should have been. Lovers of Russian music will not have to depend alone on what they give on the Stadium programs this summer. The second program of the “Chauve Souris,” which shifted to the delightful Century Roof last week, is much more Russian than the first and the music has been chosen from the best Russian composers and arranged with great cleverness. This new “Chauve Souris” program is something decidedly different and even better than the first. It would be hard to conceive a greater feast for both eve and ear than the genuinely Russian finale of the first part, “Outside Our Gates.” The costumes are gorgeous and the dancing of an infectious jollity. I he audience on the first evening was insatiable in its demand for encores. And then there are the A ooden Soldiers” and “Katinka” carried over from the first show, an evening’s joy just by themselves. MUS1CAL(01!RIER U/eekly Review or rue Worlds Music 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, National Publishers’ Association, The Fifth Avenue Association of New York, Music Industries Chamber of Commerce, The New York Rotary Club, Honorary Member American Optimists. ALVIN L. SCHMOEGER..................................General Manage? ........Editor-in-Chief .....Associate Editors General Representatives LEONARD LIEBLING H. O. OSGOOD WILLIAM GEPPERT !׳RANK PATTERSON CLARENCE LUCAS RENE DEVRIES J. ALBERT RIKER CHICAGO HEADQUARTERS—Jeannette Cox, 820 to 830 Orchestra Building. Chicago. Telenhone, Harrison 6110. BOSTON AND NEW ENGLAND—31 Symphony Chambers, 24 6 Huntington Ave , Boston. Telephone, Back Bay 555 4. LONDON, ENG.—Cesar Saerchinger (in charge). Selson House, 85 Queen Victoria Street, London, E. C. Telephone 440 City. Cable address Musicrier, Lond-n. BERLIN, GERMANY—Cesar Saerchinger, Passauer Strasse 11a, Berlin W. 50. Teleph ne Steinplatz 347J. Cable address Musicurier, Berlin. PAR'S, FRANCE—Address New York Office. 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. 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THE MUSICAL COURIER EXTRA Published every Saturday by Musical Courier Company Devoted to the interests of the Piano Trade. New York Thursday June IS, 1922 No. 2201 Romantic music often is written by extremely unromantic composers. --------- Whatever they may decide to call that projected New York art center, our vote is now and forever against “Temple of Music.” -----S>----- Vacation suggestion: Have your Musical Courier follow you to your summer retreat. But you must let this office know your address. -----S>----- Musical Note: Last Thursday morning as the bus conductor held out his little machine for us to slip in the dime, he was whistling Mendelssohn’s “Spring-Song.” (We felt self conscious.) ------------ Seasonable hint to musical artists: There is no better time than the close of the 1921-22 season, to think out advertising plans for the 1922-23 season. The business staff of the Musical Courier has leisure in the summer to give you extra time and attention. -----3>----- One of our contemporaries gave itself on its own front page a splendid blurb on the quality of its foreign news, which is, indeed, quite satisfactory— so far as it goes. The Musical Courier has no need to call attention to its own foreign department; and that old axiom of the newspaper world, “the pen is mightier than the scissors,” is as true today as ever it was. Congratulations are due the San Francisco Chamber Music Society upon the fact that it has been invited by Elizabeth Coolidge to attend the Berkshire Festival at Pittsfield this season, as announced in another column, and to take part in the program. This is the first time this excellent body of players has thus been recognized. Elias M. Hecht, organizer and backer of the society and flutist, will accompany his organization to Pittsfield. That the North Shore Festival at Evanston, 111., this year was the best in the history of the series is the opinion of all those who had the pleasure and the privilege of being present. The organizing genius of Carl D. Kinsey was never shown to better advantage than on this memorable occasion. The audiences were capacity and musicians from all over the country were in attendance. The Orchestral Composition Contest was the real climax of the festival and it is announced as a probability that the $1,000 prize will again be offered for an orchestral com-