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PROF. & MRS. EDGAR A. ROBBINS,

American Method," Pianoforte and Harmony, VOCALIST AND TEACHER OF SINGING.

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MRS. JENNY KEMPTON,

267 Columbus Avenue, Boston.

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TO ORGANISTS AND CHOIR

A GREAT WANT SUPPLIED.

JUST PUBLISHED:

DANKS' ANTHEM SERVICES.

A COLLECTION FOR QUARTETTE AND CHORUS CHOIRS.

Containing a great variety of ANTHEM settings to all the CANTICLES
OF THE CHURCH, for the Regular and Special MORNING
AND EVENING SERVICES, from the most eminent
Composers. Edited by

H. P. DANKS.

The book is of the greatest value to Organists and Choirs of the EPISCOPAL CHURCH, as here are found anthems fitted to all occasions of the regular and special service, thus forming a complete STANDARD BOOK OF SERVICES. With the exception of the Gloria Patri's, these

fine anthems, with music by the best American and Foreign Composers, and noble words from the sacred scriptures, are also perfectly adapted for use in the services of

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GLORIA PATRI.

(Ten arrangements, by Danks, Caswell, OFFERTORY SENTENCES..
Bialla and Poznanski.

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS.

[795

In C, (with Solos,).
In D..

Wholesale and Retail Dealers in Sheet Music,
Music Books, and Musical Merchandise

Of Every Description.

Our stock of Sheet Music, Music Books, Musical Instruments, etc., is the largest and most Our connection complete in the North West. with Messrs. O. Ditson & Co., enables us to furnish their publications to Western Dealers, at net Boston Prices.

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G. ANDRE & CO.

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TE DEUMS.

In C.....

In D, (with Solos,).
FESTIVAL TE DEUMS.
In Eb, (with Solos,).
In Bb,
BENEDICITE. (Plain.)..
JUBILATES.

In D.

66

In F, (with Solos,).
FESTIVAL JUBILATES.
In Eb, (with Duo,)...
In Eb,
BENEDICTUS.

In D, (with Duo,)..
In G, (with Solos,).

KYRIE ELEISON.

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..Kortheuer. CANTATE.

.Stephens.

...Caswell. BONUM EST.

.Danks.

66

Caswell.

66

.Bialla.

.Best.

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IMPORTERS OF FOREIGN MUSIC, OLIVER DITSON & CO.,

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CHAS. H. DITSON & CO. New York. LYON & HEALY, Chicago.

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Entranced in thoughts whose vast

Imaginations passed

Into his facile hand,

By adverse fate unfoiled,

Through long, long years he toiled

A heaven of larger zone

Not theirs, but his-was thrown
O'er old and wonted themes;
The fires within his soul

Glowed like an aureole

Around the prophets old and sibyls of his dreams.

Thus, self contained and bold,

His glowing thoughts he told

On canvas or on stone.

He needed not to seek

His themes from Jew or Greek;

His soul enlarged their forms, his style was all his

own.

Ennobled by his hand,

Florence and Rome shall stand

Stamped with the signet-ring

He wore, where kings obeyed
The laws the artists made.

VOL. XXXV. No. 1.

questions. Every composer of eminence will soon have his Thematic Catalogue. Dr. Ludwig von Köchel has achieved the good work for Mozart-how completely, some of us are thankful to know; an anonymous writer has attended to Schumann; Weber has been thoroughly "done" by F. W. Jahns; and painstaking Herr Nottebohm has looked after Beetho

ven.

Nor is this all that Herr Nottebohm has accomplished in the same line; the firm of Friedrich Schreiber, in Vienna, is now offering, as the latest result of his patience, a thoroughly good catalogue of Schubert. Together with every amateur who is interested in Schubert, we hail the new work with pleasure and congratulate Herr Nottebohm upon the manner in which he has discharged a very difficult task. The great essentials of such a book are accura

Art was his world, and he was Art's anointed king. cy and completeness: and when it is remem

Like

So stood this Angelo

Four hundred years ago;

So grandly still he stands
Mid lesser worlds of Art,
Colossal and apart,

Memnon breathing songs across the desert
-Independent.

sands.

A Schubert Catalogue.*

(From the "Musical Times.")
"Not unfrequently," says Carlyle, in the
"Preliminary "of his Sartor Resartus, "the
Germans have been blamed for an unprofitable
diligence; as if they struck into devious courses
where nothing was to be had but the toil of a
rough journey: as if, forsaking the gold mines

Undimmed the eyes that saw, unworn the brain that of finance, and that political slaughter of fat planned.

A soul the Church's bars,

The State's disastrous wars

Kept closer to his youth. Though rough the winds and sharp, They could not bend or warp

His soul's ideal forms of beauty and of truth.

Like some cathedral spire
That takes the earliest fire

Of morn, he towered sublime
O'er names and fames of mark,
Whose lights to his were dark.
Facing the east, he caught a glow beyond his time.

Whether he drew or sung,
Or wrought in stone, or hung
The Pantheon in the air;
Whether he gave to Rome
Her Sistine walls or dome,

Or laid the ponderous beams, or lightly wound the

stair;

Whether he planned defense
On Tuscan battlements,

Fired with the patriot's zeal,

Where San Miniato's glow
Smiled down upon the foe,

bered that these qualities have to appear in connection with hundreds of compositions (many scattered about in MS.), and thousands of editions, the high merit of success need not be demonstrated. With regard to the accuracy of the Catalogue, it is, of course, impossible to judge confidently as respects every detail, but we have tested the book in many ways, and it has passed the ordeal triumphantly. That there are no flaws in its completeness would be too much to assert. Herr Nottebohm, for example, leaves unnoticed the few bars of melody which were all that Schubert wrote of the Scherzo in the eighth (B minor) symphony. But, generally speaking, the book may be styled an exhaustive one; in proof whereof take the particulars furnished about Die Schöne Müllerin. Besides the details usual to thematic catalogues, Herr Nottebohm gives us the result of his laoxen whereby a man himself grows fat, they bors in tracing those famous songs through all were apt to run goose-hunting into regions of their (German) editions and forms, nearly three bilberries and crowberries, and be swallowed closely-printed pages being devoted to the ediup at last into remote peat bogs. . . . Surely tions alone. The arrangements fill five and the plain rule is, let each considerate person a-half pages more, the character of the transhave his own way and see what it will lead to.cription being specified, and also the author, For not this man and that man, but all men publisher, place of publication, and price. make up mankind, and their united tasks the When a compiler shows industry such as this, task of mankind. How often have we seen we are disposed to trust him, snd accept his some such adventurous, and perhaps much cen- work. sured wanderer light on some out-lying, neglected, yet vitally momentous province, the hidden treasures of which he first discovered, and kept proclaiming till the general eye and effort were directed thither, and the conquest was completed; thereby, in these his seemingly so aimless rambles, planting new standards, founding new habitable colonies, in the immeasurable circumambient realms of Nothingness and Night." Thus (with a very moderate expenditure of capital letters) does the Sage of Chelsea vindicate Diogenes Teufelsdröck, J. U. D., &c., his researches into the philosophy of clothes, and his six bags of "miscellaneous paper-masses." Some such championship might have appeared necessary when another German

Till Treason won the gates that mocked the inva- began to burrow for the details required to

der's steel;

Whether in lonely nights,

With poesy's delights

make up the first Thematic Catalogue of a great composer's works, and patiently to hunt down all the Protean forms which the ingenuity of arrangers and transcribers had caused those Was the game worth the candle? Who would buy the book? To what Like marble altars in some dark and mystic wood; use could it be put commensurable with the

He cheered his solitude;

In sculptured sonnets wrought

His firm and graceful thought,

Still, proudly poised, he stepped

The way his visions swept,

And scorned the narrower view;

He touched with glory all
That pope or cardinal.

With lower aims than his, allotted him to do.

Read at a celebration of Angelo's 400th birthday by the N. E. Women's Club, Boston, March 6th, 1875.

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In arranging his materials, Herr Nottebohm did not attempt the impossible task of settling the order in which Schubert's works were written. Wherever the date of composition can be ascertained it is given, but the Opus number guides in making up the first section of the book. The compositions included in this section, which is devoted to those with an Opus number only, are 173, beginning with the "Erl King," and ending with six songs for voice and pianoforte. This opening and closing must strike everybody who examines the list as significant. Turning over page after page, we find little save song after song; and even when a break first occurs, it is made by a set of waltzes (Op. 9). At Op. 15 we come upon the fantasia for pianoforte in C major, after which songs and waltzes begin again, till Op. 26 introduces the music to Rosamunde. Presently chamber music makes its appearance, but the ratio of important works to comparative trifles is not greatly increased. eloquent is this fact, especially when looked at in connection with Herr Nottebohm's third section, which catalogues the compositions without Opus number, published after the composer's death. Here we start with the ninth and eighth symphonies, going on with the quartets in D minor and major, the pianoforte sonata in A minor, and those in C minor, A and B flat. After these come four masses, the cantata, Lazarus, and a host of works nearly

How

equal in importance. Truly, Schubert's is a posthumous fame. A writer of songs and waltzes in life: in death. he appears among the grandest of tone poets. Pity him we must, for such a spirit as his, though he labored on regardless of present renown, could have done no other than long after that recognition which is, next to its own self-consciousness, the sweetest reward of genius. But the moral to be drawn from Herr Nottebohm's Catalogue brings comfort after all. The good cannot be repressed. That which has in it a spark of the divine fire will some day kindle the admiration of the world.

The second section embraces the multitude

of Lieder published by Diabelli under the title: Franz Schubert's nachgelassene musikaliche Dichtungen für Gesang und Pianoforte-in all fifty sets. But to many who avail themselves of this welcome volume, one of its most interesting divisions will be that which brings the whole of the master's compositions under the eye in orderly battalions. After reviewing page after page of orchestral, chamber, and concerted music of various kinds, we come finally upon the army of songs and vocal pieces, only to look down their ranks with a sense of utter bewilderment as we remember that the author of all these things died at thirty-one. The fecundity of Schubert was monstrous, and, in view of it, his early death seems the most natural of events. He, if ever man did, accomplished the work that was appointed him. For this let us be thankful, and not for this alone. The gratitude of amateurs who love Schubert is due to the plodding, unwearied industry of the German savant from whom the book before us has come. Herr Nottebohm could never be charged with " goose hunting," or with exploring gions of bilberries and crowberries," but, to continue the words of Carlyle, he has lighted on an outlying and neglected province, the treasures of which are now common property. Schubert owes him much on that account. We owe him more. J. B.

The Faust Legend in Opera.

(From the Albany Sunday Press.)

BY PROF. JOHN KAUTZ.

66

re

Of all exciting legends none is of such high importance or gives us a deeper insight into the internal workings of the soul than the legend of Faust. While others, in their fundamental ideas move within the pale of a distinct nationality, and thence representing the true reflection of the character of its people, the legend of Faust contains the embodiment of a universal and purely human idea. We therefore find it among most of the European nationalities, although more or less modified, according to the peculiarities of every distinct people, yet in its fundamental idea unchanged.

To the ancients the Faust idea was of course unknown, because they lacked the worldly views founded on Christianity. They were only acquainted with the immediate motive of the Faust legend: the conflict of Light with Darkness, Angels with Demons. Only in their heaven-towering Titans could we possibly find an embodied analogous idea, and there only in its crudest outlines. Through the doctrine of Christianity, which destroyed their belief in a blind ruling destiny, and elevated man to a higher and nobler existence, was every latent desire awakened to seek after that infinitude, which, because of the circumscribed and solely to the finite directed bodily and spiritual organization of man, must ever to him remain the unattainable.

The keen and undismayed striving after a universality of knowledge, the endeavoring of the human mind to unfathom the inmost depths of Nature, and the discontent with that which is attainable-all this is peculiar to the Faust of every nation. It is thus he falls in conflict with himself: it originates in him a conflict with the good and bad principle; angels and demons follow him, and because his desires must ever remain unfulfilled,

career.

being antagonistic to the immutable laws of destruction. Their religious fanaticism and Nature, he seeks and implores superhuman unbending persistency would not permit an agency to grant him that which it cannot. ultimate reconciliation, after a misguided Faust then appeals to another source, to the Demon, who willingly offers his services; he accepts his guidance. The good principle then, having in view the salvation of every soul, comes in direct antagonism with the bad principle. The ultimate victory remains with the good principle, as the Demon can never satisfy a great and noble nature. He may momentarily intoxicate a Faust while leading him through all the labyrinths of error, but that which he offers him is but earthly goods and not that after which a Faust strives. Only | through the humiliation of his pride, his meek

submission to the fixed boundaries of knowl

edge, does he at last find redemption. The Angel conquers, and leads him to where his spirit, too great for earthly barriers, finds peace

and contentment.

This Faust idea was naturally nurtured and developed by the Germanic race, in consequence of their reflective disposition, although it required a genius like Goethe to bring it to a consummation. If we examine the Faust legends of other races, especially those of the French and Spanish, we find in them the same human basis clothed in appropriate form, but neither race produced a Goethe to perfect it; although it did serve them as a subject of many important art-creations. Robert of Normandy, surnamed the Devil, and Don Juan of Seville, are the Fausts of France and Spain. In both characters is visible that vaulting ambition after human greatness, that stepping out of the circumscribed limits of man,-consequently that same conflict between the good principle and the bad. The Norman legend has its Robert born from a noble and pious woman and the incorporated "parts of that power which ever creates the bad and ever the good." Here it at once becomes evident, that from Robert's birth, there already existed in his breast two souls, one endeavoring to subdue the other. These two souls find their incarnation in his surrounding persons, Alice and Bertram. But Robert is a French Norman, consequently his ideal is of another form than that of the German Faust. He finds it possible to satisfy his desire after infinitude in the ultimately attainable happiness of the finite.

The character of Robert is likewise analogous to that of the accompanying Demon, therefore immensely different from that of Mephistopheles. Faust is a profound thinker, a man of unbounded knowledge,—his devil consequently must be scholastic, sophistical. Robert of Normandy is also a sort of knightly hero, a more sensual man, and affected somewhat by the peculiar romanticism of the middle ages; his infernal companion accordingly, is but another of those shadowy formations, like the well-known Northern Phantom, without horns, hoofs or tail, yet withal an agreeable and good-natured fellow. For a Robert, a Bertram sufficed-a Mephistopheles he would

not have understood.

An analagous being to Robert the Devil we also find in Germany in the legend of Tannhäuser. In him we find the same striving after infinitude that appears in Faust, though in a much lesser degree, yet his intellectual character is far above that of the French hero. Tannhäuser, like Robert, seeks his delight in a gratification of the senses; angels and demons also stand near him, only the love through which he gets redeemed is a more ideal love than that of Robert's. Tannhäuser again reflects correctly the spirit of his age, of the Trobadour. All he speaks, thinks and acts, finds expression in the poetry of that age and especially in that of Heinrich Von Ofterdingen, from whom Richard Wagner borrowed many points and transferred them to his hero. Again it is a distinguishing characteristic of the German and French character, that the moral spirit of the people can reconcile itself even with a Faust or Robert, while the Spaniard permits his Faust, the Don Juan, to go to

The idea of Ormuzd and Ahriman, of angels and demons, which form such prominent features in the legend of Faust, is also found in the legends of other nationalities-thus, instance, in the Bohemian legend of the Freischütz made use of by Von Weber; but in other respects it has little or nothing identical with the Faust idea; Max is thoroughly passive,-Agathe and Casper act for him, while we witness the conflict between heaven and hell about a man, who was at best but an imbecile.

The Spanish legend of Don Juan, on account of its adaptability, has often been employed prior to Mozart's time by both poets and musicians; and notably among the latter was the great Christopher Gluck himself, who wrote the music to the ballet of "Don Juan." But how incomplete the Faust idea is in the legend of Don Juan may be inferred by the positions occupied by the women who appear therein. From the hero they receive treatment which, to say the least, is regardless and almost brutal, while they seem to exist wholly as a testimony of his profligacy. Elvira and Zerline also represent womanhood such as is found by the thousand, while in the Faust of Germany, womanhood is represented as the highest type of moral beauty, at the same time forming the most important poetic element, such as Goethe's portrayal of Marguerite.

Don Juan, Robert the Devil, and Tannhäuser, are the most prominent variations of the Faust idea that have attained any success in musical representation, and in truth are better adapted for artistic treatment than Faust himself, because they are less spiritualized. The positiveness, abstraction and deep reflection of Faust contradicts the whole nature of musictherefore cannot receive the proper musical expression, while the more incomplete fundamental idea can, because music speaks in an indefinite language. The Faust of the composer Spohr is consequently not the Faust of Goethe; he is but another Don Juan, transplanted to German soil, and like him even a lesser embodiment of the Faust idea than Robert the Devil and Tannhäuser,-even he cannot find redemption.

It may be said, that since Mozart's time none have attempted to express the Faust idea musically with any degree of success; and it was Mozart's great genius alone that led him to grasp part of its spirit and convey it with tolerable perfection. As for the Faust of Gounod, it is, perhaps, unnecessary to mention that it is but an abortive creation and a burlesque upon Goethe's sublime poem.

Operatic Companies.

Opera companies having failed to make money for the past two seasons in this country, it was generally supposed that the poor attendance upon these musical performances was due to the hard times with which we have been afflicted. Such a conclu

sion, however, seems scarcely warrantable now that it is asserted that the present season abroad has also terminated unfavorably for both singers and managers. Troops have disbanded, and the lyric stage may well be said to be in a bankrupt condition. In Berlin the Imperial Opera is declared a bad speculation; the director could not afford to pay the regular prima donna salary, and Madame a half loaf is better than Lucca, not believing that " no bread," declined to appear, as did also other members of the company. The Imperial Opera at announced a deficit of 750,000 francs. At Cairo and Vienna has fared little better, the director having stand purse-bearers to the royal houses of song, and St. Petersburg the Czar and Khedive respectively consequently have been called upon to make up the deficiencies of the bad term. At other places on the continent the season has been disastrous, and the opera houses are reported closed. Only in Paris does opera appear to have thrived, and there the new opera house and the extreme musical proclivities of the people contribute to make it an exceptional case.

These facts are significant. But to what do they point? Evidently something is wrong with the opera or the public: Maretzek was not crushed financially last year without cause; neither did Strakosch lose heavily this season except for reasons that may be discovered. The trouble seems to be in the expense of singers to the managers and of their singing to the public. Strakosch's expenditnre on a performance with his last troupe was from $2500 to $3500 a night. It takes a good house to offset these amounts, and good houses at $3 and $4 a seat were an impossibility, considering that money was scarce and the performances only fair. Mdlle. Albani demanded $1000 a night, and was obliged to close her engagement prematurely because she could not "draw" sufficiently to earn it. Nilsson and Lucca before her had been accorded equally great sums, and she probably argued that by taking less she would compromise her professional position. Singers, actors and lecturers are apt to forget that their remuneration must be gauged, not by their estimate of themselves, but by the desire of the multitude to hear and see them. Thus when the relations of managers and artists are of mutual benefit, they are in a healthful state; when otherwise, one or the other is working for less than his or her rightful compensation, and a dissolution of partnership is then imminent. But another party-the public-is necessary to a proper mediation between these principals, and a successful result of this triple relation can only ensue when all the parties are working in harmony and each member finds the association advantageous. No one party will submit to repeated loss, or to a disregard of its wishes for any length of time, so that the welfare of all concerned depends on a proper consideration of each other, that the beneficial union may be maintained. In view of these facts, then, it seems necessary that under the existing operatic diffiulties some promise should be effected. It is unhesitatingly declared abroad that concession belongs to the singer to whom hitherto everything has been sacrificed-good support, new operas, managerial benefit and the good will of the public. It is only reasonable that now, their Own course having proved destructive-at least to those upon whom they depend-they should content themselves with a more equitable division of profits. If they have not the wisdom to do this, they ought certainly to be allowed to see whether they can live longer without singing than the public can without hearing them; for, delicious tit bits that they are, it is true also they are but luxuries after all.—Sunday Herald.

Cambridge University Musical
Professorship.

(From "The Times," March 17.)

com

The election of a Professor of Music, in the place of the late Sir Sterndale Bennett, has resulted in the almost unanimous choice of Mr. George Alexander Macfarren, the eminent composer. Since the declaration of the vacancy numerous candidates offered themselves for the vacant Chair, but retired upon being informed of the influential support already promised to Mr. Macfarren by the residents. Dr. Wylde, the Gresham Professor of Music, remained in the field as a candidate; a London committee was formed to promote his election, and up to noon yesterday a contest seemed inevitable. Eventually Dr. Wylde withdrew. As a poll had been announced, however, the formality was carried out, The ViceChancellor and Proctors attended at the hour previously appointed, and at eight this evening declared the election to have fallen on Mr. Macfarren. By a recent Grace of the Senate, the new Professor will receive an annual stipend of £200; and, in addition to examining the exercises for musical degrees, will deliver a course of lectures on Music during each academical year.

(From the Musical World, March 20.) PALMAM qui meruit ferat. The old saw," which so many are disposed to regard as a satire upon actualities, is but a reflection of the logic of events. As a rule, he who deserves reward gains it. The honor may be long in coming; may go astray en route, like a mis-delivered letter, may even be delayed till Death steps in, but, sooner or later, it comes. In this respect, the mill of Frovidence grinds slowly, but grinds with exceeding fineness, leaving nothing to pass without the impress of divine justice. It is needless to dwell upon this fact-one which wise men in all ages have recognized, but our reference to it comes appropriately in view of Mr. Macfarren's election as Musical Professor in the University of Cambridge. Somewhat

Bach in Soho.

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Guardian.")

In a

"Previous to this the motets and cantatas were chosen without any regard to their coloring and connection with the other portion of the service; but Bach made it his business to acquaint himself with the preacher's texts, and the whole bearing of the day's service, choosing the theme for his cantata accordingly. The most general form of these cantatas was-first, a grand orchestral introduction, after which followed a fine and impressive chorus, succeeded by recitatives, airs, or duets, the whole concluding with a choral, in which all joined. The orchestral accompaniments are remarkably fine, and quite independent of the voice. Besides the organ, strings, flutes, hautboys, and trumpets are employed."

late in life, but not too late for the probability of
years of enjoyment springing from faithful discharge
of high duties, the most learned of English musicians
finds himself in rank, as in acquirement, at the head Considering how English in temperament was
of his profession. Than he who is at once Cam- the great Bach, it is strange that English church
bridge Professor and Principal of the Royal Acade- musicians have been so long in learning to appreci-
my of Music, there can be no greater. Mr. ate him. For generations he has been looked upon
Macfarren-apart from the Knighthood which he as "dry," which his vocal music certainly is not,
may possibly have to share with a batch of provin- unless the embodiment of deep feeling in every
cial mayors, or the Sheriffs of London and Middle-phase be consistent with the epithet; and held up
sex-has reached the most exalted place open to an as a wonder of contrapuntal complication, when it
English musician, and the labors of his life have, in would be nearer the truth to describe him as a
this respect, been "crowned." Very likely no one master of perfectly intelligible and enjoyable elabo-
is surprised at his Cambridge success, or unready ration. Bach was not only very English, but he
to deny the possibility of anybody outrunning him was very like an English organist. His fingers
in the race. Mr. Macfarren needs no more splendid clung to the keyboard while impatient preachers
testimony to his worth than this general acquies- chafed to begin their sermons; he had his differences
cence in his election; but, at the same time, it is with church officials, and disguised the chorale with
very easy to see how he might have been defeated. extemporary variations, so as to "
put out the con-
For some reason or other, which does no credit to gregation. On the other hand, again, like church
the wisdom of Alma Mater, the election of Professors musicians nearer home and nearer our own time,
at Cambridge is vested in a miscellaneous body when he found a sphere in which he could indulge
called the Senate. The members of this, no doubt, his musical predilections, he threw himself heartily
learned and highly respectable corporation, are into the work, and had no difficulty in co-operating
scattered all over the country-many of them as with congenial minds among the clergy. It was in
much severed from the University in thought and his position as organist and director of music at St.
sympathy as they are by distance, and very few of Thomas's, Leipzig, that this side of his character
them able to discriminate, if they were disposed to came out, and that he not only produced his immor-
try, among the claims of candidates to a special tal settings of the Passion, but composed nearly 400
dignity such as the Chair of Music. These non- cantatas, or extended anthems, one for every Sunday
resident members are a majority, and a candidate and other festival for five successive years.
favorably circumstanced in the matter of social recently published biography of the composer* we
influence, or endowed with personal qualities such read:-
as make men favorites, has only to lay himself out
to secure their votes in order to achieve success.
The danger of this result is over for the present,
but the risk will have to be run whenever the
election-absit omen-is repeated; and its existence
should be taken into account by those who are de-
sirous that the best man should win. Of the gen-
tlemen who came forward as Mr. Macfarren's rivals,
only one, perhaps, intended a serious struggle for
the place. Dr. Wylde evidently meant business,
and only withdrew at the last moment, when the
impossibility of success became obvious. We have
nothing to say against Dr. Wylde's candidature, now
that the issue has been determined. A Gresham
professor has surely the right to try and make him-
self a Cambridge professor; nor can he be accused
of over-vaulting ambition. The remaining candi-
dates may be divided into two classes; first, those
who, like Mr. Barnby, desired chiefly to put them-
selves en evidence in the matter of a professorship.
The post is one to which a rising musician may
aspire with perfect fitness, and no rising musician
has a more unquestionable right to connect his name
with the possibilities of the future in this respect
than the conductor of the Albert Hall concerts.
The second class is made up of those crotchet-
mongers and ambitious nobodies who are always
coming to the front when there is an opportunity of,
catching the public eye. These characters are
found everywhere, and not even the late Sir Peter
Laurie could have put them down had he tried.
Some of them are, or have been, representative men.
There was a butcher at Tiverton, when Lord Pal-
merston was member for that Devonian burgh, who
always broke a lance with the statesman at election
time, and was regularly tumbled in the mud, to the
vast delight of the natives. And there is still, we
believe, a Mr. Jones, for whom, at every choice of
Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, the livery of London in
Common Hall assembled, look as confidently as for
east winds in May. Upon such people it is impos-
sible to think seriously, and the best course is to
get as much fun out of them as possible. For this
course some of the recent candidates gave abundant
opportunity, and answered the end of making the
world merrier, if not exactly wiser. But the lesson
of the whole matter is one adapted to encourage.
Virtually unopposed, the best man has gained the
prize, and merit wears, as well as deserves, the
palm.

With Mr. Macfarren in the Cambridge Chair of Music, we may confidently expect a good return of labor done. He is not likely to be satisfied with a perfunctory discharge of imperative duty, but rather to accomplish more than his bond exacts. Henceforth, not only will there be musical lectures at the junior University, but, we may hope, a quickened musical life, which shall bring about a higher regard for the art among those who are destined to exert vast influence in shaping the public opinion of the country. Should results like these follow Mr. Macfarren's election, the anticipations of not a few will be realized: and, once more, Wisdom will be justified of her children.

As re

It is one of these cantatas or anthems which is now being rendered-perhaps in the manner Bach himself had them rendered in St. Thomas's, Leipzig; certainly in a manner he would have liked to hear them rendered-on Sunday evenings during Lent at St. Ann's Church, Soho. We have had in former years to describe orchestral services at this church; they have been of a more ambitious character hitherto; but certainly not more satisfactory. The work chosen this Lent is the cantata "Gottes Zeit iste die Allerbeste Zeit," Englished by the Rev. J. Troutbeck, of Westminster Abbey, and published at Novello's as "God's Time is the Best." gards the sentiment of the words, this little work appears to have been intended as a New Year's Day, or Advent, lesson on the uncertainty of life: there is nothing specially Lenten in its character; though the absence of any highly wrought passages, and a general quiet and religious sadness, fall in well with the present Church season. In construction the cantata or anthem answers pretty closely to the description we have quoted above of the round of works which constituted the great German church organist's musical" Christian Year." A "sonatina" of twenty bars, molto adagio, prefigures the tender solemnity which pervades the subsequent choral writing: the principal subject is here assigned to the flute, an instrument which Bach used largely, and in more sustained obbligato fashion than is now the custom. In St. Ann's, a building where music is heard to perfection, the effect of this prelude was all that could be imagined as desirable for the expression of its spirit: we never before felt that flutes could be so entirely ecclesiastical.

Mr. Barnby has a full and well-drilled choir; and they took the little, lucid, firm-built first chorus, "God's own time is the best," with an air of quiet command over its rendering, which, while it satisfied the musician, had the devotional advantage of preventing any thought of anxiety in the listener as to the possibility of failure: the singers, in fact, might have been forgotten in the quiet ease of the execution. A tenor sole, "O Lord, incline us to consider that our days are numbered," was sung in that true ecclesiastical style which draws no attention to the performer by Mr. Chas. Wade; to hear whom must go far to disarm those who think that

*"The Great Tone Poets." By F. Crowest. (London: R. Bentley and Son).

all solo singing in church is "display." A fine feature of this cantata is the next movement, for all the bass voices, "Set in order thine house, for thou shalt die," accompanied, in piquant contrast, by the flute, with quasi arpeggio passages, staccato; and an under movement of the strings, also staccato. The next little section of the work is an example of Bach's skill in the beautiful device of floating a treble solo upon a rocking sea of counterpoint in the lower voice parts; over these latter, singing the words, "It is the old decree, Man, thou art mortal," enters presently the voice of a treble chorister, in one of the master's most piously tender strains, "Yea come, Lord Jesus, come," the whole forming a gem of religious musical pathos. The same perfectly undemonstrative, but by no means unfeeling style, here characterized the rendering under Mr. Barnby's

direction.

of the ear.

Not the least grateful of the several effects in the anthem, is the occasional entry of the organ alone, after the orchestral instruments have had possession This occurs to mention one of several places-at the solo, which in turn the alto voice takes, "Into Thy hands my spirit I commend." This beautiful number is most expressively sung by a lady. In the next movement, a bass solo, "Thou shalt be with me to-day in Paradise," the alto section of the choir enters, after a while, with snatches of a choral, overlying, in sustained minims and semibreves, the more rapid passages of the bass, and, in the end, taking exclusive possession of the field, the solo ceasing. No doubt Bach intended, in starting this choral, to give a cue the expression must be pardoned as the only one available-to the congregation; and it may well be imagined what a grand effect might arise if the congregation could only take the cue, and, gradually gathering their voices together, assume the role designed for them. It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to say that no one of the congregation at St. Ann's takes up the part.

A doxological chorus of vigor and dignity concludes the cantata, the performance of which throughout was as near perfection as could well be imagined. No church, and no choir, perhaps, could

be better fitted for a revival of the historical scenes of musical worship for which the work was originally written. As one has often wished, at a Handel festival, that Handel could live again to hear his

massive choruses rendered by hosts of choristers such as he must have dreamed of when he scored

mits not to enter the sensuous poison of modern exaggeration, threatening to sap the very life of genuine musical

sense.

One writer in particular tells us: "The paragraph evidently meant more than the words said, being a sweeping assertion with such manifestly large inclusiveness, as seemed entirely out of good taste, and betokened a wilful ignorance of the beauties of what was termed " modern effect-music." The italics are our own.

Whether the paragraph in question was in good taste is left to the decision of others; but such a public accusation of wilful ignorance" touches our character as a musician, to which we are compelled to reply.

That Richard Wagner was meant in the quotation given must be obvious to all who follow with interest the unmusical tendency of most modern compositions. We do not exclude from our programme Brahms and Raff, as one writer would imply, thus anticipating our fourth programme. But we do draw a sharp line between the Wagner musicodramatic works and the pure music of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. great distinction lie? On the one hand is the ideal izing of reality.

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Personality in its purest form proceeds first from experience, from things and facts. Its development, at first, therefore, is in a realistic sense. But from this soil springs up and blossoms an ideal life. Thus Beethoven, in whom culminates a whole series of great talents, demonstrates what direction idealism in art takes, when left to a development wholly unrestrained by personal feeling and hopes; or selfish bitterness against a large portion of mankind. In Beethoven, whom we select as a spiritual art-type, is the individual nature of such an exalted kind that we feel in the productions of his genius, not a special, one-sided, selfish expression, but the pulse of a noble humanity. "Only he, who like Beethoven, bore within himself a whole world, could express a world's emotions." The continuity of thematic and contrapuntal development; the principle that a genuine musical motive is a germ which unfolds itself according to certain innate and vital laws of musical growth, are axioms upon which rests the whole superstructure of music as an art. Let us see, then, if the Wagner compositions are test proof. From a review, by the present writer, of a Wag ner pamphlet on Judaism in Music," [See Dwight's Journal of Music, May 22, 1869,] we will make a few quotations: First, to show the tendency of the Wagnerian spirit; second, to prove more conclusively the tenability of the ground we have assumed. We pass over the first portion of the review, where is seen working himself and the reader up to a great Wagner, in bitterly relentless and vindictive terms, The choir numbers sixty-one voices; the instru- pitch of excitement by enumerating all the bad ments employed are two flutes, two first violins, two points in Jewish history, raking into broad daylight all their disagreeable and repulsive qualities: second violins, two violas, two violoncellos, two double basses, and the organ. Mr. J. Coward, jun., telling us the Jew is worse than a brute; that he is organist, and employs his instrument with rare never had art, nor poetry, feeling nor taste, even and commendable abstinence. The church last Sun-forgetting that great King of the Jews," from day was crowded to such an extent that standing whom emanates the whole poetry of the Christian religion. Not one good trait, not a single redeemroom was hardly to be found. ing feature of the Jew and his relations to humanity and to art, is to be found in the whole pamphlet of fifty pages. But having carefully prepared the way In the Transcript of April 9th, appears the follow-by insidiously prejudicing the mind of the reading letter by Mr. George L. Osgood, in answer to certain critics of the Wagnerite persuasion, who have found matter of offence in one of his "Historical Notes." We copy it without the sensational heading which the Transcript gives it, and for which we presume the writer is not responsible.

them, so one could but foolishly long for the impossible possibility of the dear old Leipsic organist who was so much more than an organist-being a hearer of one of his own church cantatas, performed in quiet perfection, as this is, with flutes and viols,

and by white-robed choristers, as an edifying adjunct

to worship.

Pure Music vs. Wagnerism.

J. C.

To the Editor of the Transcript: A paragraph of the historical notes on the programme of the third historical concert on Friday last has evoked from certain well-known musical critics expressions which the writer feels called upon to meet. The

paragraph in question is as follows:

Here we see, then how vital was the influence of Bach and Handel upon the whole after period of the art of music. Neither of these masters influenced very essentially his own age; but the compositions of later masters assert vigorously the presence of their genial spirit, and the boundless grandeur of their genius. In the province of pianoforte and vocal chamber music [of which these programmes treat] is the influence of the great Sebastian Bach especially paramount. Through his son Emanuel, to Haydn, to Mozart, to Beethoven, and so to Schubert, to Chopin, and Mendelssohn, Schumann and Rob. Franz runs the line through which the electric current of this wonderful genius brings the past and present together. Indeed, from Bach to Rob. Franz seems but a step. The naiveté of the Volkslied and the polyphony of Bach combine to make Rob. Franz. In this genial atmosphere of musical purity the noisy din of modern effect-music cannot breathe. In this sanctum of true souls, the Muse per

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er, he suddenly and most ungenerously exclaims, "There are no noble germs in them."

just so has the doppia acciacatura, or the full modern gruppetto, taken such insidious possession of the Wagner themes that, whether in his earlier "Rienzi" and "Flying Dutchman," or in his later "Tannhäuser," Lohengrin," and "Tristan and Isolde," or in the "Meistersinger," there is the same senti mental, tedious mannerism, robbing his heroes and heroines alike of all individual character.

We refer to the following examples, among many others, in verification of this assertion: In the theme of the mixed chorus, "Lohengrin," first act, third scene. In the introduction to the same opera, theme in the second act, second scene. Theme in the procession after church, second act, where in the short

space of six measures the gruppetto mannerism ocOrtrud, second act, second scene. The song of Elsa after the duel, first act, last scene. In the duel scene, where not the gruppetto but the same tedious grouping of four notes in constant repetition over chromatic progressions, which latter we shall find

curs three times. Theme of the duet of Elsa and

to be another sentimental mannerism. We refer

further to the principal theme of the introduction and overture to" Rienzi," principal theme of Rienzi in his song to the conspirators, theme of the procession in act 4; also, of the duet in act 5; also of the prayer in act 5. Theme of the "Tannhauser" march. Theme of Elizabeth, in .6 Tannhauser," act 2, scene 2. Theme of duet between Elizabeth and

Tannhauser, act 2. Theme of a song of Wolfram's in the Sängerkrieg, same opera. Wolfram's "Song to the Evening Star," act 3. Theme of the postlude of Elizabeth's prayer, act 3, and others. These are from well-known portions. Another peculiar and noticeable feature of these themes is the fact that

the gruppetto cannot be left out of them without destroying their very essence.

This sentimental gruppetto, which is but an embellishment in previous masters, becomes an indispensable factor of very many of the most prominent melodic themes of Wagner. Whichever hero or heroine Wagner may introduce to us, we see the same sentimental face, wherein conventionality in place of deep feeling dwells. Shortened forms of this same mannerism are used as well. See theme of Wolfram's solo in the septet, act 1, of TannhauIn the theme of the bridal procession in act 3; of ser. Theme of Tannhauser's prize song of Venus

Elsa in act 2, scene 2; of Ortrud, act 2, scene 4.

"Just so does the Jewish composer tumble together all the different forms and styles of all masters and periods," says Wagner in the quotation given above.

Let us turn again his own words upon him. What next mannerism do we find? Is it an imitation of the diatonic progression, so marked a feature in the

bass of Von Weber? No, indeed. It is naught else

than the most flagrant imitation of the chromatic difference being that Meyerbeer uses it comparativeprogression of this very Jew, Meyerbeer, the only

ly seldom, whereas Wagner infuses it into almost the whole of all his writings. We refer to almost any page of his operas. Perhaps many may recall 66 Tannhäuthe song of Venus in the second act of "the theme of the overture to the same opera ;

ser;

the introduction to “ Lohengrin," as examples.

Let us quote again from the review of the Wagner pamphlet; he says of Mendelssohn, "This person has shown us that a Jow can have the richest abundance of specific musical talent, can possess the finest and most liberal education, as well as the Having demolished all their pretensions to emo tion, poetic feeling and art in general, Wagner now finest sense of honor, without being able to move us, comes to the main point. "The Jew has done nothno, not even once, with that deep heart and souling and can do nothing but imitate. Even this im-stirring emotion which we expect of the art, and itation is at the most superficial. His whole life is have felt times without number, when a hero of our which we know it to be capable of; an emotion we superficial; hence his compositions are heterogeneous, cold, indifferent, unnatural, distorted, so that art, so to speak, has opened his mouth to talk to they often give us the same impression as the recitation of a poem of Goethe in the Jewish jargon. Just as in this jargon the words and construction go tumbling over each other in amazing confusion, just

so does the Jewish composer tumble together all the

different forms and styles of all masters and periods. We find the peculiarities of form of all the schools heaped up in the liveliest chaos.”

Let us take these very words of Wagner and apply them to his own compositions. With what re sult? The characteristics of these same ones whom

he relentlessly decries, Wagner has made his own, and to such an extent that they are tedious mannerisms. Just as in the Meyerbeer melodies the oft-occurring modern acciacatura not only over an interval of the major and minor second, but over any interval at the option of the composer; just as this peculiarity and its variations are characteristics which we recognize as belonging to Meyerbeer,

us."

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And further on, "Where the feeling had to come from a deeper source than mere sentimentality, The dissolution and capriciousness of our musical Mendelssohn's musical productive power ceased. style, though perhaps not introduced by him, have

39

yet been raised through Mendelssohn's means to the highest point of unmeaning and empty purport.' And again he tells us Mendelssohn, whose reputation he so envies, is the consummation of "coldness, indifference, triviality, absurdity." And yet again, "Meyerbeer's life has been wasted in catering to a paying, but second-class public."

in all the Wagner operas the reckoned effect of But again do we find Wagner following him. Note sharp contrast of extreme high with extreme low pitch; of the softest pianissimo with the utmost fortissimo. Who does not see in the finale of the

second act of "Tannhauser" almost the reflection of the tremendous and sudden effect produced under

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