MUSICAL COURIER
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find that in many places they are not yet awake to the situation. Members of school boards have said to me: “We are willing to do what the public wants,” and yet they have paid no attention to music because they claim they have had no demand for it. This, in spite of the fact that some of these places boast of one or more strong music clubs, and that these music clubs could certainly create the demand and mould public opinnion, if they felt it their duty to do so. Have you brought this matter to the attention of your school boards? Have you talked with them about it? Have you asked your parent-teacher clubs to join you in the demand for recognition of music for your children and their children? Are we really in earnest about this thing or have we been “just talking”? If we are in earnest, then it behooves us to bestir ourselves, for some people are already beginning to doubt our sincerity.
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EDUCATIONAL ARTICLES APPROVED
Gaylord Yost has the courtesy to write us a commendation of Mr. Patterson’s articles on Instrumentation, now appearing in the Musical Courier. Mr. Yost, addressing Mr. Patterson personally, says: “I take this opportunity of felicitating you on your articles that have been running in the Musical Courier from time to time. Especially fine is the present series on orchestration.”
Eugen Putnam says: “I like your work now appearing in the Musical Courier on orchestration. You have the gift of imparting your knowledge and ripe experience in a way that is most interesting and easily understood. Your articles are never vague nor groping, but have in them the light of truth that blazes like the noonday sun. Your writing carries such conviction in its lucid, logical style—so different from the average stumbling writer on musical subjects—that you ought to be a recognized authority in the musical world during the next generation or so, as well as a leader and moulder of musical thought. You see I am a real admirer of your deductions, and your wonderful common sense.”
Ralph C. Sloane, director of the department of public school music, De Pauw University School of Music, Greencastle, Ind., writes under date of February 8 as follows: “Commencing with your issue of January 4, you started a series of articles on Practical Instrumentation for School, Popular and Symphony Orchestras, by Frank Patterson. Consider them very fine and if available in book form would like to know where I can purchase same. Would consider using this book as a text to be used in my department.
“Thanking you for this informition, I am, sincerely (signed) Ralph C. Sloane.”
chestral pieces—Prelude, Scherzo and Elegy, by Max Anton; Bochum, the objective of the French invasion, has heard Von Keussler’s Oriental Fantasy; and in Elberfeld, also near Essen, a first hearing was given to a set of three orchestral pieces entitled Loneliness, by Hans Herwig, a young composer of undoubted talent.
Wrestlers For Strauss Opera.
Practically all concerts have been proceeding in a normal way even when concerts were sometimes threatened by soloists being delayed or hindered in reaching the scene of the concert by irregular train service. Local talent, by being quickly substituted, was invariably able to save the day— or mostly night. And speaking of local talent, recalls a recent performance in Cologne of The Legend of Joseph, by Richard Strauss, in which, to add realism to the wrestling scene, professional wrestlers were engaged. One cannot but wonder whether this was meant to be a conscientious carrying out of the spirit of the text, or rather a subtle way in which to gain a bit of publicity for Richard’s opera.
Dr. Hermann Unger.
Baltimore Discovers Eleven-Year-Old Piano Prodigy
Baltimore, Md., February 21.—Shuro Cherkassky, an eleven-year-old boy, here but three weeks from Russia, has caused a veritable furore among the few who have been privileged to hear him play the piano. Harold Randolph, director of the Peabody Institute; Frederick Huber, municipal director of music and manager of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and others are equally enthusiastic. Mr. Huber has consented to act as manager for the prodigy, who will make his first public appearance in America in this city, March 3.
Not only is his technic amazing, but he plays with all the assurance and refinement that one rightly expects from a great artist. His first teacher was his mother, herself a graduate of the Russian Imperial Conservatory of Music in Petrograd and a pianist of considerable reputation. She not only acted as instructor but also during the first years was always at the piano with him during practice. The refinement due to her constant care is always manifest in the boy’s playing. Besides the thorough instruction from his mother, he was helped by Cheretsky Geshelin, a European concert artist, and Calka, the director of the Public Conservatory of Music in Odessa, which was the boy’s home. Later Prof. Molishefsky, of the Odessa Imperial Conservatory of Music, taught him harmony. A number of original compositions will be included on his first recital program.
The boy and his parents suffered all the privations of the average person in Russia. They admitted that they had burned and sold all their furniture to keep from freezing. With much difficulty they got out of Russia and came to relatives in this city.	E. D.
probable that only a ■ musical reactionary of the type of Giulio Gatti-Casazza would in this day and age have spent the forces of the Metropolitan Opera Company on reviving the “serious” music-drama.
׳We’ve been wanting to go to New York for some weeks and see a real good, unhackneyed opera. They can produce them at the Metropolitan, and sometimes do. But what the devil 1 If we go over there tonight we’d see Romeo and Juliet.—Ball one. If we go tomorrow night we’d have to sit through the inconsequential Lorelei—it is inconsequential, even if the composer is an Italian.—Ball two. On Wednesday afternoon it will be Tosca. No, thank you.—Ball three.
Well, there’s Wednesday at 8:15—Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte. Yes, we’d like to, but we can’t be in New York on Wednesday.—Strike one. On Thursday Ernani, Friday Thais. No, sir, not even with Marie Jeritza in the title role 1 The batter takes his base.
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CONCERTED EFFORT NEEDED
The appended letter, addressed by Lucile M. Lyons to the National Federation of Music Clubs, of which she is the president, and printed in the Official Bulletin, makes an appeal for united effort that will be widely appreciated. What Mrs. Lyons says of the necessity of concentrated and united effort is true not only of this school problem, but also it is true of every problem that confronts music in America; it is true not only as it applies to the federated clubs, but also in its application to all American music lovers and musicians.
As our work progresses, I am more and more impressed with the importance of the music club as a factor in the development of the ideal community life, and I am correspondingly impressed with the great power we have within the National Federation for the musical development of America. As I hear and see what many of our music clubs are doing in their own localities and how they are making their influence felt even without realizing it, I am fired with new zeal when I visualize the results of a music club in every community in America and all these clubs functioning as some of them are functioning now. For here, in part, lies the reason for some weakness in the general scheme of things at present.
This message is not intended as a complaint but rather as a diagnosis, for we are forced to admit that a goodly number of our clubs are not functioning properly and so our beautiful vision is marred. Some of them are self-satisfied and do not wish to be disturbed in the even tenor of their way—some of them are discouraged and feel that their efforts are not appreciated or are not worth while and still others are failing to function simply because they do not realize the necessity for action.
I have had occasion lately to focus my attention on the problem of music in the public schools, and I find that we are far from making the progress we so desire, in spite of the fact that we have urged our clubs to put their shoulders to this particular wheel and give a good strong push, I
Cologne, February 9.—There is an old Roman saying, “inter arma muss tacent,” which means that the alarm of war is fatal to art. But in spite of the fact that the Rhineland is occupied by thousands of French and Belgian troops, the disturbance of musical life has been almost negligible. One might imagine, perhaps, that concerts, if for nothing else than patriotic reasons, would be confined only to German music. But not at all 1 Cologne has had a memorial concert commemorating the 100th anniversary of a Belgian composer, César Franck; a Roumanian pianist, Theophil Demetriescu, has given a recital devoted exclusively to the works of an Italian, Busoni, and an English singer, Margaret Valdi, incidentally not yet ready, vocally speaking, for public appearances, has sung a number of unfamiliar English songs. So much for the foreign artists.
New Works Have First Performances.
In so far as the Ruhr Valley is concerned, native artists have been even more active. In the regular Giirzenich Concerts, Hermann Abendroth conducted the new Sprech-sinfonie, Called to Death, by Gerhard von Keussler, which recently had its first performance anywhere in Breslau. The work which requires more than an hour and a half for performance, contains some beautiful discourses on love and death. Death is characterized by a toll collector who, before allowing any one to pass, insists on his paying the toll—which is death. While the music reveals a cultivated mind, the rhythmic movement lacks variety, and the melodic line wanders promiscuously from instrument to instrument in a manner resembling the music dramas of Max von Schillings. Often, too, the declamation is covered by too thick an accompaniment in the orchestra. Only in the two intermezzi, Confession and Funeral March, is the orchestra heard alone. Many persons, not having texts, found the work monotonous and soon left the hall.
Two other new works, by Josef Rosenstock and Heinrich Lemmacher, were more ,Successful. Rosenstock’s symphonic piano concerto which he conducts himself, met with a cordial reception. It has moments of genuine pathos as well as some which ׳sparkle with, brilliance. The work effectively orchestrated, is also pianistically grateful, and fully merited its distinct success.
Cordially received, too, was the 29th Psalm of the Cologne composer Lemmacher, also heard here for the first time. It is well written both in the choral and orchestra parts, the fugue in the last movement being especially noteworthy.
Activity In Different Cities.
This premiere, by the way, took place in Solingen, the center of the Rhineland steel industry. Other cities in the Ruhr region are continuing their interest in music as well. For instance in Hagen, near Essen, a monster concert hall, work on which has extended over a period of ten years, is soon to be dedicated with a performance of Beethoven’s ninth symphony. Then Bonn, the headquarters of the French staff, has heard the first performance of three or-
March 8, 1923
CHICAGO THE SUMMER MUSICAL CENTER
With Chicagoans and suburbanites organizing to increase the guarantee fund for the Ravinia Opera Company in order that concerts and opera may be given on a larger scale than ever and to co-operate with Louis Eckstein, president of the Ravinia Company, and his associates, the little village, whose name is known all over the musical world, will again be the center of summer musical attractions. With Ravinia in full blaze of glory and Chicago’s big schools bringing to the city teachers of international fame, as a summer musical mecca Chicago today stands aloof.
The summer master school of the American Conservatory was given much space in these columns a few weeks ago when it was mentioned that to the very strong regular faculty would be added for the summer term such famous masters as Josef Lhe-vinne, William S. Brady, Delia Valeri and George H. Gartlan. The Bush Conservatory, of which Kenneth M. Bradley is president and Edgar A. Nelson vice-president, has assembled a great faculty of over ninety teachers, many having international reputations, and Otakar Sevcik, the world renowned teacher of Kubelik, Kocian and Morini, already teaching exclusively at the school, will bring to Chicago many violin teachers during the summer months desirous of studying during their vacation with this great master. Carl D. Kinsey, general manager of the Chicago Musical College, and probably the originator of summer master schools in Chicago, has again a formidable list from which the large clientele may choose to study. As for guest teachers, the Chicago Musical College offers Prof. Leopold Auer, master violin instructor; Oscar Saenger, celebrated vocal instructor and operatic coach; Prof. Xaver Scharwenka, master pianist and instructor; Herbert Witherspoon, famous singer and teacher; Percy Rector Stephens, notable vocal teacher ; Leon Sametini, renowned violinist and teacher; Florence Hinkle, distinguished vocal teacher and one of America’s foremost sopranos, and Clarence Eddy, dean of American organists. To that list could lie added also the names of some of the regular teachers such as Felix Borowski, president of the school and teacher of harmony, composition, counterpoint, canon and fugue; Edward Collins, the popular American pianist and teacher; Dr. Fery Lulek, the eminent voice teacher, and seventy-five others whose names are well known throughout the Middle West.
The Glenn Dillard Gunn School, directed by Glenn Dillard Gunn, well known pianist, critic and pedagogue, will soon have some announcements to make besides those already given out to the effect that Lee Pattison, the distinguished pianist and team-mate of Guy Maier of piano-duet fame, will teach at the school; and Father Finn, an international figure, has been secured for the summer term at the Gunn School. The Columbia School of Music, the Knup-fer Studios (a school of music), the serious and very progressive Mary Wood Chase School of Musical Arts, the Lyceum Arts Conservatory, the Sherwood School of Music with its innumerable branches, the Chicago College of Music (a school that has leaped into great popularity in the last few years and which has made a specialty of bringing youngsters before the public, all have something special to offer the music students who desire to go to Chicago this summer. Added to this formidable array of world renowned musicians who will go to Chicago, many of the resident teachers will remain in town to accommodate their big clientele, as Chicago during the summer months boasts of harboring more music students than any two cities on this continent—and this including New York, by the way. To give the names of all the distinguished teachers who will hold master classes in Chicago this summer would take too, long. The point taken is that Chicago will harbor this season more students than ever before, that the schools will be crowded, and the private studios as well will be filled with students eager to go to a city which has so much to offer during the summer months.
R. D.
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OLIN GETS HIS BASE
Olin Downes, in his Sunday column in the Boston Post, recently indulged in a little airy persiflage at the expense of some things in New York. Said Mr. Downes:
In New York, at the Metropolitan, Mr. Gatti-Casazza stirred in his sleep and revived last Friday the William Tell of Rossini. What, we wonder, will be his next exhumation? Not improperly the grave and reverend signors of the New York press found the opera dull. It is dull; for once they were right in New York, and here’s the amusing thing about it. Rossini, as Mr. Aldrich reminds us in the Times, worked six months on William Tell, worked seriously and like the dickens. On the Barber of Seville, “that immortal piece of persiflage” (we here quote Mr. Aldrich), he worked thirteen days, and today the living opera is the Barber, while it is
MUSICAL LIFE NOT DISTURBED IN RUHR VALLEY
Several Novelties Produced—Professional Wrestlers for Opera