June 2 8, 1923
MUSICAL COURIER
G
other branches of music. Most certain it is that singing, as it is now known and practised, is a musical pest which disturbs the ear and distorts all musical values, hence anything should be welcome which might bring change. It could not be worse; therefore the chances are for something better, if the exponents of the new idea can live up to their claims.
Summer Night Audience Pays Tribute to Levitzki
When an audience that has been listening to some of the greatest stars in the concert world for over three hours on a sweltering, sticky summer evening, applauds for over fifteen minutes in order to bring back an artist for an additional number, it is certainly evident that the artist in question is “some” local favorite. This was brought home in gratifying fashion to Mischa Levitzki when he took part in the. concert in Carnegie Hall, New York, on June 3, given for the benefit of the Adirondack Home for Disabled Soldiers, under the auspices of the various New York posts of the American Legion.
Mr. Levitzki was the last but one on a too-lengthy program which had included Margaret Matzenauer, Ina Bour-skaya, Queena Mario, Tito Schipa, Toscha Seidel, Willem Willeke and Ernest Schelling. So generous had the artists been in providing entertainment for the throng that it was 11:15 before it came time for Mr. Levitzki to appear. He was down on the program for two numbers, his own Valse and the sixth rhapsody of Liszt. He played the first one and then left the stage but returned to bow several times in response to the thunderous applause. He had made a special trip to New York from his summer home to keep faith with the Legion, but he did not imagine that any audience in the world would care to listen to more music so near midnight on a sultry evening. He made ready to leave the hall when Dirk Foch, conductor of the orchestra, scheduled to close the concert, and Max Hirsch, master of ceremonies, went back to his dressing room and told him that the audience insisted on having him back.
“Come out with me and let them see that you are ready to go home,” said Mr. Foch to the pianist. But this Mr. Levitzki declined to do. “They’ll soon stop,” he said.
Finally when the hubbub, in which cheers were now mingled with the handclapping, had gone on for fifteen minutes, Mr. Foch went on the stage and raised his baton for the orchestra to begin. By this time the audience had moved down from the balcony and gallery and had joined the parquet members around the apron of the stage, and all seemed to be of one mind—they would have Levitzki again. The conductor retired and made another appeal, the piano was moved into place again and the Liszt number was played.
One Bulb Bill, who writes the weekly radio review for The New York World, commenting on the program which had been broadcasted, had this to say of this particular feature: “When Mischa Levitzki did appear and played the sixth rhapsody, we heard something that we’ll never forget, and I don’t believe that there is a radio bug in this territory who will not show up at Mischa Levitzki’s next recital.” It was just 11:45 by the clock when the pianist was finally allowed to leave the stage.
Dutch Concert Management’s Successful Season
The Dutch Concert Management of Dr. G. de Koos is now beginning the last lap of one of the most successful seasons it has ever experienced. The summer season of grand orchestral concerts at Scheviningen, the favorite bathing resort of Holland, and the series of popular concerts are about to begin. The regular summer subscription series will again be conducted by Prof. Georg Schnee’voigt, regular conductor of the Stockholm Philharmonic, and the popular concerts will have as leader Ignaz Neumark, the young Polish conductor. Besides having the management of these concerts, Dr. de Koos has charge of the regular subscription concerts as well as popular concerts of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, ordinarily headed by Mengelberg, but in his absence conducted by Dr. Muck. Among the imposing array of artists and ensembles represented in Holland by the enterprising Dr. de Koos are found the names of Moritz Rosenthal, Harold Bauer, Carl Friedberg and Dirk Schàfer, pianists ; Flesch, Thibaud, Vecsey, Morini and Schmuller, violinists; Casals, Hekking and Judith Bokor, cellists ; Harriet van Emden, Bertha Cahier, Birgit Engell, Lula Mysz-Gmeiner and Louis Gra-veure, vocalists ; the Capet, Chailley, Rosé, Klingler and Laner string quartets; the Choir of the Sistine Chapel and !the Ukrainian Chorus ; the Comedie Française of Paris, and the Vienna Hofburg Theater; the Garde Républicaine Orchestra, of Paris ; and the lecturers, Hanns Heinz Ewers, Trette and Guilbert.
Gustaf Holmquist—In Memoriam
In the sorrow that has fallen so suddenly upon our Bush Conservatory circle we are conscious of naught save our irreparable loss.
The sincere love we feel for Gustaf Holmquist makes impossible any formal utterance of regrets or resolutions concerning the realization of our loss.
Mr. Holmquist was not only a beautiful singer, a rare artist, and a teacher of unquestioned superiority, he was more: he was a gentleman of lofty unblemished integrity and faithful to his trust. To his pupils he was a friend as well as a guide and to all who knew him his association was a benediction.
To the wife, concerning her loss, we can offer no word of comfort save to point to her priceless memories.
(Signed)
Charles W. Clark Jan Chiapusso Boza Oumiroff Otakar Sevcik Paul Hultman Edward H. Schwenker Harry T. Carlson William Nordin Glenn A. Drake Ralph Leo Bruno Esbjorn Mae Riley McKinley Robert Yale Smith
Kenneth M. Bradley Edgar Nelson Richard Czerwonky Rowland Leach Herbert Miller Julie Rive-King Mme. Justine Wegener Mme. Emmy Ohl Mae Graves Atkins Edgar A. Brazelton John J. Blackmore Ebba Sundstrom Amy Keith Carroll
NOVAK’S OPERA LUCERNA HAS PREMIERE IN PRAGUE
Other Opera Activities—McCormack and Baklanoff as Soloistc
VITEZSLAV NOVAK
ing recent events in a season which, thank goodness, is about to depart this life forever, may interest readers of the Musical Courier. Prominent were two concerts by ,the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by its regular leader, Felix Weingartner. The first concert was devoted to Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven’s “seventh.” The second concert contained Brahms’ Tragic overture, performed in memory of the deceased wife of President Masaryk; Weingartner’s fourth symphony and Beethoven’s Eroica. The clou of the concerts, however, proved to be the finale of the “seventh,” which Weingartner, a real baton virtuoso, conducted with unheard-of daring as regards tempi and rhythm. The ovation accorded him, especially after this number, was truly an extraordinary one.
McCormack’s Musicianship Impresses.
Of the soloists the most prominent were John McCormack and Georges Baklanoff. McCormack’s program disclosed a refined taste distantly removed from the usual type of virtuoso concerts and his superior musicianship was immediately recognized. Georges Baklanoff also left a good impression. The work of his American accompanist, Frank St. Leger, proved to be that of an extraordinary, skillful and resourceful artist.
Dr. Ernst Rychnowsky.
Prague, June 1,—The Czech National^ Theater was the scene of the première of Vitezslav Novak’s new fairy-opera, Lucerna (The Lantern), after the play of the same name by Alois Jirasek, the foremost poet and literateur of this country. Jirasek’s son-in-law, Hans Jellinek, has transformed the play into a workable opera libretto. In the play a lantern is used as a symbol of submission symbolizing the authority of the land-owners over the peasants, who were expected to light the way of the patricians on command. This subordination is refused by a miller to a young duchess who is about !to enter her castle. His rebellious nature interests the romantic duchess and she proceeds to shatter the lantern as a sign that his submissiveness is at an end. In these few words the political moral of the play is revealed. There remains only !the tender love affair of the miller and Hannchen and a fairy episode.
It cannot be denied that the juxtaposition of the earth,y and mythical lead to a certain conflict in both action and music and a boiling down and concentration of the matter would be advisable in considering the general effect of the work. Neither can it be denied that the text cries out for musical illustration. It contains such a mass of glowing fantastic opportunities that it is easy to see why Novak was enthused over it. While he is no novice in the operatic field, he has recently devoted so much time to smaller forms that one thought he had lost his hold on the larger ones. Therefore this opera came as a distinct surprise—a real surprise by reason of !the originality of its invention and masterful orchestration, the folk-like primitiveness of the melodies, and finally by its humor, which flows throughout the work without, however, once resorting to a “popular ditty” grossness. In a word, Novak’s new work is a folk opera which will permanently enrich the Czech opera literature.
Further Stage Reviews.
In the New German Theater, the “Ring” was produced with a new mise-en-scène. A new staging has been a want long felt by Wagner admirers, but the war made its inception impossible. The decorations heretofore used were those which Wagner himself used in Bayreuth in 1876. These decorations were brought to Prague in 1883 by Angelo Neumann after his historical Wagner tour, and at the time were the pride of Prague opera patrons. After almost fifty years of service one can well imagine that they had seen better days and something new was highly desirable. Prof. Ludwig Hôrth and Emil Pirchan of the Staatsoper, Berlin, are responsible for the new settings and decorations.
The “small stage” of the New German Theater has always been used for little plays and chamber music. Now Director Kramer has tried the experiment of using this little hall, having a capacity of two hundred seats, for chamber operas, popular in a past generation and becoming more and more the “fad” today. The first performance was Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte. The orchestra consisted of twenty-one musicians, each a soloist, the individual pleasure of playing thus being materially enhanced. The discourse gained in plasticity, and the loveliness of Mozart’s cantilena was heard in rays of brilliance.
With the addition of the “little stage” for opera performances, the possibility is now foreseen for a number of performances of valuable old works which have been swept into oblivion by the rush of modern progress.
Weingartner Conducts Brahms In Memory Of Mme.
Masaryk.
Aside from activities in the opera a few words concern-
THE NEW SCHOOL OF WORDS VS. TONE
By J. Landseer Mackenzie
formances. Deaf mutes could equally well achieve the same results, for while singing this school of singer neither speaks nor hears. This deaf mute school of singing has so long been accepted, that by tacit consent singers are not expected to concern themselves with either music or poetry. Hence aspirants to vocal honors are apt to present themselves for training devoid of any material for expression.
A New Technic Involved.
Before the school of allowing words to oroduce their own musical tones can be established, there must be previous training of candidates in music and languages, otherwise no words can be spoken in musical phrase. Moreover the “tone” of a naturally spoken word on a musical pitch is entirely foreign to the ear.
The followers of this new school are launched on an entirely new field of study and investigation. It is all very well to talk of “speaking” words in song; to get it done involves a vast understanding of the natural laws of speech and their relation to those of music. The normal experience of speech covers about five notes of inflected pitch, and the sustaining value of the spoken word is roughly about a thirty-second note.
The new school is faced with the difficulty of extending sneech to a two-octave or more range, and of sustaining the duration of any specific word to the value of a whole note. The art of using speech for musical expression necessitates the application of an entirely new technic in which no ideas have anything in common with those now used in tone production. Does anyone fully know this technic and the basic principles it entails?
No Need for Licenses.
If the technic of this art becomes the basis of training for future singers there will be no need to agitate for the licensing of vocal teachers, for no one who had the knowledge and sound musicianship it entails could possibly rank as a charlatan. This technic cannot be taught by the ignorant or on arbitrary theories, because to allow words to produce their own tone in music necessitates a scientific understanding of the laws governing language, sound and psychology. Hence it will be to the interest of the art of this country to demand results from this new school that their excellence may be judged over those produced from theories of tone which certainly have not advanced musical singing.
It is possible we are on the verge of a new era in the art of singing, and if so its results will soon show in all
[To be frank, the Musical Courier does not feel as doleful about the vocal situation as the author of the following article. Indeed, we doubt if there really is any “new school of words” that proposes to leave tone per se out of the question. Our idea is that a judicious combination of good tone production with the correct enunciation of words and expression of sentiments is the ideal to be aimed at in singing; also that all the art in the world cannot make a real singer out of anyone who lacks an agreeable natural voice to start with.— The Editor*.]
A new point of view in vocal training seems to_ be developing which may divide the schools of singing into two distinct camps. The old one is that in which tone is the first and only consideration and the new preaches that words develop their own tone.
The question as to whether words or notes take precedence in song was very fully discussed in the columns of the French musical paper, Femina, some ten or fifteen years ago. The foremost critics, poets and composers of the day waged a hot battle for and against the invading idea. Many and varied were the views expressed, but no agreement was arrived at. The arguments on each side exactly fitted the individual standpoint.
Which point of view is correct cannot be judged by argument; results alone can show which is the most musical form of expression. As yet there are no recognized exponents of the Word First school, so the field is held by the makers of tone at the expense of words and their musical value. But there are signs to _ show that public enthusiasm is cooling from much listening to recitals of beautiful tones, in which one song sounds the same as another. The time is ripe for something new.
A New Slogan.
Following the demand comes a novel point of view for the training of singers, and it looks as though Words vs. Tone might become the new slogan for teachers. It is a very easy thing to say and to talk about, it sounds delightfully simple and full of possible thrills, but it is hard to realize the difficulties that such a complete volte face will entail.
The fact is, that “tone producers” have trained themselves to discard the ear as an active factor in singing. They work entirely on ideas and sensation, and the results are not checked up with musical demand. The exponents of this school are music and word deaf as regards their own per-