actual prohibition in the 16th century, to take any active musical part in its services, as I have already mentioned.-a feminine saint was adopted as patroness of music, and especially of church music. The life of Saint Cecilia, though narrated in the Golden Legend, is, however, partly mythical. We know that the lady so familiar to all lovers of art and poetry as Saint Cecilia, really existed and died a martyr; but it is uncertain whether Rome or Sic ily was the scene of her death, and the date of that event varies in the narrations of various authorities. In regard to her musical attainments, we only know with any certainty, that she was in the habit of sweetly singing pious songs. If we search still farther back in what I may term the primeval epoch of musical art, we find the Greek poetess Sappho to have been credited as the inventress of the so-called mixolydian mode in music, and also of a (then) new musical instrument, the pectis or magadis. And Miriam, the prophetess, who went out dancing and singing, the timbrel in her hand, who can say that her song of triumph was not her own composition?

But, to advance to the early days of modern music, banished from active musical participation in the church service, woman's practical career as a public artiste only began with the invention of the opera, about A. D. 1600. It was not until her superiority as an actress and singer had been undeniably and triumphantly established on the stage, that she reconquered her musical share in the relig. ious service. And what great distinction in such a position woman has won for herself during the past 200 years! Volumes have been written on those opera singers, many of whose very names, as they echo through the pages of history, are in themselves romance and poetry, recalling as they do, the gifts, charms, accomplishments, charities, virtues, errors, adventures, and caprices of their possessors.

standard Italian, French, German, and English dic-
tionaries and biographies of musical art.
And who cannot recall, from the descriptions of
older persons, or from memory, the accomplish-
ments of more recent artists? Who has not heard
or heard of the rich voiced Mrs. Wood, the fascina.
ting Malibran, the impassioned Madame Devrient
of whom it has been said that "she never sang an
inferior song in public during her whole life."-the
charming Sontag and Patti, the intellectual Madame
Lind, the exquisite Madame Nilsson ?

Madame George Sand, in her art-novel "Consue- Musical Correspondence.

lo," has drawn, with that poetic charm and persua
sive force of style that belong to her supremely, the
ideal character of a pure and noble artist woman,
too deeply imbued by lofty enthusiasm for her fine
vocation, to barter its true principles for transitory
success, social flattery, or pecuniary advantage.
This character has been in some measure realized in
the persons of two ladies yet living, Madame Viar-
dot-Garcia, the singer, sister of Malibran, and Mad-
ame Clara Schumann, the pianist, and widow of the
composer Schumann.

That many of the famons songstresses of past
days were capable of interpreting the works of com-
posers in an almost independently creative manner,
the scores of old operas prove. In many of these
the melody is reduced to a mere thread, in order to
give the songstress perfect liberty in varying the
theme according to the passion and action of the
poetry she was to interpret. But it is impossible
for the most ardent disciple of woman's progress to
point to such a galaxy of celebrities among female
composers, as may be placed, without losing their
brilliancy, beside the names that add lustre to
womanhood in other branches of art, and in literat-

ure.

In musical composition we cannot boast stars of such distinction as Mrs. Browning, Heloise. Mrs. Lewes, Mrs. Siddons, Mdme. Sand, Rosa Bonheur, I shall only allude to a very few of these ladies; Aspasia, Miss Cushman, Mdme. de Staël, Miss and one of the first mentioned in history we find to Brontè. Dora d'Istria, Miss Thompson, the nan Roshave been Vittoria Archilei, a highly accomplished witha, Fernan Caballero, and all the rest. The list musician at the court of Florence in 1600, and who of feminine composers is a brief one, and most of took part in the first Italian opera that was comits members are now living. There was the prinposed and represented in public. Faustina Bordoni, cess Amalia, of Prussia, sister of Frederick the born in 1700, wife of the famous composer Hasse, Great, who composed operas and cantatas; Leowas one of the greatest artists that ever lived; med-poldine Blahetka (daughter of a professor of matheals were struck in her name, and societies estab- matics in Vienna), who published more than 70 lished in her honor. Her rival, Regina Mingotti, pianoforte pieces and songs, some of which_were whose portrait now stands in the Dresden Gallery, greatly admired by Beethoven; Josephine Lang. delighted the historian, Dr. Burney, by her fresh-the friend of Mendelssohn, who composed a number ness of voice at a very advanced old age, as well as of charming songs; Madame Farrenc, whose inspiby her power of conversing with equal elegance in ration and science attained masculine proportions; five languages. Madame Mara, the favorite singer Mrs. Fanny Hensel, sister of Mendelssohn; Louise of Frederick the Great and of Marie Antoinette, en- Puget, whose vocal romances lately enjoyed an enorchanted Europe for nearly fifty years; at the age mous popularity in France, and won a large fortune of seventy she still sang in public, though the pow for their composer; Mdme. Schumann aud Mdme. er of her voice had vastly declined; some years af Garcia, who have composed some fine works, though terwards, the great poet Goethe wrote a poem in few; Madame Dolby in England; Virginia Gabriel, honor of her birthday. Caterina Gabrielli, the pu: the balladist; Elise Polko, who, carefully educated pil of Metastasio, excited her audiences to alternate as a singer, lost her voice prematurely, then wrote frenzies of admiration and anger, with her voice, for many years a number of novelettes, and now apbeauty, caprices and adventures. When Catharine pears before the world as a song composer; and a of Russia complained to the singer that her emolu- few other ladies. ments were far higher than those of the Field Marshals of the Empire, Madame Gabrielli replied, "Then your Majesty must try to make the Field Marshals sing!" Madame Catalani, born in 1779, possessed a trumpet-like power of voice; in London she received twelve hundred dollars for singing the solo in "God save the King," and twelve thousand dollars for assisting at one musical festival. Mrs. Billington, a blooming English woman, far removed in physical and mental characteristics from the popularly received idea of a sorceress, was accused by the superstitious Neapolitans of causing the erup; tion of Mount Vesuvius in 1794, by her wonderful vocal powers, and the excitement they produced in Naples. M. Thiers has translated the autobiogra-chology, languages, as well as general literary acphy of Mrs. Billington into the French language. Another gifted and beautiful singer, Agnes Schebest, published an interesting autobiography ("Aus dem Lehen einer Künstlerin,") about twenty years ago. Mrs. Sheridan, too (the wife of the dramatist), whose personal beauty and thrilling voice have been celebrated by poets and painters, was also remarkable for her poetic talent. Of Miss Stephens, the ballad singer, it was said that her power over the hearts of others arose from the depth of her own feeling, and the warmth and sensitiveness with which this informed her charming voice. Miss Stephens afterwards married the Earl of Essex. If I am not mistaken, the countess is still living.

I might long continue to enumerate such instances of genius and success in public songstresses; but any musical student can search for them in the

CHICAGO, DEC 23, 1876. Since my previous communication quite a number of musical events require attention. First of these is the concert of the Beethoven Society given in McCormick hall, Dec. 14. The pro

gramme was:

1. "Toggenburg," a cycle of ballads (for solo
voices and chorus)........
2. Romanza for 'Cello..

Rheinberger
Popper

........

“Landing of the Pilgrims" (Chorus)..F. W.Root "Ah! Rendimi quel Cor".

Mr. Eichhelm.

3.

4.

...Rossi

Miss Ella A. White.

5.

Concerto for Pianoforte (in G minor). (with
Quintet accompaniment).....

Mendelssohn

Mrs. L. H. Watson.

Solo voices and Chorus.

This programme was noticeable for its novelties; for such were all the numbers except the fifth; and in this respect it does great credit to the director, Mr. Wolfsohn. It was, however, too long, and especially placed Gade's beautiful cantata at a disadvantage by bringing it so late in the evening, it lacking but about ten minutes of ten o'clock when the Comala was begun.

Strictly speaking, the performances at such concerts as this, and those of the Apollo club, do not form a proper subject of criticism, since they are not public, but given before the associate members only; besides, in the present case they were the work of amateurs. Nevertheless they may be discussed from an educational stand-point, in which case some consideration of the quality of the performance comes in, because the quality of the interpretation has so much to do with rendering the works intelligible and thereby instructive. Hence, while I may not feel free to speak of the solo singing on this occasion as I would if the singers were merits of the chorus work, and the judgment of the con professionals, I am at least at liberty to consider the with them properly. ductor in assigning solo parts to singers unable to deal

The chorus on this occasion numbered something less than two hundred, the parts being quite well balanced. The accompaniments were at first a pianoforte, and afterwards (in Comala) a quintet and piano. In point of attack, intonation, shading, and contrast the chorus work was of a very indifferent quality. The voices were not well together, the tone was not elastic, and the general effect was monotonous. At the same time the voices were good, and there was no reason why efficient rehearsals would not have prepared an effective perform. ance. On the whole, I confess that a feeling of sadness comes over me when I think of it. For the work done by this society has been of considerable value to the musical taste of the town, and it is melancholy that now, when they have rivals in the field, young, energetic, and capable, they should not rise to the new demands this competition lays upon them. I would be glad to proph. ecy smooth things, but really I cannot, and so I beg to say that unless the Beethoven Society of Chicago can attain to a higher standard of choral work they must content themselves with a second-class position.

"

it was twenty years ago. The soprano, however, Mrs.

But women have only lately realized the depth and strength of the science of music, and what long years of severe mental discipline and scientific train. ing are necessary in order to master the art of composition. This is not much to the dishonor of their courage and patience, indeed, for a comparatively small number of musical students among the other sex in America are willing to devote themselves to such self-sacrificing study; too many who do commence it become discouraged when they begin to understand the amount of labor required, and the The solo work was une qual. In the "Toggenburg ' thorough training necessary to insure perfect devel. the bass and alto parts were taken by Mr. Carl Bergopment to their talent for composition, and lasting stein and Mrs. J. Balfour, both of whom sang admira. fame to its results. Mathematics, acoustics, psy-bly, although the voice of the former is not quite what quirements, the practice and technicalities of severmastered by the aspirant in composition, and grad- I al instruments, and the science of music, must all be ually, through the application and assimilation of long years of study, become the "second nature" of his mind. It may be some encouragement to the sincere student to know that the grandest original the repose indispensable to a public performer. idea of a Handel or a Mozart demanded as perfect working out, as fine polishing, as the smallest fancy that ever issued from the brain of a ballad writer. And why should not women of sufficient intellectual and especial ability to warrant the possibility of their obtaining honorable distinction, make an effort, and, discarding the absurd idea that composition is an affair of instinct, study to compose for immortality also? There is surely a feminine side of composition, as of every other art. And I would suggest the adoption of the science of composition

understand) in a very beautiful manner. The air it Bond, was inadequate to the part. Miss Ella White sang her arias from Rossi (one of the old Italian Rossi's,

self is musical and pleasing. The string accompaniment was arranged by Mr. H. Clarence Eddy. Of Mrs. Watson's piano playing I have formerly spoken. She lacks

Considerable exception might be taken to the tempos in Comala, the chorus of spirits, for instance, being very much too slow. In consequence of the feeble contrasts

and the heavy, inelastic, tone of the chorus, this performance loses much of its proper educational value.

On several occasions when I have expressed myself privately to the foregoing effect, I have been met with the suggestion that it is worth more to the musical taste of the town to have new and important works even indifferently rendered, than to have a few short choruses

sung even to perfection. The point of this lies in the application of it, which is to the short choruses "per fectly" performed by the Apollo Club. But in my opin ion the alternative is not properly presented. There was no reason, for instance, why on this occasion the Beethoven Society should have attempted to do so much new work. They have in their repertory a number of very fine works, and if they had done "Comala" well, and filled out the programme with two or three numbers taken from the "Walpurgis Night," or Beethoven's Mass in C, or any of the other works they have given, the educational value of the programme would, in my opinion, have been increased. Suppose, for instance, the programme had been only this:

1. Spinning Chorus from "Flying Dutchman." Female Voices.

Here would have been a performance quite long enough, lasting fully an hour and a half, yet (if the choruses had been well drilled) thoroughly enjoyable; and if the rendering of Comala had really risen to the dignity of an interpretation (through fine chorus shading, elasticity of tone, broad contrasts, proper tempos, and competent solos) the effect upon the taste of the audience would have been much greater.

I have pursued these remarks at some length because the same dilemma of good music and indifferent performance, or indifferent music and good performance, seems to present itself in every such case. Whereas, properly speaking, no conductor is reduced to so fatal an alternative. For whatever may be the limitation of his resources, there exists somewhere music adapted to his case; and a fine performance is merely a question of competent drill, provided, of course, the management has the nerve to weed out incompent or careless singers. In the present case there is no lack of resources. It is only a lack of nerve, or something, in the direction.

The Kellogg English Opera is now giving a two weeks season here. The list was: Trovatore, The "Marriage of

Figaro," The "Flying Dutchman," The "Bohemian

Girl," The "Star of the North," Martha, Fra Diavolo, and a matinée not announced. The papers speak of Miss Kellogg as poor in Trovatore. I attended the "Marriage of Figaro" and the "Flying Dutchman." The former went excellently, except a few slips on the part of one or two who were new in their parts, and the countess (Mme. Rosewald), who has a hard, unsympathetic voice, and is quite incapable of the part. The Count was Mr. Carleton, who sang his part very well, but there is some. thing too stiff in his manner. Mrs. Seguin was charming as usual in Cherubino. and Miss Kellogg's Susanna is also a pleasing performance.

Of the "Dutchman " I cannot speak so favorably. The music itself impresses me as crude and tiresome. The story-well, it is moral. at any rate, and that is something in a libretto. The orchestra contained no more than thirty pieces on the first performance, and on the repetition not so many. The first violins were but four. "Where, oh where, were the Hebrew children" who should have been paying for a larger orchestra for Wagner's sake? The singing was not badly done. Miss Kellogg is quite incapable of such a part as that of Benta. On the present occasion she ussd a tremolo continually, and, unless my ear deceived me, sang a shade be. low the pitch in many places. The part of Vanderdecken was taken by Mr. Carleton, and his part and Mr. Turner's Pilot were the best things of the whole.

And yet it ought to be set down to the credit of Miss Kellogg and her associates that they have added another opera to the hackneyed list; and while their orchestral and choral resources were not adequate to do it well, one could at least judge of the subject-matter of the music itself, and in spite of what I said above I found the chorus of mariners and pilot's song in the first act remarkably good, and there were bits of goodness all along. In Fhort this music reminds me of what Carlyle says about the talk of Samuel Taylor Coleridge:

"It was not flowing any whither like a river, but spreading any whither in inextricable currents and regurgitations like a lake or sea; terribly deficient in definite goal or aim?

The Hershey Music Hall is a small hall holding eight hundred, just about completed, in the very centre of the city (opposite McVicker's Theatre, near State and Madison Sts.) It will within a month contain a fine concert organ and altogether it affords an admirable place for small concerts, scientific lectures, etc.. It is occupied by the "Hershey School of Musical Art," and the Beetho ven Society. When not wanted for these it is for rent.

DER FREYSCHUETZ.

Dwight's Journal of Music.

BOSTON, JAN. 6, 1877.

Christmas Oratorio.

The Handel and Haydn Society gave its sixtysixth performance of The Messiah (its 594th Concert in 62 seasons) on Sunday evening, Christmas Eve. As usual at that joyful festival, the Music Hall was

crowded. The performance on the whole was one
of the best. Certainly the great chorus has seldom,
if ever, done its work so well. The choruses, un-
der Conductor ZERRAHN, aided by the organist of
the Society, Mr. B. J. LANG, at the piano, had been
rehearsed with zealous care and even with enthusi

asm.

"

the contralto solos. Her rich and sympathetic voice, and her large, evenly sustained, expressive delivery, appeared to excellent advantage in "0 thou that tellest" and in "He was despised," the latter being given in a chaste and unaffected manner, without any of that sentimental overdoing of Some of the most difficult and hitherto baf-expression which has been too common in that fling choruses went with a certainty, a smoothness song, and without that man-nish quality in the deep and distinctness which we have hardly known be tones so offensive in many of the powerful contralfore. Such were: "His yoke is easy." Their tos. Mr. WM. J. WINCH sang the more pathetic sound is gone out," and "Let us break their bonds tenor solos with great refinement and true feeling, asunder." Generally the attack was prompt and and with a sweet quality of tone. And in the ener decided, the balance of parts good, the ensemble getic and trying “Thou shalt dash them" he was rich and musical, and the effect grand or beautiful remarkably successful; except that the high ▲ on as the composition required. There was moreover "dash," in his strenuous effort to give it all possible an important improvement in the treatment of the emphasis, was rather robbed of tone. Mr. M. W. orchestral accompaniment. The phrasing and bow- WHITNEY was in grand voice, and rendered the bass ing of the violins, and all the strings, which hither- solos very impressively. By the way, the quartets: to has followed an absurd tradition,-in short a 'Since by man came death," etc., were sung a ca. coarse and careless habit of playing nearly every pella, quite without accompaniment, in spite of Mo figure with a hacking staccato, had been carefully zart's score,—a questionable innovation, we incline conformed by the conductor to the evident intentions to think. of Handel's score; so that we no longer heard the incongruous and stilted separate accent on each note accompanying the legato of the voices.

And now the Handel and Haydn Society have begun rehearsal for their Triennial Festival, of four days, in May. There will be four evening Oratorio performances (Thursday to Sunday inclusive), and two afternoon Concerts. Among the works mentioned for performance are: "Israel in Egypt," Beethoven's "Mount of Olives," Mendelssohn's "95th Psalm," and a portion of Bach's Christmas Oratorio.

Concerts.

HARVARD MUSICAL ASSOCIATION. The fourth Sym

its regular date, and coming the day after Christmas, showed but a slight falling off in attendance. The programme, composed entirely of good things which never grow hacknied, unless we except the concluding portion of the last Overture, was as

And here is the place to speak of the additional accompaniments which Robert Franz has furnished to several numbers of the work which Mozart had omitted to complete in the admirable manner in which he had fitted the rest of the oratorio for public performance. It can hardly be supposed that the mass of the audience. not technically musical, noticed particularly wherein the passages in ques- phony Concert, (Tuesday, Dec. 26), postponed from tion sounded better than before; and yet unconsciously they must have experienced a fresh pleasure in them. To musical students and observers the improvement must have been palpable. A much richer and warmer coloring was imparted to the Air: "He shall feed his flock," by the addition of two clarinets, two bassoons, and particularly two horns, though this had been suggested heretofore at least upon the Organ. In like manner the pair of clarinets and of bassoons filled out the middle harmony, so long left to the Organ, with excellent cffect in a considerable number of the choruses, arias, and the more graphic recitatives, as "Thus saith the Lord, And I will shake." etc. And several times the fine contrapuntal art of Franz was beantifully manifested in the answering phrases, imitations, which he has given to those middle instruments, or instrumental voices, keeping up the poly; phonic continuity. Who can doubt that Handel himself did that when he presided at his organ? A number of the shorter recitatives, heretofore left with only a figured Lass, have been written out by Franz for the quartet of strings, and certainly they sounded better.

But one thing surprised and puzzled us, of which
we have since learned the explanation. We listened
with the Mozart score in hand; and in quite a num-
ber of passages of several measures, where Mozart's
instrumentation is full, we heard no sound of it.-
only the deep bass murmuring with the voice.
These were mostly end passages, or cadences; and
it would seem that English tradition has been fol-
lowed in this modification of Mozart's score. Of
course it sounded unusually meagre; but we under-
stand that it has been customary until now to carry
out the instrumental parts to their conclusion on the
organ.

of superlative excellence, no famous prima donna.
The solos averaged well, if there was no singer
The Soprano pieces were divided between Mrs. J.
W. WESTON, and a new aspirant, Miss LILIAN B.
NORTON. The latter has a pure, large, powerful
voice, which she has a tendency to use (probably in
the over-anxiety of a debutante in that large hall)
somewhat too powerfully. Her vocal culture, too,
seemed hardly equal to her sympathetic musical
feeling, her dramatic intensity and good conception.
She gave "There were Shepherds" and "Rejoice
greatly" with fine effect, and promises to take very
high rank among our singers in these nobler tasks.
Mrs. Weston sang "But thou didst not leave" and
"I know that my Redeemer " very sweetly, but
with rather indistinct enunciation. Miss MATILDE
PHILLIPPS, who made so good an impression in the
opera of Semiramide a year ago, won great favor in

follows:

Concert Overture, in A, Op. 7....

.Rietz

The orchestra labored under other disadvantages besides the general distraction and demoralization of the holidays. Misfortunes never come single. The rehearsals, too few at best, had to be held in a different hall from that of the final performance; and then the first oboist was taken sick, so that his part had to be played by the second (without rehearsal), with a mere flute to represent the second, -so poor are we here in this important little instrument! Verily the whole fate of the concerts has seemed more than once to hang upon an obne.

Nevertheless there was a spirited and quite effec tive rendering of the two Overtures: that by Rietz, one of the very best of modern compositions of the class of which Mendelssohn' urnished the models, one which always comes up fresh and interesting; and the "Jubilee" by Weber, brilliant and buoyant, which we have not heard too often of late, and which made a stately and exhilarating ending to the concert, although, composed as it was for an Eng lish patriotic occasion, its noisy serving up of "God save the King" for a finale partakes rather of the character of clap-trap. The Pastoral Symphony was at all events refreshing as a sweet summer

dream in this bleak and icy season, as if the master tone-poet had stolen and preserved for us the very tune out of the heart of summer and the country. Some of the rendering was a little rougher than of late; but the beautiful Andante "by the brookside" and the clearing up after the thunderstorm, with the finale, made clear and charming pictures.

Mr. SHERWOOD gave a very sure, strong, decided rendering of the wonderful Schumann Concerto. There is great strength, and at the same time elasticity in his touch; on the whole we think we note a growing tendency to too much strength, to the degree that musical tone suffers; it is too common

with the most modern school of pianists; brilliancy, effectiveness, unflagging certainty in carrying through long feats of difficulty, seem purchased at almost too dear a cost. This artist, however, reads all intelligently, phrases clearly and misses no points. Nor is there any lack of musical feeling. The Intermezzo was interpreted with a poetic, deli- | cate appreciation; and he struck into the rapid Allegro vivace, bristling with difficulties, and taxing the utmost flexibility and strength of most fingers, with a glorious ease and confidence that triumphed to the end. Mr. Sherwood plays entirely without notes, and to this habit we cannot help ascribing in part the too much humoring of tempo in the first movement. We intended to make the same suggestion with regard to Miss Rivé's performance of the C-minor Concerto of Beethoven. Is it not better, safer on the whole, in playing with an orchestra, or in any concerted music, to put one's self on

an equality with the rest so far as possible, and play with the notes before one?—Mr. WINCH's singing of "Adelaide" was beautifully tender, sympathetic, chaste, refined. His voice is sweeter and more sensitive than ever; the accompaniment, too, by Mr. DRESEL, was masterly; and there was nothing to disturb or clog a pure, warm reproduction of that perfect love song, except the English words, which refused free and easy passage to the last movement taken at a quick, enthusiastic tempo. If the singer be not sufficiently at home in the German language, the Italian version is a very fine one, close to the thought of the original, beautiful in sound, and easiest of all to sing.

In place of Mme. Schiller and the Schumann

to hear the beauty of the whole work brought out After listening attentively to this artist's playing,
more satisfactorily than it was that evening. There I must confess that it strikes me that he has often
is a well established understanding and quick sym- | met with very uncalled for hard treatment at the
pathy between the instruments. To our taste that | hands of critics. I think that, upon the whole, we
Quartet was the best thing of the evening. Of Americans are too prone to set down any personal
course the songs do not come into the comparison. peculiarity of manner, gesture, or dress to the score
Mr. OSGOOD was remarkably happy in the two songs of affectation. Every artist must from the nature
by Franz, particularly the joyous "Im Wald! im of his position strive to produce some effect; if the
Wald," which gave full chance for his best tones; tistic one, we cry out against clap-trap and charla-
effect produced does not strike us as a high or ar-
and he sang them with the most inspiring of accom- tanry, catering to the depraved taste of the masses,
periments, that of OTTO DRESEL, who finds a music and what not. We do not often think it worth our
in the very tones of the piano found by very few. while to consider to what order of taste the artist
Warmly recalled, Mr. Osgood also sang the delicate Is it improbable that an artist should naturally ap-
is by his own nature sincerely impelled to appeal.
Schlummerlied of Franz, to words by Tieck, with its peal to the class of listeners whose ideal in art co-
wonderful low murmuring accompaniment.
incides with his own? It seems to me that Ole Bull
has a rare talent, call it genius if you will, for giv-
of the violin (!) The sentiment itself may be mawk-
ing the intensest expression to the most common-
ish and shallow, its expression overstrained, but it
may be very genuine for all that. No man can pro-
Bull often does without having some very genuine
duce such powerful effects upon his hearers as Ole
link of sympathy between himself and them. Mere
clap-trap cannot do such things. As for criticising
to express an opinion on what he does not under-
his playing, I do not think that any critic has a right
stand. If a man tells me that he likes and enjoys
derstand him well enough; there is a tangible point
Lilly Dale and The Last Rose of Summer, I can un-
on which our sympathies meet. But when I see a
man pouring out his whole soul over Lily Dale;
when I find that Lily Dale arouses feelings in him
as intense as my own are in hearing the adagio in
Beethoven's great B-flat sonata, and that he can
work himself up to such a delirium of anguish that
he is well nigh ready to "die of a rose in aromatic
pain." then I feel that I do not understand him, I

Of this week's Concert (Thursday, Jan. 4) we can only vellously sang in the few notes of prelude to the

give just now the programme:

Symphony No. 4, in B flat, Gade; Rec., and Aria, "Non più di fiori," from Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito" (Madame LUISA CAPPIANI); Overture to "Athalia," Mendelssohn.-Andante and Finale from Schubert's Grand Duo, Op. 140, arranged for Orchestra by Joachim; Bongs with Piano-Forte: a, "The Violet," Mozart, b. "Ungeduld," Schubert; Overture to "Egmont," Beethoven.

The Sixth Concert will come after a four weeks' interval, on Feb. 1, when Miss NITA GAETANO's lovely voice

Perabo played, with Messrs. Listemann and Hart
Quintet (which we shall have another time), Mr.
degen, the Trio in A minor, Op. 155, by Raff, which
we like about as well as any of his compositions in
this form; for, though we cannot quite acquit it of
modern extravagances, it is a bold, fiery, original
series of inventions and contrasts, some of the
movements beautiful; and it lacked nothing in the
execution or the interpretation, both artists playing
with fire and thoroughly absorbed and happy in it.
Mr. Osgood's voice did not serve him quite so
well for the delivery of the exquisite "Stille Liebe
of Schumann; that is, it does not lie in his best
tones; but he sang con amore, and the piano mar-
verses. Schubert has caught all the ecstacy of
Shakespeare's "Lark" song, and it was given to us.
Mr. Sherwood gave a strong and earnest rendering
of Chopin's noble Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, be-
sides a rather dry but brilliant Octave study by
Kullak.-The Sextet by Beethoven although it is
registered as Op. 816, sounds like one of his very
early works, much in the vein of Mozart, simple
and naive, yet very fresh and charming. The two
horns have a task which is no child's play and ad-
Schumann; their rich, warm, golden quality of
tone was of itself enough to charm the senses
throughout several movements, so long as the com-
position as a whole was sound and honest.
The third Concert will take place on Wednesday even-
ing, Jan. 17, with this programme:

will be heard, and Mendelssohn's "Italian" Symphony. mirably were they played by Mr. Belz and Mr.

SANDERS THEATRE, CAMBRIDGE. The second Concert was of Chamber Music (Thursday evening, Dec. 21). It was a very stormy night, but the theatre was all light and beauty,-sunshine of the soul; in that genial sphere of Art all outside was forgotten. A chapter of accidents kept the friendly audience waiting for some time. In the first place, Mme. SCHILLER'S illness was announced, and the appearance of two excellent pianists, Messrs. PERABO and SHERWOOD in her place. Then it leaked out that the violoncellist, while entering the vestibule, had slipped upon the icy step and broken his instrument; another had to be procured from an amateur; finally the LISTEMANN party, rather than wait longer, began their Mozart Quartet without music stands, a want supplied before the second movement. The programme, as printed, was the following:

Mozart

1. Quartet for Violins, etc., in C...
Adagio-Allegro-Andante cantabile-Minu-
etto-Allegro molto.

Messrs. B. Listemann, F. Listemann, A. Belz,
and A. Hartdegen.

2. Songs: a. "Evening;" b. "The Woods '... Franz
Mr. George L. Osgood.
3. Quintet for Piano and Strings, in E flat major,
Op. 44....
.......Schumann
Allegro brillante-In Modo d'una Marcia
-Scherzo-Allegro ma non troppo.
Madame Madeline Schiller and Messrs. B Liste-
mann, F. Listemann, A. Belz, and A. Hart-

degen.

1. Songs: a. "Silent Love”.

Schumann b. "Hark! hark! the lark" ...Schubert 2. Piano Solo, “Invitation to the Dance," arranged by Tausig.. .Von Weber Madame Madeline Schiller. 3. Sextet for Two Horns and Strings, in E flat, Op. 81, b..

...Beethoven

(Two movements.)
Adagio-Rondo, Allegro.
Messrs. A. Belz, C. Schumann, B. Lis temann, F.
Listemann, E. Weiner, and A, Hartdegen.

If we had any doubts about the acoustic excellence of the room on listening to the orchestra before, they entirely vanished from our mind upon this last occasion. Never have we heard the violin or the pianoforte render a more pure and lovely quality of tone in any room than both did here. The tone of Mr. Listemann's leading violin in the Quartet by Mozart,— -a dear old favorite-was well nigh perfect; and it would be too much to expect

er,'

Trio for Piano, Violin, and Violoncello, in B flat,
Op. 97, Beethoven, Messrs. PERABO, LISTEMANN, and
HARTDEGEN; Songs, "Withered Flowers," "Whith-
," Schubert, Miss CLARA' DORIA; Romanza and
Scherzo for Piano and Violoncello, Paine, Messrs.
PERABO and HARTDEGEN; Violin Solo Mr. B, LISTE-
MANN; Songs, "Matin_Song," Paine, "Swiss Song,"
Frans, Miss DORIA; Piano Solo, Nocturne, Rubin-
stein, Sketch. Mendelssohn, Mr. ERNST PERABO: Sep-
tet, Op. 20, Beethoven, BOSTON PHILHARMONIC CLUB.
In the fourth Concert Mme. SCHILLER will play the
great Schumann Quintet with the Philharmonic Club,
and, for a solo, Tausig's arrangement of Weber's "Invi-
tation to the Dance."

MR. PECK'S TWO CONCERTS drew large audiences to the Music Hall, with OLE BULL for principal attraction, on Thursday evening and Saturday after noon of last week. There were the Swedish Ladies also, and the Philharmonic Club, and Miss FANNY KELLOGG, who sang finely in music of a highly florid and exacting character; and there was to have been Miss JULIA RIVÉ, but that interesting young artist is seriously ill, they say, at home in Cincin nati; and her place was supplied by Mr. W. H. SHERWOOD, who seems ever prepared for all emergencies. Ole Bull still holds the crowd as ever; and the same things which many others do, the same arts and tricks of the violin, the same hacknied cadences, seem finer to the crowd when done by him. To us the remarkable thing is that as an artist, as a virtuoso, he is still precisely what and where he was when he first came to this country over thirty years ago, and does precisely the same things, plays precisely the same music, and with as intense an interest apparently as if it were the present moment's inspiration. There is a certain Norse romance about his life and whole appearance, which doubtless accounts for a great part of the charm.

His "Carnival" is indeed the funniest of all the funny versions of it; they all grew on one tree, of Paganini's planting.

Of him, and of the concerts generally, Mr. W. F. Apthorp writes as follows in the Courier of Sunday:

place musical sentiment. He is the Felicia Hemans

cannot conceive in what relation he stands to music sympathy that we have in common, and upon which in general, I cannot imagine any point of aesthetic I can rest the lever of an argument. Our ideas on conjugal affection and floriculture may very likely be the same, but when we come to the Art of Music, we no longer talk the same language. What I can admire in Ole Bull is the beautiful and sympathetic quality of the tone he draws from his instrument. It is not brilliant, it is hardly a manly, powerful tone, but it is sweet as honey. As an executant, I can see nothing in him above other excellent violinists; he plays with a loose bow and a flat bridge, which gives him great facilities for double and treble-stopping, but the one thing that makes him a really phenomenal item in the list of violinists is his intensity-mark the word-his intensity of feeling in playing. Miss Fanny Kellogg was received with marked favor by the audience and sang an air from Adam's Giraldo extremely well. Her voice is a light soprano of pleasant quality and considerable flexiblity, though of no great distinction of timbre. Her forte is evidently ballad singing and I know few singers who can surpass her in this branch. Mr. William H. Sherwood showed himself the true artist he is. and was warm.

ly applauded for his fine playing of Liszt's transcription of the Tannhauser March. His playing of the Rubinstein Serenade and the Chopin Etude struck me as even more effective, as the Mu ic Hall is far too large for the Liszt piece to make much effect in, but the selections did not seem to be so much to the taste of the audience. Mr.

Freygang played a very brilliant Harp-Fantasia of his own arrangement, on theme from Halevy's Jewess, most admirably. The Swedish Ladies Quartette were charming as ever, and showed in Schumann's Wassermann that they are fully up to higher musical tasks than Folk-song singing.

The Saturday afternoon concert was fully as largely attended as that on Thursday evening. Ole Bull again delighted his many admirers by his extraordinary play ing, which was even more intense, extravagant and fantastic than before. I would gladly say something about his compositions (the concerto in E, the Mountains of Norway, which he played on Thursday evening, and The Vision and Saeterbesog, which he played on Saturday,) if I could only get some clue to what he means by them. I have heard them called melodious, and am willing to believe that some persons may be edified by them, but to me they are drearily incomprehensible, perfect musical (or unmusical) Saharas, wanting even in the piquancy of striking ugliness. Mr. Sherwood played the facinating Flying-Dutchman Spinning Song very brilliantly, together with Schumann's Bird as Prophet, and a taking little caprice of his own. Mr. Freygang played Parish Aloars's Ka Mandoline with such a grace that he had to play something more to satisfy the audience. Miss Fannie Kellogg sang the Polonaise from Mignon with much brilliancy, and appeared to even better advantage in Taubert's bewitching Echo Song. The Swedish ladies were again charming. Would that we heard more of such good part singing by female voices. ably, but the audience did not seem in the mood to In both concerts the Philharmonic Club played admirlisten to good chamber music amid so many bewildering "attractions," and we fear that unless the sympathy of all true music lovers and their own artistic self-respect rewards them sufficiently, the exertions of this excellent body of artists met with but little reward. But let us not be cynical because chamber music is out of place at such concerts. Let us rather congratulate Mr. Peck upon the success of his concerts, which have given great pleasure to a large number of persons.

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