21
MUSICAL COURIER
March 22, 1923
SAN CARLO OPERA SUCCESS
The San Carlo Grand Opera Company is scoring a striking success in the Pacific Coast cities. Los Angeles, in a two weeks’ engagement, gave the organization $60,000, and not in that city’s musical history have such throngs assembled to hear popular priced grand opera. Charles R. Baker, associate manager, is wearing a new $10 hat won from his friend Behymer as the result of a wager on the volume of business the company would do at the Philharmonic Auditorium. A strange freak of the fortnight there was that the second week ran $10,000 ahead of the first. San Francisco had a three weeks’ San Carlo run, the opening performance, February 26, with Butterfly and Miura, being entirely sold out and hundreds were refused admission. Business for the San Carlo Company in the extreme Northwest, too, looks highly promising. Tamaki Miura is attracting sold out houses, while Anna Fitziu, both as Tosea and Mimi, has achieved some brilliant triumphs. Alice Gentle’s Carmen, in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, was acclaimed, and her Santuzza also. The San Carlo Opera is the best balanced and numerically greatest Mr. Gallo ever has sent to the Coast. After visiting Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Spokane and Denver, the company will cross the country to New Orleans, sailing from the Crescent City for Havana April 14, for its season in the Cuban capital.
LADIES AT THE OPERA
Of the ladies that sparkle at a musical performance, a very small number has any quick sensibility of harmonious sounds. But every one that goes has her pleasure. She has the pleasure of wearing fine clothes, and of showing them, of outshining those whom she suspects to envy her. She has the pleasure of appearing among other ladies in a place whither the race of meaner mortals seldom intrudes, and of reflecting that, in the conversations of the next morning, her name will be mentioned among those that sat in the first row. She has the pleasure ofi returning courtesies, or refusing to return them, of receiving compliments with civility, or rejecting them with disdain. She has the pleasure of meeting some of her acquaintance, of guessing why the rest are absent, and of telling them that she saw the opera, on pretense of inquiring why they would miss it. She has the pleasure of being supposed to be pleased with a refined amusement, and of hoping to be numbered among the votresses of harmony. She has the pleasure of escaping for two hours the superiority of a sister, or the control of a husband; and from all these pleasures she concludes that heavenly music is the balm of life.
[This is as true—is it not, fair readers?—as when it was written by the late Dr. Samuel Johnson, in the year of our Lord 1758.—The Editor.]
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ANOTHER ORCHESTRA
“It is pointed out,” says the statement announcing the organization of the new American National Orchestra, “that the national orchestras of other countries provide a means of expression for the native artists of those countries. Such a means it is proposed to provide for native American musicians in the American National Orchestra.” What countries, by the way, have national orchestras? England? No. France? No. Germany? The orchestra that plays at the National Opera in Berlin also occasionally gives concerts, but it is not primarily a concert orchestra, nor is it the first orchestra of Berlin. The same is true in Vienna. The members of the orchestra of the National Opera form the personnel of the famous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, but the latter is a private organization. Italy’s one symphony orchestra is neither national nor royal. Holland has no national orchestra, nor Belgium, nor Switzerland, nor Spain, nor, so faj as memory serves, any of the Scandinavian countries. So where are those national orchestras?
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A FALSE RUMOR
The emphatic denial by Manager Brennan of the Boston Symphony Orchestra of the truth of the rumor, published in a New York daily, that the Hub organization would not give its regular New York series next season, is good news. It would be an uneconomic move to abandon the series, for though they will not draw as heavily as they deserve until the orchestra is again outfitted with a conductor of the first rank, patronage will return when this is the case, and it will be much easier to build up on the present foundation of a fair subscription list than to be obliged to start all over again.
to fame; now he has followed it with the stage version of Rita Coventry, which, if not quite so amusing as the former play, at least has the virtue of more accurately representing the modern prima donna. -----------------------S>---
QUICK CHANGE OF STYLE
No doubt the music of 1380 would sound as Strange to us as the English of the old poet Chaucer. Both the tonal art and the English language have made enormous progress during the past five and a half centuries. In the language the progress has been more regular and gradual. New words and expressions have crept in one by one, and every now and then a word gets dropped and becomes old-fashioned or obsolete.
The changes in musical style have usually been more violent. New styles are sooner established and old styles are more readily dispensed with. Music that is fifty years old is much older in style than the English of fifty years ago. The poetry which Keats wrote in 1820 is extraordinarily modern beside the music of Clementi, Hummel, Beethoven of the same date. And who would believe that the masses and madrigals of Palestrina are of exactly ,the same age as the following sentence from Edmund Spenser:
It is then a very unseasonable time to plead law, when swords are in the hands of the vulgar, or to think to retain them with fear of punishments when they look after liberty and shake off all government.
Spenser’s English, when he did not affect the old style of his poetry, is almost modern, except for a few changes in the spelling of certain words. But music has changed the tuning of its intervals to make a new scale, has utterly abandoned the old vocal counterpoint, has remade or invented every instrument now in use since the death of Palestrina.
These sudden and extreme changes have been, and probably always will be, the reason why new composers have such difficulty in gaining the ear of the public. New music is very often almost a new language. Hummel in 1820 and Stravinski in 1920 are as far apart as Chaucer in 1390 and Kipling in 1890. In fact, Kipling would probably be more tolerant of Chaucer than Stravinsky would be of Hummel.
It is possible that the reason why so many very advanced composers pass into obscurity so quickly is that they have given up too much of the musical language the public understands and have introduced too many new musical phases which the public will not accept. It is all very well to produce an occasional “jabberwocky,” but the composer of it must bear in mind that the public may take his production as a joke and refuse to accept his language seriously.
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THE CLAGQUE
Last Saturday evening was quite a field night at the dear old Met. It was Andrea Chenier and the dear old claques—two or three of them—were busy. There were groups of claquers scattered about, unusually broad and heavy handed. (By the way, we noticed the other evening the ex-head-claquer of the Chicago Opera before it became civic, who seems to have transferred his affections to the Met.) It was annoying, because there was frequent applause where there was no need for it, and where it interrupted the dramatic movement of the unusually dramatic opera. But that was not so annoying as to have some of the artists step out of the picture and bow in answer to these non-gratuituous outbursts, right in the middle of scenes. That sort of things smacks very much of Foggia or Brescia or Bari. One is astonished that Mr. Gatti tolerates it in New York. -----------------------®----
CHALIAPIN SUPREME
Seeing Chaliapin again in Boris Godounoff, after an interval of several months, the first impression of him was confirmed and even strengthened. It is without doubt the most emotionally moving characterization that has ever been seen on the operatic stage. Chaliapin, without a voice, would still be one of the greatest actors of the day. What would an operatic performance, given with a complete cast of male and female Chaliapins, be like ? Alas! That is one of those ideals that will never come within miles of achievement.
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CINCINNATI PROUD OF MRS. DARBY
The appointment of Mrs. J. W. Darby, of Cincinnati, as the new manager of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, is a thoroughly deserved promotion. Mrs. Darby has been connected with the organization for many years and has done fine work in aiding its advancement and development. Her present appointment is not only a fitting reward, but also a distinct tribute to the efficiency of women in musical managerial matters.
MAYOR HYLAN CONCURS
The following letter explains itself :
CITY OF NEW YORK OFFICE OF THE MAYOR
March 9, 1923.
Philip Berolzheimer, Esq., Chamberlain.
Dear Chamberlain Berolzheimer :	I have read with much
interest the report transmitted to me by you as chairman of the committee to investigate the subject of licensing music teachers.
The report indicates how thoroughly* and fairly your committee went into the subject and I am quite prepared to accept its suggestion that the regulation of music teachers might best be promoted through a movement initiated within the profession.
There can be little doubt that a movement sponsored by the musical profession would help to wipe out charlatans, the incompetents who will take the last penny of aspiring musical artists and the unmitigated frauds whose alleged European conservatory qualifications have often been proved to be as unsubstantial as the stuff of which dreams are made.
In dissolving your committee as requested in your report, may I extend to you my personal thanks for your own zealous efforts as well as those of the other members, and at the same time assure you of my hearty appreciation of the patience, tact and good judgment which were exercised by the committee throughout its investigation.
Very truly yours,
(Signed) John F. Hylan, Mayor.
It is now evidently up to the music teachers. Either they must regulate themselves, or they will be regulated. That is what the letter obviously means, and it was a foregone conclusion that this would be the result of the entire investigation. All this was pointed out by the Musical Courier in the first place.
But will the music teachers do anything? It appears that they are organizing into groups. How effectual these groups will be in regulating the profession so as to satisfy the authorities remains to be seen. Would it not be far better to organize a single society to include all music teachers ? It is natural to have the feeling that in a problem of this particular nature numbers will count more than individual merit. If only those at the top of each professional group organize, the associations will no doubt be more agreeable and more useful in a direct way to the members, but will they cover the ground?
There are a great many teachers in New York who have a perfect right to teach but do not stand high in the profession, and it seems doubtful that they will be included in any one of the associations now forming. They are not felt to be of the same class. They are not, yet they must be considered in this problem. Unless the association is pretty universal there will always be so many on the outside that no real stop will be put to charlatanism.
In other words, to be effective the association, or associations, must include all reputable teachers on the inside, leaving only the charlatans on the outside. That, at least, would be our understanding of thé matter. Who is to decide which teachers are reputable and which are not is another matter, and one which we most certainly will not undertake to decide. We believe, ■however, that an association would soon get to know the fakers by coming in contact with them, being thrown into association with them, observing them. A charlatan could not long live among real teachers without being found out.
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A CHOPIN PRELUDE
The newly discovered prelude by Chopin, recently-played in Paris by the Swiss pianist-composer, Emil Blanchet, was mentioned in a recent number of the Musical Courier. We are indebted to Alfred C. Boswell, the Pittsburgh pianist, for a more detailed history of it. This is Mr. Boswell’s letter :
More in re the Chopin Prelude discovered in 19.18 in Geneva. A small notice appeared in your last issue, February 22, which mentioned a recent performance there by my friend, Emil Blanchet, in Paris. I have before me the original edition thereof from which I quote the footnote as follows : Joué pour le 1ère fois par E. R. Blanchet, Lausanne, Avril, 1919, cette composition fut cédée par le dédicataire (Pierre Wolf) a son élève, Mlle. Forget j retrouvée dans des papiers de famille, elle fut communiquée par M. Pierre Forget aux “Pages d’Art,” que la reproduisirent dans le No. d’Aout 1918.
The writer was studying with M. Blanchet in 1918 and 1919 and my attention "was called to this interesting fragment by him. I believe also that I was the first pianist to play it in New York at the Town Hall, April 18, 1921. While in Lausanne I was assured by musicians who had seen the manuscript that it is undoubtedly authentic. Certainly the music itself gives that impression. For meloman-iacs who are interested I might add that the Prelude is published by Edition Henn, Place Neuve, Geneva.
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BROCK PEMBERTON TRIES IT AGAIN
Brock Pemberton evidently carried a strong love for opera into the profession of theatrical producer—-perhaps as a result of having so often been one of the stars of the Ten Nights Club show. Two seasons ago it was Enter Madam, in which the heroine was an operatic prima donna, that started him on the road