MUSICAL COURIER
36
June 14, 1923
who has done for his province what Grieg did for Norway. Comprised in his arrangements are songs dealing with shepherds, the dance-rhythms of the Molineri, refrains of sowers and reapers, ditties of fishermen and ancient hymns of pilgrims. The country has hills and fjords like Norway, and Montes echoes the music-loving soul of the Galician in it all. The lover has lost his beloved by death, and the music contains much sorrowful melody, harmony of similar sort, and echoes the text faithfully. Range from low F, first space, to D flat, fourth line. (Low B flat and high E flat optional).
FOREIGN NEWS IN BRIEF
Fürtwàngler Quits Vienna.
Vienna, May 15.—The Tonkünstler and Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde societies announce that the activities of both organizations will be merged next season, probably as an outcome of the difficult financial conditions. There will be a series of eight concerts conducted by Leopold Reichwein (heretofore associate conductor with Fürtwàngler), Hans Knappertsbusch of Munich, and Clemens Krauss from the Vienna Staatsoper, the latter two being chosen to replace Fürtwàngler whose long heralded retirement from his Vienna post, which was the cradle of the fame, will now take place. One concert of the series will be conducted by Bruno Walter.	P. B.
From Locksmith to Opera Singer.
Cologne, May 16.—In a song recital devoted to lieder of Wolf, Pfitzner and Richard Strauss, a new baritone named H. Rehkemper proved to be the possessor of a voice which in power and brilliance equals that of the well known German baritones of the day. Rehkemper was a locksmith before his voice was discovered.	Dr. U.
Puccini Coaching Jeritza for Manon Lescaut.
Vienna, May 13.—Maria Jeritza will shortly create the role of Manon Lescaut in the elaborate première of Puccini’s opera which is now being prepared by the Staatsoper, replacing Lotte Lehmann who suddenly left the Staatsoper, supposedly on account of illness, but doubtless owing to her old rivalry with Jeritza. Puccini has arrived here and is now studying the role with Jeritza who has previously sung it at the Volskoper, some fourteen years ago. A new German version has been prepared by the Staatsoper’s director, Franz Schalk, who is now making his debut as a translator. The production has caused a long newspaper controversy, owing to the continual refusal of Alfred Piccaver, the American tenor, to appear opposite Jeritza. At Puccini’s request, Piccaver has now consented to break his rule and to sing des Grieux to Jeritza’s Manon Lescaut.	P. B.
New Big Theatrical and Concert Agency Opened.
Vienna, May 12.—Hugo Gruder Guntra, at one time codirector with Weingartner at the Volksoper, whose dismissal caused considerable stir here, has founded a new theatrical and concert agency on a big scale. The new enterprise is affiliated with the Daniel Mayer Co., Ltd., of London, and Baron Franckenstein, composer and former chief of the Munich Court Theater, is its German representative, according to Gruder’s statement. The company aims at a centralization of the Central European theatrical and concert activities.”	P. B.
American Institute Events
Three recent recitals at the American Institute of Applied Music attracted the attention of the usual large and interested audiences. An informal recital of May 16 had on it ten piano numbers, including many compositions by American composers, played by the following young women: Sally Ackerman, Sally Harding, Edith Walter, Marjory Simm, Marjory Jervis, Marjory Bahouth, Winifred Leonard, Eleanor Schomp, Elizabeth Gerberich and Gertrude Cannon, all of them being pupils of Anastasia Nugent. Isabel Scott (pupil of Miss Chittenden) played a program containing eight piano works by Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Grieg. Scriabin, Debussy, Sternberg and Chopin May 18. June 2 a junior recital had on it eighteen numbers for piano, violin and voice, played by pupils of Misses Marfarlane, Bolze, Miller, Smith, Wood, Nugent, Madden, Close, Raudenbush, Chittenden and Mr. Sherman, the participants appearing in the following order: Gerald Murphy, Betty Guion, Carleton Hyde, Blanche Mandel, Bernard Seinglass, Compton Harrison, Margaret Marshall, Winifred Leonard, Elizabeth Gerberich, Lillian Simon, Marjory Bahouth, Nellie Lee Pearce, Emma Jones, Grace Gordon, Carolyn Hughes, Margaret Fellowes and Margaret Spotz.
C. Herbert MacAhan-Walter Wheatley Recital
_ Pianist MacAhan and Tenor Wheatley united in a recital at the Temple Theater, Lincoln, Neb., May 30, the former playing standard works by Bach, Chopin, Schubert-Liszt, Debussy, Rubinstein and the Americans MacDowell and MacAhan (the recital giver’s Reverie). Mr. Wheat-ley sang arias and songs by Massenet, Curran and Leoncavallo, and both artists received due meed of applause. Mr. MacAhan was graduated this month as Bachelor o.f ־Fine Arts, University of Nebraska; he is, besides, a notable athlete, his swimming and horseback stunts often giving the onlooker a thrill.
Fay Foster’s My Menagerie Still Popular
An all-American program was presented by Loyal Phillips Shawe, baritone, on May 8, at the Northwestern University School of Music, at Evanston, 111. Among the songs sung was Fay Foster’s ever popular My Menagerie. This song was first sung by Louis Graveure, the baritone, to whom it was dedicated. It is a splendid picturization, both in words and music, of the imagination of a child.
Romualdo Sapio Resigns from N. O. C.
Romualdo Sapio has resigned as musical conductor of the National Opera Club of America, following nine years of uninterrupted work with that organization.
described. To say it was humorous would be to do it an injustice. To say it had a passionate sweep would not express it. It is neither quaint nor solemn. Very complex harmonically and contrapuntally it certainly is, and full of charming little bits of catching melody that haunt the memory. It is rhythmic, and generally vigorous, perhaps one should say healthy. But one feels that the object of the composer is not beauty or sentiment in the ordinary sense of the words, and even the Three Romantic Songs are not at all what we most of us conceive as romantic. They would woefully disappoint the budding swain who wanted something with which to serenade his lady love.
But this is not a criticism. The music, though it seems to fit into no ancient niche, is all of it interesting. There is reason to believe that some of it might, indeed, be popular, and our own idea is that if Mr. Bliss were to be awakened by some very powerful emotion, awakened to a desire to make something big, he would make it. Perhaps America will do just this for him.
(Harms, Inc., New York.)
’Specially Tim, and On My Old Side-Car (two encore songs)
By Frank Waller
Frank Waller makes a specialty of encore songs, the result being that he always produces effective little numbers that are tremendously useful to the concert singer who is doing more or less popular programs. This is appreciated by no one more than by the big concert artists, as the list of those who have used earlier encore songs of his shows, including Anna Case, Farrar, Galli-Curci, Rosa Ponselle, Diaz, Fitziu, Harvard, Lazzari, Macbeth, Martin, Maurel, Maxwell, Peralta. Rea, Romaine, Schipa, Scotney, Strac-ciari, Sundelius, Teyte, Tiffany, Vicarino. ’Specially Tim has a quaint, verse by Bessie Morgan about the young lady who married Tim as being the best way of getting rid of him; and On My Old Side-Car reminds one of a burlesque of I Am Off to Philadelphia.
(G. Schirmer, Inc., Netv York.)
The Chariot Race
By Homer N. Bartlett
A study suggested to the composer by Gen. Lew Wallace’s graphic account of a Chariot Race in Ben Hur, so says the caption, and teachers will be glad to get so picturesque and descriptive a piece. It is rather difficult and not intended for small hands.
(Composers’ Music Corporation, New York.)
In Mentoriam, Elegy No. 1
By Lodewyk Mortelmans
A very simple, melodic number, with a sort of quiet charm and solemnity which is very pleasing. In form it is something like several of Grieg’s famous lyric pieces. Will be found a pleasant companion for a quiet hour.
(Arthur P. Schmidt Co., Boston.)
(Ionian Melody (for violin and piano)
By Edward Ballantine
A very nice, simple little melody for the violin, slow and easy. It runs up into the positions a little and has a few double stops, but these features are introduced in a way that adds little to the difficulty of the piece.
(A. S. Barnes & Co., Netv York.)
Graded Violin Course, Book I
By Rudolf Luks
A useful little work of twenty-four pages for beginners. There are photograps and diagrams showing positions. Evidently the author is practical and experienced, and much may be expected of the completed work.
(Forester Music Publishing Co., Chicago.)
Little Songs of Optimism
By Lee S. Roberts
This is a very beautiful, illustrated edition of a set of songs apparently intended for children. At least they are very simple and easy. Pretty tunes well arranged.
(Oliver Ditson Company, Boston.)
Concert Study (for piano)
By Emile Forques (1828-1876)
This study, edited by Isidor Philipp, is for the right hand chiefly, and consists of passages of fourths and sixths. A very attractive addition to the literature of the studio. Rather difficult.
(Oliver Ditson Company, Boston and New York.)
Songs of the Spanish Provinces
By Kurt Schindler
These are four songs, numbers 8, 9, 11 and 12, from the series of Songs of the Spanish Provinces—Nightingale of France, Basque Love Song, Look at Her Well, and The Dark Shadow—in which the well known New York conductor and composer, Schindler, provides English text in collaboration with Mary Ellis Opdycke. The Nightingale is a Catalan folk song of two quarto pages, gracefully pretty music continuing throughout. It is the plaint of a maid who has married a shepherd, whose leading goat she has lost; but the Cowherd has found him, and wants kisses for pay . . . Three stanzas, all harmonized differently, make the song interesting. Range from low E flat to high A flat.
Basque Love Song tells of a rich lad who is unhappy because he is not loved (he should live in New York!) There is real melancholy, loneliness, wistfulness, throughout the song of three pages, which is Schumannesque in contents, the composer being a priest, known in Spain as the foremost representative of the Basque music. He has prepared a book of 1.000 such songs, and is said to be at present studying music in Paris, being still under thirty years of age. Range from low D flat to high F.
Look at Her Well is a lively three-page song, telling of the pretty, gay, dancing Lolita. The music presents complex problem in rhythm, being both 6-8 and 3-4, but sounds spontaneous and capricious. Range from A, middle of clef, to high A.
The Dark Shadow was originally composed for orchestra, and received first prize from the Gallegan Society, _ in Havana, Cuba. The composer, Juan Montes, is a Galician,
REVIEWS AND NEW MUSIC
Books
(E. P. Dutton & Co., New York.)
Camille Saint-Saëns, His Life and Art
By Watson Lyle
This is an ideal biography. In the first part, the life of Saint-Saëns is carefully told with especial attention to the artistic side of it, his teachers, his admirations and the influences which may have directed his career. An entire chapter is then devoted to his artistic powers and outlook, and another chapter to his social life and opinions, after which each phase of his work is dealt with under separate heads: the Concertos, the Symphonies and Symphonic Poems, Chamber Music, Variazioni, Works for the Stage, Choral Works, Literary Works, and in an appendix a tabulation is made of the whole.
In this one small book the entire story is told, and there remains nothing more to be said. Many musical examples illustrate the text and there is a portrait of Saint-Saëns, supposed to be the last one taken of him.
A book that it is a pleasure to recommend!
MUSIC
(Publishers: J. & W. Chester, Ltd., Goodivin & Tabb, Ltd., and Stainer & Bell, Ltd.)
Madam Noy, Two Nursery Rhymes, Three Romantic Songs, Rout, Conversations, and Rhapsody By Arthur Bliss
Carnegie had no intention of doing anything for his adopted country when he established a fund for the publication of British music, but, by accident, he has done it, in spite of himself, for the fund has published some of the music of Arthur Bliss, who, though British in fact, is the son of an American father and English mother, and is now living in America. If Carnegie wished to prevent American musicians getting any benefit from his millions (made here!), he should have remembered that there is travel both ways and that British musicians sometimes do come to America.
Mr. Bliss is one of them, and it is to be hoped that he will like us well enough to stay with us. At present he is thoroughly British. There is no evidence whatever of his American parentage in the music we have at hand. But perhaps in time he will drift into the American spirit. If he ever does, he will do something interesting for us. His publications—Madam Noy, Two Nursery Rhymes, published by Chester; Three Romantic Songs, Conversations, Rout, published by Goodwin & Tabb; Rhapsody, published by Stainer & Bell (Carnegie Collection of British Music) — are all interesting, all very modern, all to be associated with that picturesque style that we have come to associate with modern British composers. The Rhapsody is scored for soprano and tenor, who vocalise on Ah throughout, flute, English horn, and strings. Rout is for voice, singing meaningless syllables, flute, clarinet, glokenspiel, side drum, harp and strings. Conversations (being five pieces entitled: The Committee Meeting, In the Wood, In the Ball Room, Soliloquy, In the Tube at Oxford Circus) is scored for flute, oboe, violin, viola and cello. The Two Nursery Rhymes are scored for soprano, clarinet aild piano—the first of the two—the other one for soprano and clarinet without piano. Madam Noy is scored for soprano (the queerest poem ever writ) flute, clarinet, bassoon, harp, viola and bass.
As to the nature of this music, it cannot in the least be
FOR NEXT SEASON’S PROGRAMS
WEffiNEK JOSTEN
SONGS
THE DISCREET NIGHTINGALE
(Die verschwiegene Nachtigall)
Poem by Walther von der Vogelweide English version by Alice Mattullath High in Eb, .60
CHRISTMAS (Weihnachten)
Poem by Joseph von Eichendorff English version by A. E. Spingarn High or Medium in D, .60
ON SLUMBER TREE
Poem by Alfred P. Graves High in Gb, .60
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