10
May 10, 1923
singer, and this does not except even the most popularly known lyric tenor of the day.
“So consistently good was Mr. MacKenzie’s work from first to last that it is useless to try to single out any particular numbers for special mention. As novelty offerings two Hawaiian songs were interesting; especially beautiful was the second, Malanai anu Kamakani, the haunting beauty of which demanded its repetition.
“During the course of the recital, Mr. MacKenzie sang no less than six . encores, and after the last number the audience fairly demanded a second concert. The artist sang for another hour, giving songs from the Scotch and English, and an aria from La Tosca. Altogether, there were fourteen encores, the last seven or eight mostly request numbers. It is a very rare occurrence when a Macon audience goes wild over an artist as it did over MacKenzie last night. Mischa Levitzki is perhaps the only other artist who has aroused such enthusiasm.
“The sixth and last concert of the Wesleyan Master. Artist Series for this season will be given on May 1, when Florence Macbeth, coloratura soprano of the Chicago Opera, will appear in recital.”	S. V.
IDEALISM IN ART
(Continued, from page 6)
should portray the German invasion of Belgium and France honestly, with full colors so that one should be able to hear and realize the agony of millions of perishing bodies of tortured souls!
Present day composers! Give us singers, songs, so that we may help you to expose to mankind the wickedness of a few political rulers who have brought the world to the state in which it now is! But you are behind time. Wake up! Do your duty towards humanity and us, the re-creative artists! Do not waste your genius on what may be original, interesting, unusual, but empty and meaningless. The writers, sculptors, painters have dedicated a great deal of their creative work the last few years to those subjects, and if is only the composers who have ignored it. Probably I will be criticized for some of my last few lines. They will say it has nothing to do with my subject. They will be wrong. All the . arts are closely connected. They are all for one purpose, only they have different mediums to express themselves. Music and singers are part of each other, and our work and our development depend a great deal, if not all, on the composer. Therefore, writing on the fundamental1 principles and ideals in the art of singing, I must touch and pass my opinion on the work of the composers, and on their moral obligation towards us, singers, and if they, have the influence over us and we depend so much on their creative work, as we are their interpreters, it is our duty to try to influence the composers in our turn.
I do hope the time will soon arrive when the masses will awaken themselves to the realization of the great mission of art in life., and will cease to consider it as an amusement, hobby, recreation, snobbism; when governments will cease to be blind and will take art under their special care, will help to develop it as one of the great national treasures and assets, as the great factor for education of the mind, and will give broadcast this spiritual food of mankind to the masses. It is time they should understand that it is one of their principal factors (if they are honest) to further the evolution of civilization.
No adjustment of matter will do that, but only adjustment of soul, of mind, and that cannot be done without bringing to the future the realization of beauty and love, and that cannot be done without art. Therefore, art is a necessity in our lives, and it is up to us, artists and art lovers, to fight for its proper place in the world.
From all that, my reader will understand why I place such primary importance in the creation of a singer on his mind. Fifty years ago a great singer of that time was asked : what is necessary for a singer ? He answered: three things —first, a voice; second, again voice; and thirdly, voice again. Well, that might have been in the good old days of Bellini and Rossini, in the days of runs, trills, staccatos, and other vocal acrobatics, meaningless, sweetly sentimental, and, no doubt quite thrilling to our grandfathers and grandmothers. But those times are passing; they have not yet passed, _ and there is still a multitude that adore those acrobatics and long high notes. I, myself, admire immensely the vocal equipment and technic of all those tricks, but then I also admire a rrián who can balance two billiard balls at the end of a billiard cue on his nose. That is also an art, but while it appeals to my sense of balance, it does not satisfy my mind. This applies in the same way to what I call mind-less singing. It might satisfy my sense of hearing, with perhaps the additional satisfaction of my musical sense, but my mind receives nothing.
For me, the singer must have three things—first, mind; second, musical sense; and, thirdly, voice. All those three things balance and blend together in one perfect harmonious unity. Naturally, the more beautiful the voice is, the more wonderful will be the art of a singer who possesses the other two qualities, but the voice is not the essential. Some who had the most uninteresting voices were the most satisfying and interesting singers—remember only Dr. Wiillner. On the other hand, we have artists with most wonderful voices who bore us to tears. Fortunately, the times are progressing and we are progressing. The time for such singing is passing, and the number of music lovers demanding “mind singers is growing. Those intellectuals are the progressive elements in the musical world, and it is to them belongs the future in musical art.
Morgan Kingston Off for Europe
Morgan Kingston, tenor of the Metropolitan Opera Com-PilI,1L sailed Tuesday, April 24, on the Berengaria of the White Star Line. Mr. Kingston gives a recital in London u ,'^'t Hall on May 13, and then goes on a concert tour through Northern England, returning to America in seven weeks to open thè summer opera season at Ravinia Park;׳ After the close of the Ravinia season, Mr. Kingston goes to his farm in Canada, returning to New Yorkdn time^foi« the opening of the Metropolitan Opera House.
Mabel Beddoe to Sing at Bach Festival Ì
Mabel Beddoe will b% the contralto soloist at the forth!! qoming Bach Festival to be held at Bethlehem, Pa., Maj| -5 and 26. It was inadvertently announced previously* that Merle Alcock would be the contralto-soloisL.	:Tri. ■1
MUSICAL COURIER
tional. The president of Cuba and various diplomatic representatives, including American Ambassador Crowder, were present and the highest society of Havana crowded the theater. There were ovations after each aria and act. The company is generally declared to be the strongest ever heard here.”
Tandy MacKenzie Fills Re-engagement in
WHAT THE EFFA ELLIS PERFIELD TRINITY PRINCIPLE PEDAGOGY MEANS TO ME
By Mrs. J. R. Bragdon, of Pasadena, Cal.
Macon, Ga.
Macon, Ga., April 8, 1923.—Tandy MacKenzie created another very favorable impression here on April S, when he sang at Wesleyan College before a large and enthusiastic audience that applauded him warmly for his artistic delivery of a varied program. His success is doubly significant because this engagement was a re-engagement—one of many
tandy Mackenzie
he has had this season. An idea of the character of his success may be gauged by a glance at the appended from the Daily Telegraph:
“Tandy MacKenzie, at Wesleyan College last night, held several hundred musically cultivated people enthralled׳ for more than two hours, while he sang a wide range of program and encore material extending all the way from grand opera to light classics. MacKenzie left no doubt as to his ability to use his glorious voice just as he chooses to do, from the very first note he sang, but if there were those among the audience who failed to get the proper perspective of his work in the first two arias, the encore that followed, Roses of Picardy, dispelled any possible uncertainty as to the status of MacKenzie as an artist. The writer does not recall any present day singer who excels MacKenzie as a ballad
If we are to be—and to train others to be—all around musicians and not one sided or straight-line, narrow, stick-in-one-rut semi-musicians, we must be just that all around in our thinking, our teaching, our work.
The Circle, the oldest symbol of• perfection, eternity, completeness, with its blending without sign of seam or joint of not our dual but our triple natures, must be the symbol also of our musical education. Body, mind, spirit, must all three have their share in development. The most wonderful body can do nothing without mind and spirit. The most far seeing mind can express nothing without a well trained body at its command, and it, in its turn, needs that spark of the divine which we call spirit, to give it purpose and life.
If we can speak of any beginning to a circle, where shall we begin this trinity of teaching with the beginners in music ? Do we begin with the body training the fingers to make meaningless motions, developing muscle for the sake of muscle? Do we begin with the mind, storing it with facts, dry and uninteresting by themselves? Or is the first approach through the God-given in the heart, which is the reason for training the other members of our trinity, so that we shall have free, happy, and intelligent expression? It is true that the latter is our approach, but mind and'body must share our attention so quickly that our circle is a circle from the very first. If we cultivate our flower of appreciation without the stem and roots of mental and physical training, our blossom will have no healthy growth and its only chance will be to־ become of a parasite variety. How do we attain this ideal completeness? By appealing first to the Inner Feeling, be it great or nearly negligible, of our pupils; then to their reasoning, which must be based on what they already know—on previous knowledge, not on present imagination or else it will not be reasoning—and last by drills, which make what the feeling and reasoning have awakened practical for use. These drills constitute a smaller circle within the larger as they are inefficient unless they train ear, eye, and touch. Here again there must be no hint of joining in our circle. Eyes must convey sound to the ear, ears must be quick to carry a picture of what they hear to the brain, and our hands must serve and be the means of expression of both. Not until these three physical servants of. the spiritual serve each other and blend into each other, is the student on the road to becoming a musician in the real meaning of the word. In the larger circle the blending must be as complete. Who shall define the border line between the physical and mental, the spiritual, and, as we name them, the lower plane elements? Divided they can do nothing. In our teaching let us have as our highest aim, the perfect co-ordination and co-operation.
Ruffo’s Notable Havana Success
A cable to the Musical Courier from Havana, referring to the opening week of the San Carlo Opera Company there, says:	“Titta Ruffo’s success as Figaro, Tuesday evening,
April 24, and as !ago the following Thursday, was sensa-
GENTLE
From May IQ22 to May IQ23
ALICE
A very big story in a very little space
SCOTTI GRAND OPERA COMPANY—Tour, 8 weeks RAVINIA PARK OPERA—Summer, io weeks SF.GUROLA OPERA COMPANY—Mexico, 8 weeks SAN CARLO GRAND OPERA CO.—Guest artist, 8 weeks TWENTY-NINE RECITALS ELEVEN CHORAL CONCERTS THREE FESTIVALS
Season 1923-24 is now being booked
Direction of Catharine A. Bamman, 53 West 39 th Street, New York City