NEW YORK, THURSDAY, April 26, 1923
jV\V5ICAL@/RIER
VOL. LXXXVI—No. 17 Whole No. 2246
and advance art. It is because Jonas Chickering gave to the people new resources with which to express their love of the beautiful that his Centennial is most properly observed. He became a national figure because he filled a national need. He ministered to a national desire. He gave the people additional power to rise above the contemplation of material things to the contemplation of spiritual things. He brought increased strength for the expression of the aspirations of the soul. Such achievements entitled him to rank high as a national benefactor.” Following this thought, Mr. Coolidge said that music was not meant for the learned few but for the many, that it was the masses who were moved by the hearing of good music to a feeling of spontaneity and elation, rather than for the musically educated few who sought to keep good music as a special privilege for themselves, and it is׳ to the piano that the greater share of the glory must go. Vice-President Coolidge said that it is this instrument, representing especially music in the home, which, in its development from the old fashioned square form to the modern miracle reproducing actual performances, placed all the materials and even masters of music within the reach of the average listener. In this great service Chickering stands out pre-eminent. He gave to the people.
The great contribution of the piano has been to open a storehouse of composition and enable good music to be familiar and popular. It has been the chief resort of the musically talented and musically inclined, whether interpreters or merely absorbers. The children of our American families have mostly been brought up within reach of the keyboard. We cannot imagine a model New England home without the family Bible on the table and the family piano in the corner. The young of many generations made their first acquaintance with the infinite mysteries of art through accidental pilgrimages over the black and white ivories. They discovered their musical ear by picking out tunes with one finger. They learned their notes by extracting them — painstakingly —• from the same source, and if their talent justified real study, they developed a complete technical facility through the piano alone. Where musical gifts took the direction of the voice, or some stringed or wind instrument, the piano acted as an almost necessary accompanist. Professional concert performers either used the piano entirely for their interpretations, or sought its co-operation in similar fashion. In the church, the school, the theater, and the club house, the piano has become practically a necessary institution. It sums up the abstract idea of music as no other single instrument has been able to do. Therefore,
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MEMORY OF JONAS CHICKERING HONORED
AT CENTENARY CELEBRATION IN BOSTON
Vice-President Coolidge Pays Tribute—Harding Sends Greetings—Five Pianists Play at Centennial Concert—Distinguished Guests at Dinner Included,- Beside Vice-President, Mayor Curley of Boston, and Foremost Representatives of Music World and Piano Industry of New York and Boston—Bronze Memorial Tablet Unveiled at Factory—Greeting to Workmen from Chickering Granddaughter
have a right to feel proud when such a tribute was paid to the pioneer piano manufacturer, Jonas Chickering, by the Vice-President of this great United States. It was not of the piano manufacturer, however, that Calvin Coolidge spoke, it was of the man so greatly responsible for the advancement of American music and of music itself, and of the vital importance of music to the masses. In speak-
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McCormack’s Berlin Success
Berlin, April 24, By Cable.—John McCormack, as soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Bruno Walter conducting, at the Philharmonie, on Sunday and Monday, April 22 and 23, sang a Mozart aria and an aria from Beethoven’s Mount of Olives. His success at both concerts can only be described as sensational. There were eight recalls. The Berlin critics unanimously praise his technic, style, expression and his remarkable enunciation, both in Italian and German.	(Signed) C. S.
Steinways Sell Old Home
It was announced last week that Steinway & Sons have signed contracts for the sale of Steinway Hall on Fourteenth street, to Jerome C. and Mortimer G. Mayer. This means that the famous old piano house will leave its equally famous home and move, not later than October 1, 1924, to the new building which is to be erected at 109-113 West Fifty-seventh street, extending through the block to Fifty-eighth street.
The Steinway House has been at the Fourteenth street address since 1863 and in Steinway Hall scores of artists who have since become world-famous made their American debuts. It was for years the principal New York concert hall, but has not been in active use for some time past, as the center of the city moved further up town. The Musical Courier, in its next issue, will publish an extensive historical sketch of happenings in the famous old hall.
(.Photo by Ira Hill.)	DICIE HOWELL
who, according to the press, is said to have earned the reputation of having the largest oratorio repertory of any soprano on the concert stage. This season, among other appearances, Miss Howell sang The Messiah in Philadelphia with the Oratorio Society under Henry Gordon Thunder, and was heard twice in Elijah, with the Minneapolis Symphony, April 16. She is hooked for the Petershurgh Spring Festival on May 24, and on the evening of April SO she will sing The Messiah in Montreal, following the all-Bach concert in the afternoon of that same day. Hew York City heard her this season in a long list of oratorios, among them ■	Verdi’s Requiem and Rossini’s Stahat Mater.
ing of the celebration he said: "This celebration is not held to commemorate the life of a statesman or a soldier, yet for 100 years his work has had its effect on the political and military life of the nation. It is held to commemorate
Boston, Mass., April 22, 1923.—“To Jonas Chickering— Grand, Square and Upright!” is reported to have been the toast proposed to the memory of Jonas Chickering twenty-five years ago, on the occasion of. the 75th anniversary of the making of the first American piano. That witty tribute to the character of the man who founded the House of Chickering has often been echoed here during the past week in connection with the Chickering Centennial Celebration, which was brought to a brilliant close with a centenary dinner at the Copley-Plaza last night. This dinner was an appropriate climax to the festivities in honor of the man whose significant contribution to the art of piano-making served inestimably to popularize the piano and music throughout the world. The gathering comprised about 400 people, including prominent citizens, celebrated musicians and critics, and music-lovers of Boston and other cities. At the head table with the toastmaster, Courtenay Guild, were Vice-President Coolidge,
Mayor Curley, of Boston, Richard W. Lawrence, president of the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce; C. Alfred Wagner, president of Chickering & Sons and general manager of the American Piano Company;
W. J. Henderson, music critic of the New York Herald; Richard Aldrich, music critic of the New York Times; Dr. Eugene Noble, of the Juilliard Foundation; Charles L. Guy, chief justice of the New York Supreme Court; Charles F. Weed, vice president of the First National Bank, of Boston, and representative of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce ; Dr. Morton Prince, the eminent psycho-analyst, and G. G. Foster, president of the American Piano Company. Seated at the other tables, in addition to social, civic and musical leaders of this city, were most of the New York concert managers; critics of Boston and New York, and many musical artists including Margaret Matzen-auer, Germaine Schnitzer, Ester Ferrabini,
Elly Ney, Erno Dohnanyi, Agide Jacchia,
Pierre Monteux, Guy Maier, Lee Pattison,
Felix Fox, Harrison Potter, Mischa Elman and many others.
Harding’s Message.
A telegram was read from President Harding in which he said that he “found much pleasure in adding my own to the long list of deserved tributes to the genius of Jonas Chickering and his great contribution to the cause of music in America.” Messages of regret were read from Otto H. Kahn,
David Belasco, Marcella Sembrich, Artur Bodanzky, Willem van Hoogstraten, Mana-Zucca and Mary Chickering Nichols, a granddaughter of Jonas Chickering. An informal musical program was provided by Messrs. Maier and Pattison, who played a number of pieces for two pianos; Erno Dohnanyi, who was heard in some original compositions, and by .Louis Besserer’s excellent orchestra, which played throughout the evening.
Address of the Vice-President.
As principal speaker, Vice-President Coolidge surprised those hearers who expected the customary platitudes of such occasions. Instead, he showed a thorough familiarity with his subject, enlarging upon it with the authority and profound musical knowledge that one would expect from a scholarly writer who had given many years to a study of musical history. Coming from a political leader in a country which is not generally credited with an interest in the arts, Mr.
Coolidge’s address was distinctly gratifying.
He dwelt on Jonas Chickering not so much as manufacturer or inventor as that of a public benefactor, a benefactor who bequeathed to the world a vast contribution that made for the welfare of mankind. Surely piano men
a piano
FOREIGN NEWS IN BRIEF
ence whatever she has already been slated for important roles.	C. S.
Respighi’s New Poem, Primavera
Rome, March 26.—Respighi’s new symphonic poem, Primavera, for orchestra, chorus and soloists, was a success of which Respighi may well be proud. The work altogether is too noisy, but amidst the clamor there are moments of extreme delicacy and charm. The finale is a powerful bit of sonority, magnificently rendered by orchestra and chorus under Molinari.	D. P.
the success of the performance is above all due to his efforts; together with the principal performers he was loudly acclaimed at the end.	A. N.
Young American Singer Engaged for Berlin Opera.
Berlin, April 3.—A young native American singer of Russian parentage, Ljuba Senderowna, pupil of Mme. Matja Niessen-Stone, has been permanently engaged by the Berlin Staatsoper, after a successful debut as Erda, With no previous operatic experi-
whole work follows slavishly in the steps of Bellini, Auber and Meyerbeer and is typical for the reigning power at the time of the Italian and French schools. The story is told in bad verses and worse rhymes, is modeled after Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, but it slides along on a mere theatrical niveau, entirely neglecting the high ethical motives of the Shakespearean play. It proves the young Wagner, nevertheless, in its technic, a born stage-talent. Robert Heger,_the conductor, took the most laborious pains to make the work palatable and
Wagner’s Liebesverbot Exhumed.
Munich, March 25.—Richard Wagner’s second opera, Das Liebesverbot (The Ban of Love), which he wrote when he was twenty-two, had its first performance last night at the Munich opera. The one and only performance this work had experienced before took place at Magdeburg in 1836, and since then it had disappeared. It should have remained so, for there is hardly a note of original invention in it. Trivialities are chasing each other, even the orchestration proves anything but good taste; the
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