33
MUSICAL COURIER
Photo by Lane Bros.	SASCHA JACOBSEN
playing for inmates of the Scottish Rite Home for Crippled Children, Atlanta, Ga.
Sascha Jacobsen Plays for Crippled Children
Sascha Jacobsen gave a recital at the Howard Theater, Atlanta, Ga., on April 10. Arriving the day before his engagement he was asked if he would be willing to visit the Scottish Rite Home for Crippled Children and play for the inmates who would not be able to attend his concert. He gladly accepted the invitation, as he has done on other similar occasions.
When Mr. Jacobsen and the local manager, H. P. Kingsmore, arrived at the Home they were greeted at the steps by all of the inmates who were able to hobble out. So eagerly did the children crowd around him that the violinist began his impromptu program there and then, playing Dvorak’s Humoresque and the Rimsky-Korsakoff Song of India. Several, encores were given and then word was brought to the artist that another audience awaited him indoors, in the wards where the little patients were confined to their beds. There the numbers had to be repeated and afterward Mr. Jacobsen passed from cot to cot to say a further word of cheer.׳
Perrier, soprano, sang two numbers and a duet with Wallace Cox, baritone. There were also violin numbers played by Herman Piston. The others taking part in this delightfully varied program were Eleanor Davis and Stanley Price Boone. Caroline Thomas, violinist, who was soloist with Sousa’s Band this past season, was also prevailed upon to play and Geoffrey O’Hara, the composer, was there and sang some of his own songs.
A lajge number of distinguished persons were invited. Among^ those present were Cecil Arden; Mr. and Mrs. H. G. Curran (Pearl Curran, the composer) ; Mr. and Mrs. Percy Hemus; Mme. Harrison-Irvine; Mme. Caroline Lowe; Mr. and Mrs. Geoffrey O’Hara; Adele Rankin; John Prindle Scott; Claude Warford ; Katharine Spaeth ; Mr. and Mrs. Neil Fravel; Florence Otis; Susan Boice; Ida Geer Weller; Harold Land; Jessie Fenner Hill; Mrs. John Tilliy Davis; Eleanor Davis; Ellis Doyle, and others.
Pelham Enjoys the Sittig Trio
The Sittig Trio recently gave an enjoyable concert in Pelham, N. Y., when a good sized audience heard the following program:
Trio in D minor (Mendelssohn), Sittig Trio; violin solo, Canto Amoroso (Sammartini), Margaret Sittig; ־ cello solo-sonata in D minor (Corelli), Edgar Sittig; violin solo, E minor concerto (Nardini), played with real intelligence and charm, and a group of three selections—Valse Triste (Sibelius), minuet (Paradis), and Country Dance (Beethoven)—by the Sittig Trio, delightfully played.
The assisting soloists were Paolo Ananian, of the Metropolitan Opera, who sang with fine spirit and feeling. The Kazan la Citta Bella from Moussorgsky’s Boris Godunoff, Serenata from Berlioz’ Mephistopheles and Quand la Flamme by Bizet, and Laura Robertson, also of the Metropolitan, who fascinated with her interpretation of The Barcarolle and Santuzza’s aria from Cavalleria Rusticana.
Fred Sittig was at the piano for the Trip and George Shackley for Miss Robertson and Mr. Ananian.
The musicale was arranged by Mrs. William T. Grant, Mrs. Morgan Mann and Mrs. Arthur V. Billey, and was held at the Woman’s Club, Pelham Manor.
EDWARD JOHNSON
TENOR
Metropolitan Opera Co.
IS SINGING
“THE LITTLE FISHERMAN״
By EASTWOOD LANE
At All His Concerts HINDS, HAYDEN & ELDREDGE, Inc., Publishers
11-15 Union Square, West	New York City
the Commodore Hotel at the White Breakfast of the Mun-dell Choral Society on April 28, and will play in Greens-burg on May 10, and in Morristown on May 11. This will be Mr. Nyiregyhazi’s first trip to Europe since arriving in this country three years ago. He will visit Germany, Hungary, Norway, France and Italy. Negotiations are pending for several concerts throughout Italy during the month of August. The young pianist will sail for this country the early part of September, making his first appearance, after he returns, at the Maine Festival the beginning of October.
Seymour School Summer Session, July 9 to August 18
The spirit and purpose of the Seymour School of Musical Re-Education cannot be better set forth than in the following introduction to the prospectus of the summer session beginning July 9:
To enter into the fullness of life, to obtain more joy and freedom and peace of mind, is the ever-present wish buried deep in the heart of every human being. Dormant or active, weak or powerful, there exists in each one of us a supply of that vital force which animates the inner life and imperiously demands release. To guide skillfully and constructively the great natural channel of expression afforded by music, unlocking the door of realization and to _ well-rounded development of character, is the ultimate aim of the Seymour School.
The creative process in music, as in life, is from, within outward. In order to enter into the spirit of music one must inwardly hear and after realize what has been heard. This means, in the majority of cases, an entire re-education. It means reversing the process of music education from one commencing with mechanical drill to one in which an inner awakening is the first and most important process—the process of nature by which all true growth is accomplished.
Musical re-education, therefore, as conceived by the founder of the Seymour School, turns its back squarely on the formal, mechanical principles which have guided so much music teaching in the past, compelling children at the very beginning to investigate music by means of the intellect. This practice tends to destroy the very spirit of that which it aims to awaken and cultivate. The Seymour plan brings the pupil at once into the realm of musical experience and response, preferring to leave the mastery of technical details and the study of form and structure to follow naturally and easily after the love for music has become thoroughly established.
The same principle applies with equal force to grown-ups, who have tried to study music at some period of their lives but have given it up through lack of interest or through boredom at the long hours of mechanical drudgery required with no corresponding progress to justify it. Adults are in music, as in many other walks of life, but grown up children, and the same plan of attacking this problem brings with both the same degree of enthusiasm and success.
The faculty, headed by Harriet A. Seymour and Marshall Bartholomew, will conduct a summer course as follows: A—Musical re-education. Mrs. Seymour. Normal course for teachers and students will meet for one hour every day in the week throughout the summer session, except Saturdays and Sundays; thirty hours in all. B—Rhythm, song leading, conducting, voice education. Mr. Bartholomew. One hour every day, except Saturdays and Sundays; thirty hours. C—Playing classes. Mrs. Seymour. One hour every week throughout the summer session; six hours. D— Demonstration classes of children. Miss Marjorie Dice. Twice a week; twelve hours. E—Informal recitals. Mrs. Seymour, Sir Paul Dukes, Mr. Alfred J. Swan and Mr. Bartholomew.
Robert H. Terry Entertains
Robert Huntington Terry, perhaps one of our best known composers, has a studio at the Metropolitan Opera House Building and a charming home at Lowerre Summit, Yonkers. Many times during the winter seasons one or the other of his attractive studios is the background for a large_ gathering of notables, particularly the literati and musicians.
The most recent reception tendered by Mr. and Mrs. Terry took place on April 3. There was a musical program. Most of the selections were compositions by Mr. Terry, including his very well known ballad, The Answer. This song has enjoyed unusually fine success. Among the principal artists who are programming it this season is Mme. Jeritza.
At this informal affair, it was Eleanor Owens who sang the number. Minnie Carey Stine sang the ballad, Love Is Old, which Mr. Terry has dedicated to her. Paule Le
May 3, 1923
which, as Mr. Saenger says, shows that real art will overcome any prejudice.
Vaudeville and Comic Opera.
Now finally the writer asked Mr. Saenger what he thought of the wisdom of his graduate pupils accepting anything that offered in the way of a start in a public career, particularly vaudeville. Mr. Saenger said that such work, if seriously taken up, could do-the real artist no harm. Better, however, vaudeville than comic opera, because in vaudeville the singer could maintain a high standard of art, while in comic opera many things were demanded that might tend gradually to lower the ideals or to encourage the forming of bad habits and mannerisms that it might be difficult to get rid of.
Especially, he said, it was dangerous to become wedded to the interpretation of some particular type of role, a success in this restricted sense being likely to invite repetitions from which •it might be difficult to escape. He cited the case of an actress who made such a hit with a lisping part that she had other lisping parts thrust upon her until finally she had to take the matter in her own hands and refuse any other similar role.
Another artist, one of Mr. Saenger’s own pupils, came to him to ask if she should accept an offer for a role in musical comedy. He advised against it, and got her a small place in the Metropolitan from which she has since risen to eminence. It was a very small place at the beginning, said Mr. Saenger, but at least it was at the foot of the right ladder, not the wrong one.
Mr. Saenger himself believes in giving his graduate pupils every opportunity to launch themselves in the professional career, and provides such opportunities himself, through his many prominent friends. He also provides preliminary public appearances so that these young artists may get accustomed to the ordeal of facing the public. In this line are the demonstrations at the Wurlitzer Auditorium of Mr. Saenger’s course of instruction by the use of Victor records. At these demonstrations his pupils sing songs and arias as well as . illustrating the Victor records of the teaching course.
Finally Mr. Saenger, in closing our conversation, said that he had a firm belief in the American singer. He had always championed the cause of the American singer, and he wished to assure his pupils and readers of the Musical Courier of his continued support of the cause.^ He also wants it known that he is interesting himself in national opera, and he says that before long he will perhaps have something definite to announce.
The writer would like to add on his own account that if a man of the calibre and enthusiasm of Oscar Saenger puts his shoulder to the wheel of our national opera problem the question will come nearer to solution than it ever has in the past. Mr. Saenger not only knows the problem in its entirety, but he knows the American singer through long experience, their hopes and ideals, and their ability. He is in close touch with every phase of the problem, and whatever he does will be of a strictly practical nature. This attitude alone is sufficient to assure the same success in promoting national opera as it has assured Mr. Saenger’s amazing personal success as an artist teacher of the art of song.	F. P.
Loyalty of Florio’s Pupils
M. E. Florio, the well known teacher of singing, who just returned to New York after an absence of several seasons in the middle west, found a number of his former pupils awaiting him. Among them Vincent Sullivan, tenor,
• 1
M. E. FLORIO,
vocal maestro.
who appeared in leading roles in comic opera in New York and throughout the country; Ella Markell, contralto, whose school of music in Asbury Park is well known, and others. Rachel Allabach, coloratura soprano, a pupil of Mr. Florio’s in the west, followed him to New York to continue study under his guidance.	.
Mr. Florio will conduct a master course in the higher branches of vocal art during the entire summer at his New York studio, 170 West Seventy-second street.
Nyiregyhazi to Be Heard in Italy
Before sailing on May IS to join his family in Berlin, Erwin Nyiregyhazi was heard in Suffern on April 27, at