MUSICAL COURIER
38
March 15, 1923
scribed by the Star as “a pleasing soprano of excellent quality, with tones clear, firm and resonant.” In touching upon her interpretative powers, the same paper continued: “Her songs are given in a finished manner and with an artistic effect.” “Charm of personality and admirable vocal gifts were revealed by May Peterson in her recital last night,” was the comment of the Times. “The singer’s graciousness and generosity added to the appeal of her singing, and the audience was warmly responsive. The soprano’s triumph was evidenced further in the numerous encores demanded.”
Next May Peterson “won her audience to a storm of delight,” according to the Oregonian, when she sang in Portland. The Telegram laid stress upon the unusualness of her program, saying it was “far from the well worn paths that have been trod over and oft by other soloists.”. As a result of the favor she created in Bellingham, Wash., the singer was obliged to give extra songs after each of her four groups with five encores at the conclusion of the program.
In Sacramento, Cal., the Union spoke of her return with “just the same splendid soprano voice and the same magnetic personality that endeared her before.” The observation of the critic of the Tacoma, Wash., Tribune was that “she sang and sang—her program of seventeen numbers having been augumented to twenty-five encores.”
And after her concert in Willows, Cal., on February 8, the critic of the Daily Journal wound up his enthusiastic review as follows: “May Miss Peterson come to us again! She won the admiration of the audience in responding to three cheers.” The same critic said that, “if ever an artist came up to the expectation of advance reports regarding her ability and gift as one of the world’s most distinguished sopranos, it was the charming and pleasing personality on the concert stage here last night.”
February 12, found her in Eureka, Cal., where she gave a most interesting recital. “Capturing her audience’s heart and soul from the first number, May Peterson held undisputed sway over her charmed hearers until the last clear notes of the closing selection had died away and music lovers expressed their appreciation in applause,” was the manner in which the Humboldt Times commented in part upon her great success.	S. K.
“A Great Career” Predicted for Sylvia Lent
Sylvia Lent, violinist, who returned a short time ago from a successful concert tour in Europe, received highly complimentary press notices wherever she appeared, and in these reports the critics invariably predicted a bright future for her. Appended are representative excerpts from the criticisms she received in Germany:
The violinist, Sylvia Lent, has a splendid talent. It was a special pleasure to hear the response of her beautiful instrument to her fluent Angers and vigorous bowing. The young artist has the right to look forward to a great career.—Der Reichsbote, October 7, 1922.
At her debut recital in Bechstein Hall, the young violinist showed that she possesses an extraordinary talent. She gave her program, which demanded virtuosity mainly, in the true virtuoso style. One who has achieved so much and who knows how to produce a tone so essentially sound and pure may expect everything to come her way.— Kreuz Zeitung, September 25, 1922.
Let no one say that blpnds have a cold nature. For Sylvia Lent, a slender, blond haired violinist, drew the tone from her beautiful violin with such intensity of feeling and temperament that the warmth of her personality could not be doubted. I heard only the last part of her program but that was sufficient for me ot recognize the very fine technic and the vital musical ability of the young girl,—Germania, October 3, 1922.
Sylvia Lent played with the sovereign perfection of the seasoned virtuoso.—Die Welt.
American Academy’s Novel Performances
Nym Crynkle’s daughter said “Just Fine” of the performance by senior students of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (Franklin H. Sargent, president), at the Lyceum Theater, February 27, and this expression by the descendant of the famous dramatic critic of the New York Tribune who preceded William Winter (this is ages ago) hits the nail on the head. Two lovely sisters in Sugar House were Olga Brent and Mona Brent, Monroe R. Owsley and Barbara Wilson also playing their parts well. Edward F. Snow, Barnard Casady and Roy Carpenter completed the cast of this play, named after the place of action, a maple sugar house in a New England wood. In Be Calm Camilla, June Cochrane and Enos Jones had leading and excellently played parts. Mr. Snow and Charles Callahan interested the audience, and Elizabeth Pearre was efficient. Others in the cast were Dolores Graves, Ellsworth Jones, Bryan Lycan and Charles Wagenheim. Both plays were excellently done—“as finished as a professional performance,” said one who knows.
Institute of Musical Art Anniversary
Plans were laid at a recent meeting of the trustees of the Institute of Musical Art, of which Frank Damrosch is director, for the commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the Institute. Graduates who are now established artists and teachers will be included in a fitting musical festival. The showing by the director that the present building is not adequate to the student numbers now enrolled, precipitated the question of additional accommodation. The plans for extension of its facilities will be announced shortly.
Cellist Dubinsky Featured in Rochester Dailies
The Columbian of Rochester, N. Y., reproduces a front page picture of Vladimir Dubinsky, cellist, who is to be soloist at the Choral Society concert, Convention Hall, March 16; a special illustrated circular with his picture is also printed, and the Democrat and Chronicle have used his picture, alluding to his appearances with prominent organizations. Altogether much is being made of this cellist, and the chorus of which F. Eugene Bonn is conductor.
Regneas Artists in Dickinson Lecture Recital
At the lecture recital, Union Theological Seminary, February 6, all the solo singers forming a vocal quartet were from the Joseph Regneas studios, and all have appeared at the Regneas studio musicales. It was a genuine Regneas exposition, not only in the solo singers, but there were also six or eight more in the choral body. When leading New York instrumentalists want vocal assistance of reliability and personality, they always find such in the Regneas enrollment.
ITALY AWAIT DISCOVERY
means material for ten large volumes was found, including unknown works of William Byrd. Mr. Montani expresses the hope that America can do similar service for early Italian music, the religious music of which period sets a standard for absolute purity of style not attained since.
In curious contrast to these untouched storehouses of treasure, the Vatican Library has had model cataloguing since the sixteenth century. There has recently been issued a Catalogue of all the catalogues of manuscripts since that time.	.
The size of the manuscript library may be estimated by the fact that there are 170 volumes of catalogues necessary to include all.
The Duncan theory is therefore based on the realization of plastic values. The beauty of music is reflected in the natural plasticity of Anna and Lisa and Margo; in the grace and charm of such movement as ought to be the inheritance of every human body. Hence, the elimination of all costume except the flowing draperies of the ancient world. Their dancing has been aptly described as a “Greek frieze in movement;” of such charm is their action against the neutral tones of the stage curtain.
With the development. of the Duncan art music took its appointed place in the world of dance. Prior to the reformation Isadora Duncan effected, music was the slave of the dance. Its rhythm, form, often its thematic material, were governed by the exigencies of artificial dance figures; and therefore, quite inevitably, all dancing was done to the accompaniment of inconsequential music. In the restoration, however, of music to its proper relationship to dancing—making it the source of inspiration instead of the enslaved handmaiden—the dancer becomes an interpreter, and music is allowed to run an unrestricted and unhampered way.
Thus with no requirement placed on the music except that it be beautiful, the classics form the basis of the programs of the Duncan Dancers, and Schubert, Gluck, Mozart, Chopin and Brahms provide the majority of their numbers. When Anna, Lisa and Margo dance, they perform only a reverent and joyful service of interpretation. The music is played by a pianist, who strives only to reveal the beauty and freshness of the work per se, while the dancers trace their movements and weave the patterns of their dance in accordance with the music and its message. No attempt is ever made to tell a story, to delineate tangible and common emotions. Only the essence of emotion, the impersonal abstraction thereof, what Plato described as the idea lying back of and above reality, may be shadowed forth in such interpretation. In other words the three dancers succeed in raising dancing to a pure art form, in making it a thing of beauty in and for itself, retaining at the same time the original glory of the musk.
Advance bookings of this exceptional attraction have already been made for a four weeks’ tour in Colorado and on the Pacific Coast under the direction of Robert Slack, L. E. Behymer, Selby Oppenheimer and Steers & Coman.
May Peterson Acclaimed on Coast Tour
May Peterson will soon return from her most successful tour to the Pacific Coast where, as usual, her success has Been very brilliant. In every city the charming singer has been warmly welcomed by large audiences, many of whom
F.hin Photo, New York.
MAY PETERSON
were old friends from former visits. Then, on the other hand, where she has sung ip a new city, hpr beautiful singing and charm of manner have won over her audience almost from the start. Such is the power of May Peterson!
When Miss Peterson appeared in Seattle, Wash., on February 5, in a recital, the Post-Intelligencer spoke of her as being “not only a skilled vocalist, but also one who knows how to popularize her style. Consequently her concert developed into a facile triumph.” Her voice was de-
M US I GAL TREASURES IN
Discoveries as exciting for the musical world as those in the tomb of Tutankhamen would reward musical archeologists who make a research of old Italian_ libraries, states Nicola A. Montani, conductor of the Palestrina Choir, Philadelphia, in a recent article in the Philadelphia Public Ledger. There are many princely houses, cathedrals and churches, such as St. John Lateran, which have vast stores of uncatalogued manuscripts dating back to the fifteenth century, among which rare treasures are likely to be found. A responsory by Palestrina was recently unearthed by Casimiri, and Leopold Stokowski has just found a manuscript by Vivaldi. Andrew Carnegie provided a fund for the investigation of old English music and through this
Return of the Duncan Dancers
Anna, Lisa and Margo Duncan, aptly termed the world’s most beautiful dancing trio, will return to America next season for a transcontinental tour, under the direction of the Metropolitan Musical Bureau. The Duncan Dancers, as they are called, are now in Paris, where they have been presenting their programs with great success. _ They will spend the summer in Europe, appearing in Belgium, France, Germany and other countries where they now have a wide following. The widespread interest in America in the school of dancing of which these young women are foremost exponents—for there is hardly a girls’ school or college in the United States which does not conduct classes in natural dancing—and the fact that the Duncan Dancers have not been seen here for several years indicate that their forthcoming visits will be welcomed and widely patronized.
Anna, Lisa and Margo Duncan were, but are no longer, pupils of Isadora Duncan. Since their extreme youth, the three devoted their lives to study under the greatest of all modern dancers. During that time they gave all their effort for the thorough mastering of the difficult and involved technic which forms the basis of the Duncan art. At Isadora’s urging they became her adopted daughters, and thus her surname is theirs legally, as well as serving to identify their art, which with no other name might be identified.
For the past three years, however, the three have been standing alone, have been developing their own art as a thing in itself. As true disciples of their teacher, they have fused the principles of her teaching with their own individual conceptions, and are now proceeding as a unit to the development of an artistic force which is recognized as the farthest advance of the Duncan art. In this work the three girls have been immeasurably aided by the happy coincidence of their contrasted natures. Anna may be termed the cerebral, Lisa the emotional and Margo the spiritual, the three thus forming an ideal combination. In returning to America, they will present an ensemble which is the result of three years’ continuous co-operative effort—an ensemble which has reached a state bordering perfection.
The essence of the Duncan art is naturalism. When Isadora Duncan twenty-five years ago set forth from California on wanderings which carried her. through the civilized world, with such attended acclaim arid fame as is today an old story, her fecund and potent idea was to emancipate the art of the dance and restore that art to the high estate it held under the ancient Greek civilization. That idea was in fact born of an earnest study of. Greek ceramics, the figures which wind around the loveliness of Greek vases.
COA CH—A CCOMPANIST
Associated with Chamlee, Gentle, Eva Gauthier, Marie Tiffany and other noted artists
Studio: 201 West 85th Street. New York	Phone: Schuyler 2982
GIULIO CRIMI
Tenor, Chicago Opera Company
“It is no grateful task to take the place of the greatest tenor, but Signor Crimi gave a performance of Canio that earned him six curtain calls after the ‘Vesti la Giubba’."—Neu> York American.
Available before and after the Opera Season 1923-1924
Management ; R. E. Johnston 1451 Broadway -	New York City
(Knabe Piano)
Lyric-Coloratura Soprano
Concerts, Festivals( Oratorio
Metropolitan Opera Hoase Studios New York City
RANKIN
ADELE
Indian Soprano
CONCERT — RECITAL
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PRINCESS ATALIE
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