May 17, 1923
MUSICAL COURIER
36
FELIX HUGHES
be taught by a teacher who has the same sort of voice. Strange that such an idea should persist even among ignorant young people, but it does—there was a young man in here just the other day asking about teachers—but that’s another story. The idea has been amply disproved by all of the world’s greatest teachers. It is again disproved by Mr. Hughes, who, himself a baritone, has made at least one tenor, McQuhae, and at least two woman artists, Marjorie Moody and Marta Melis.
Miss Moody has had success as an oratorio singer and as soloist during several seasons with Sousa’s band. The press says; “Her range is wide and her extreme upper tones, pure in quality, are round and full.”—(Boston Herald). “The genuine surprise of the evening was the singing of Marjorie'Moody whose Ah, Fors e Lui surpassed by a league the performances of many a coloratura soprano heard in these regions except that of the incomparable Galli-Curci.”—(Herman Devries in the Chicago Evening American). Mr. Devries also says that Miss Moody’s “training seems to have been of the best.”
The Boston Post says: “Miss Moody has a voice she is to be proud of and her singing yesterday was faultless.” The Boston Herald: “Hear Ye Israel (Elijah) she. sang with lovely unforced tone, tasteful phrasing and a perfect legato.”
Marta Melis, another one of Mr. Hughes’ successful pupils, has been heard here, abroad and in South America. She possesses a splendid contralto which Mr. Hughes has brought out to its fullest, as the press notices attest. For a year Miss Melis was with the San Carlo Company. She has sung also at the Royal Opera, Naples, the National Theater, Rome and in various parts of South America, with Mardones and Stracciari, and she created a leading role in Ollanta, the first Peruvian opera, by Jose Valle-Riestra, at the Teatro Forero, Lima, Peru, in 1920.
The press notices Miss Melis has gathered in her several years of activity are far too long to quote within the limited space of this article. Just a few words must be selected here and there to demonstrate the excellence of her training under Mr. Hughes: “A contralto of beautiful voice who dominates the three registers, low, middle and top with astonishing ease.” . . . “A definite sensation for voice and (Continued on page 65)
teacher in bringing out this talent or this voice, in making it useful.
And in the case of singing there is also the side, not less important, and worthy of the most careful consideration, of safety. A voice is easily injured.
A delicate organism, it requires delicate treatment. Though delicate it must be able to stand the greatest stress and strain, and to bring it to that point without injury is one of the highest arts of education. To give a voice power, force, flexibility, sonority, depth, without lessening its beauty, is a fine art as well as being the work of a skilled artisan.
And to add to all this musical taste and interpretative ability requires of the teacher a skill that is scarcely equalled in any other branch of learning, for the teacher must not only build his instrument but must teach the pupil to play upon it as well.
AH of which applies very directly to Felix Hughes, maker of voices. Mr. Hughes acknowledges modestly that he is a brother of Rupert Hughes, but beyond that, and the acknowledgment that he has turned out some successful pupils, he is about the poorest subject for an interview that this particular interviewer ever exercised his arts upon.
Hence our introductory arguments anent the pudding• and the cook.
Mr. Hughes is not a cook who can be induced to boast about his puddings, or to talk about the how and the where he learned to make them. He studied abroad, yes. He has had a famous teacher, he has traveled some, and so on.
But all of that, as he points out, does not improve the pudding, nor prove his skill in the making of it.
In other words, his pupils speak for themselves. There is
Allen McQuhae, for instance. Allen McQuhae has come very much to the fore in the last year or two. The press of New York (which has come to be considered the most dependable musical press in the world) compares him with McCormack. “A voice that seemed a recollection of John McCormack,” says one writer. “Sings well and shows progress in his art,” says another. Progress! That tells the story, and is rather more convincing that any argument his teacher, Felix Hughes, could fabricate, is it not?
Here are some more of the same kind: “Singing marked by excellent legato, perfect diction and restraint,” things every singer wants. “A voice that is clear, smooth and even”—what more could be desired? “Abundant technical skill”—it must please his teacher to have that fact recognized.
His progress is recognized by another writer: “A pleasing singer when he sang here before, he has gained in certain artistic qualities.” . . . “Since his last appearance here his voice has increased in beauty, range and technical finish.”
There is an idea in some quarters that a singer should
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SINGERS WELL TAUGHT
That the proof of the pudding is in the eating is a truism so self-evident that it needs no demonstration. The aspiring cook may argue till doomsday as to the succulency of prospective puddings without convincing any customer who has the wisdom to wait quietly until the pudding is ready of consumption, and then give it a try. Taste it, in other words, and if the taste does not come up to the expectations the argumentative cook will be discredited on the strength of the one proof of his probity, the pudding!
That is a thing that all the world knows, and all the world applies the same test not only to puddings but to everything eatable, drinkable, wearable, tasteable and touchable—in fact, everything buyable. And music lessons are buyable. Very much so. For which reason the wise and wary public asks but one question about a teacher: what sort of pupils does he turn out. For the proof of the teacher is in the taught.
There is an argument—it •is a queer one—used mostly by teachers who are not making good, that music-teaching success is a matter of luck. They argue that it depends not upon any ability to teach, but merely and solely upon the accident of fortune that guides the feet of talent to the studio of the lucky teacher and brings the unlucky teacher no such boon. An argument of envy, resting upon no basis of fact. For we all know that even the greatest talent cannot be developed except by a skilled teacher, and accounts are sufficiently numerous of successful artists who have wandered from teacher to teacher before finding the one who really had the ability to bring out the hidden gold. Caruso is a first-rate example. As related in Mr. Key’s biography, he left his first teacher after a few lessons because he himself doubted the wisdom of the teacher’s methods ; he got a great deal of knowledge from his second teacher but always had trouble with his top register; and it was not till his final try that he really found a teacher who made him what he was.
The argument that it is mere luck that brings the great talent to the teacher, good or bad, and makes his fame, is discredited, not only by this one case but by many others. The teacher who turns out successful pupils does so because he knows how to teach. True, there must be talent. In the case of singers there must be voice. But that does not in any way or in any degree lessen the achievement of the
Mme. Louise Bailey-
APFELBECK
World Renowned Pianist
Dates Now Booking for Northwestern Tours 19231924־
-4-
Management:
LOUIS KLEBBA
3449 HARRIET AVE. MINNEAPOLIS MINN.
NEW YORK SCHOOL OF MUSIC AND ARTS
148-150 RIVERSIDE DRIVE	Ralfe Leech Sterner, Director
SIX WEEKS SUMMER COURSES for Teachers and Professionals, also Beginners and Advanced Students May 15th to September 1st
Rates: $250 and CELEBRATED FACULTY INCLUDING
Alfred Calzin
Distinguished French Pianist— Soloist with nearly every great orchestra in the world.
Leila Yale Public School Music.
Helen Carmichael Robertson Drawing and Painting.
Alvin Beiden
Classical Dancing—Highly	in-
dorsed by Mary Garden.
AND MANY OTHERS
M EH LIN PIANO USED
Frederick Riesberg Distinguished Pianist who studied with Franz Liszt, Xaver Scharwenka and Carl Reinecke.
Alexander Pero Harmony and Counterpoint.
Edward Royce Pianist, Composer.
Marie van Gelder Wagnerian Prima Donna and Voice Teacher.
Ralfe Leech Sterner
The well-known voice teacher of the heads of voice departments in colleges and schools. Also Opera, Church and Concert Singers, who will give his course of Lectures from Voice Anatomy to Grand Opera.
Frank Howard Warner Pianist, Compoier and Lecturer.
Aloys Kremer Teacher and Pianist.
Our faculty will remain in New York City and teach all summer
Arthur Friedheim
The great Liszt interpreter who during this course will play works of all the great masters.
Paul Stoeving
The eminent violin artist, teacher, . scholar and author.
Laura Sedgwick Collins
Foremost teacher of Dramatic Art and Public Speaking.
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SALVATORE FUCITO Caruso's sole coach and acc ;mpanist, has been engaged as operatic coach, and will be available for the summer months.
Also Mr. Gino Castro will teach the Italian language.
Mezzo Soprano
410 Knabe Building New York
CLAIR EUGENIA SMITH
JOSEPH SCHWARZ
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S. HUROK, Aeolian Hall, New York
Distinguished European Baritone