NEW YORK, THURSDAY, March 1, 1923.
jV\VSICAL@/RIER
VOL. LXXXVI—No. 9. Whole No. 2238.
FIRST GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE
INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY HELD IN LONDON
Constitution Adopted—Salzburg Festival Planned—International Jury and Alternate Jury Include Americans
at the annual festivals of the Society will be questioned as to its origin or pedigree. How much stress any section wishes to lay upon the purely national element shall be no concern of the Society as a whole, and any composer who thinks himself neglected on that ground by his^ resident section still has recourse to the section to which he might belong as a member of his race. The Society obviously wants to represent that “United States of Music” to which Mr. Evans referred at the dinner tendered him.
The International Exchange.
A detailed method of procedure, regulating the intercourse between the sections for the realization of the Society’s ends, was the next subject of debate. Seven articles of agreement, as finally amended, provide for the regular monthly exchange of information, through the medium of the central office, upon new musical works, interesting performances, books worthy of note.. Reports on the activities of the various national sections, as well as interesting events and developments coming to their notice will be sent to London, and a digest of these circulated in turn to the national sections, for publication in the Society’s organs. (Each section is to choose its own official organ.) A survey of the musical output in the various countries during and since the war is planned, to be issued in book form as soon as practicable.
The establishment of a circulating library of scores, which shall make new music of other countries accessible to members of each section, and to conductors and performers for the purpose of examination with a view to performance was agreed to in principle. The practical working-out of a plan, however, which , requires an efficient international machinery and the hearty co-operation of the publishers in all countries, was delegated to a committee consisting of Edwin Evans, César Saer-chinger and Mrs. V. Balkwill, the secretary of the British section.
The Honorary Committee.
Before proceeding to the discussion of the Annual Festival, one of the principal functions of the Society, the ratification of the selection of an Honorary Committee, and the election of the International Jury for 1923 was proceeded with, in order to permit those delegates who might be obliged to leave London ■before the close of the conference to cast their ballots. After some discussion, and the consideration of additional proposals, afterwards withdrawn, the original Honorary Committee published in Salzburg, was confirmed as follows: Ferruccio Busoni, Maurice Ravel, Arnold Schonberg, Jean Sibelius, Richard Strauss, Igor Stravinsky.
Far more complicated and arduous was the work of selecting a jury for the first annual festival. For it was not merely a question of voting upon a list prepared in advance. The very principles upon which the list was to be chosen had to be settled upon. Even the size of the Jury was unsettled, for though five members had been originally planned, amendments offered by more than one section proposed increasing them to seven. The most obvious problem was, of course, to give satisfactory representation to some eighteen musical nations within the scope of a workable body of experts. These discussions and the balloting required the entire second day of the Conference, in two long sessions. Choosing the Jury.
At no time during the debates was the spirit of internationalism and mutual cooperation so patently exhibited as during these discussions, the outcome of which was bound to affect the individual interests of each country more directly than any other point upon the program. Every possibility, every equitable method—racial groupings, annual rotation, choice by lot, etc.—was considered, and it must be acknowledged to be the merit of the chairman, Mr. Dent, to have suggested what now appears as the only possible solution. Mr. Dent asked the delegates to put aside, for the time being, all national and racial considerations, beyond the principle adopted at the outset—that no country must be represented by more than one member upon the jury—and to make up lists of candidates on the sole basis of fitness, to regard (Continued on page 50)
Schipa Receives South American Offer
Tito Schipa recently received a cable from Luzardi, the European impresario, asking if he would be able to sing at the Colon, Buenos Aires, as well as at other theaters throughout Brazil, but owing to the fact that Mr. Schipa’s present concert season will not end until June 15, he was obliged to decline the offer.
The tenor recently took a house on the Halifax River at Daytona Beach, Florida, where he was joined by his wife and baby daughter.
Additional Metropolitan Museum Concerts
The Juilliard Musical Foundation has provided funds for four more free Saturday night concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
might be chosen for different qualities not always found united in one personality. One delegate might, for instance, represent the country in a purely musical or critical faculty, another as an organizer of practical or judicial ability.
What Is Modern Music?
Still more interesting was the long discussion of Article Nine, attempting to define the words “contemporary music” or “modern music” for the Society’s purposes. After first eliminating, by unanimous consent, the word “European” as an error which would limit the Society’s activities, it was found that no aesthetic definition of contemporary or mod-
ern was possible. A mechanical or arbitrary definition, on the other hand, that would satisfy all delegates, could not be found either, and the Article was finally reduced to two sentences leaving each national section to find and adopt its own definition, if it so desires. The scope_ of the music to be advanced by the Society was thus left wide open and any accusation of narrowness or cliquism answered in advance.
Internationalism vs. Nationalism.
Russia has not thus far been represented in the organization of the Society, for obvious technical reasons which it is hoped will soon be eliminated by the resumption of communication with Russia and the foundation of a national section there. Provision was, however, made from the start for Russian nationals living in other countries, by permitting them to join the sections in whose jurisdiction they are domiciled (Article Ten). This principle has now been broadened, on motion of the British section, to include all nationals residing in foreign lands, and the conference has gone on record as accepting the principle of domicile for all practical purposes wherever it is invoked. Music is thus conceived to be an essentially international art, and no composition presented by any national section for performance
London, January 23.—The first conference of delegates of the International Society for Contemporary Music, founded in Salzburg in August, 1922, held here on the invitation of the British section, was concluded yesterday, after three days’ deliberation. Some such conference as this was planned by the organizers at the organization meeting held in Salzburg, but date and place were left in abeyance. The central office, which this original meeting voted definitely to maintain in London, was at that meeting requested to work out a plan of organization and practical procedure, which when ratified should serve, in lieu of a constitution, as a guide to the national sections to be constituted in the various countries in accordance with the laws and exigencies of these countries.
Accordingly a detailed plan comprising no less than thirty-one articles was worked out by a special committee and circulated among the organizérs of all the countries represented at Salzburg. Amendments were asked for and submitted, and the invitation for the London conference accepted by the majority of countries in which national sections have been organized.
Plans for the conference, as worked out by the inviting section, provided for sessions to be held successively in the Royal College of Music (by courtesy of the director, Sir Hugh Allen), the headquarters of the Incorporated Society of Musicians, those of the British Music Society, and in the Royal Academy of Music (by courtesy of Sir Alexander MacKenzie). The sessions opened on the morning of January 19, and the delegates were welcomed by Sir Hugh Allen, as host, and Edward J.
Dent, chairman of the Salzburg meeting.
The following representatives, it was found, had responded to the call :	Dr.
Rudolf Réti, Austria; Edwin Evans, England; Maurice Ravel, France; Prof. Adolf Weissmann, Germany; Prof. K. B. Jirak and Dr. Erich Steinhard, Czecho-Slovakia ;
Sven Felumb, Denmark ; Guido M. Gatti,
Italy; Werner Reinhart, Switzerland;
César Saerchinger, as observer for the U. S. A.
It was found that in all the countries mentioned national sections had'been either definitely formed or were in the process of formation pending the definite adoption of the central office’s plan of organization.
To them must be added Belgium and Portugal, whose delegates were unfortunately prevented from attending, while Spain, Holland, Poland, Hungary, Sweden and Norway had not yet reported, though organizing influences are known to be at work. Thus a most promising progress could be recorded for the five months elapsed since the initial meeting at Salzburg. The most extensive and representative organizations were reported by England, where the Contemporary Music Center of the British Music Society has constituted itself the British section of the International ; Germany, where the national section comprises seventy-five per cent, of all the representative musicians; France, where the governing committee includes men like Paul Dukas (president), Maurice Ravel, Albert Roussel, Erik Satie, Flor-ent Schmitt, Charles Koechlin, Henri Prunières, etc.; and Denmark, where the section comprises all leading musicians and some 200 supporting members.
On motion of César Saerchinger, Edward Dent was unanimously requested to act as chairman of the Conference—not as a delegate (Mr. Evans being the British delegate) ■but as a “neutral” without vote.
Pending a final decision with regard to the number of delegates admitted to the General Conferences, the two delegates from Czecho-Slovakia, representing the Slav and the German elements respectively, were both permitted to participate, voting jointly, the principle of “one country, one vote” being definitely and unanimously ■adopted for the International Society on motion of M. Ravel. (“Nationality,” in this connection, was defined to be synonymous with “state.”) Discussion of the rules of organization was then proceeded with, article by article.
The first three articles, defining the nature and work of the Society (“an association of societies . . . collaborating in the furtherance of contemporary music by means of regular exchange of information and other assistance, etc.”) were^ adopted without discussion, likewise the next three, providing for the central office and its provisional maintenance by voluntary contributions of the national sections. (It should be added that each of these national sections is an absolutely autonomous society, deciding for itself its organization, constitution, and scope of activity.) An amendment (to Article 7) proposed by the German section, permitting two delegates to be sent by any one country, only one of whom, however, shall have a vote, was adopted after an interesting discussion which brought out many reasons for such a provision. The two delegates might represent either two opposing racial groups within a country, or they
Photo by Ter lei son and Henry
ALICE GENTLE,
׳who has followed a busy summer at the Ravinia Park Opera with an even busier winter. The early winter season she spent in Mexico City as leading sopra)io with the company, introduced there by Andrea de Seguróla, formerly of the Metropolitan. Leaving Mexico, Miss Gentle began a concert tour at Denver which ivas interrupted and her concert dates altered to allow her to go to the Pacific Coast to make ten guest performances with the San Carlo Opera Company, singing Tosca, Carmen, Cavalleria, La Navarraise and other roles in which this brilliant artist has been
unusually successful.