New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-09-29

writer here certainly Of every muslca ci'Io'
r,xsn,o,. ~ discoveries 10 every wax Of Ltera-
So so;e,ca and AT have usually great difficulties
10 h,;nonv their first works before the public 10 a
g., - secure lust appreciation and adequate re
- The lives of slmest al great authors, painters
"a ,veoor, contain rec ords Of early struggles rec
"a. of Years Of poverty and obscurty-the best
v..-s AZ youth and heslth and mental viso?-iretted
.w.x in tie seemngly hopeless search for book
NJ, ,on1oisseur or capitalist wingto purchase,
nd make patent to the world the first product OF the
unknown. m
pr, whatever obstacles lie between inventors like
these and the public they are as little hocks to the
Aps of difficulty that plant Themselves In the pan oil
The operstic composer whose success lies at the mercy
of 70 betweens and interpreters. Even on the CONT
uent Of Europe, where every principal city hss It's
firmly established opera house-in which native
singers give habtually works in the native language
beside its Italian opera house wherein the ever
present exotic plants Of Italy flourish; even there,
The young composer who, after years OF iaoonous
studies 10 qualify him for the task has finally achieved
Il and holds his first opera written and ready for the
stsoe finds that bis tolls and trials have rot even
commenced. To obtain hearing he must convince
a. manager that bis interest lies in putting at risk
none, for scenery costumes, rehearsals and perhaps
special engagements Of performers requisite for the
work in question; and in doing this the composer
must appeal 10 faculties in which the manager is to-
tally deficient, for not in fifty of them is must
clan capable OF reading score, and hence If no
more able to form opinion on the merits Ofe
manuscript musical work than a bookseller
who could neither read write-i We can
imagine such person-wculd be to decide
upon a Ii ersry work offered him for publication.
From this want Of knowledge ell Ooeratic sgefs-
who a class are mere spectators. and fJlor that
business they would any other, without any sym
patty love for the divine ait-Se their faces yainst
tie prodvc ion Of any work by an untried hand.
They produce only standard woIks-common prop
erty obtained without cost-or purchase specia'
novelties, only from authors of renown paying
simply foI the authors name and not f,r his work.
which they take on trust, az they are utterly un-
able to fo,m any opinion until they see ii ac-
tuaiiy represented on the stage. The two most
popular comp ,sers for the opetatic stage al the
present moment are Meyerbeer and Verdi ANY
new work by them finds competitors for its pur-
chase among s the managers Of Europe, who will
take it "unsght unseen on the strength OF their
names. Yet Meye1beer after comp 'siDg Robert lie
"Diable threw up composition in disgust and retired
from Paris for several years because he could not
tanned from his father rich banker, he purchased
hearing at the opera house in that city, where the
work has since been represented four hundred times.
verdis early life was long struggle for hearing As
he had no rich father to purchase it, it eventually
obtained through that last degradation of gsnius-a
patron But the singers were bad unsuted to their
parts ard his first work was damned and he again con-
sgnso to years Of oblivion. After the composers trials
with the ignorant manager come those with the usu
ally incompetent and nsolent Singers These he must
pay court 20, and mangle his work to suit their ca
prices, or in escaping Charybdis be wrecked on
Scylls.
The early struggles of Meyerbeer and Verdi are bat
the type of those of nearly every composer who has
achieved Iebown through the opera houses OF CONT
mental Europe. But what sh all say Of the thorns
that beset the path of the English American COM
poser; of the producerof works for opera houses 10
countries wLere opera houses for such works-tha is
compositions in the English language-do not exist;
Of writers of operas which must necessarily be repre-
scented in thcaters when an itueraOt company OF vo-
csists gives occasional spasmodic series of repre-
sensations ard shares the receipts which should go to
pay 70, the proper production of such works with the
regular dramatic company that remains idle for the
time being. But in spite even of obstacles like these,
composers = i'll write, GIL once in great while new
one obtains a hearing.
The young mposer in England and America is not
aol denied access TO the public through the opera
house III the production of oratoros and symphonies
he encounters similar obs aclce The Sacred Harmonic
Society of LoI don which, with Costa as leader OF an
orchestra Of one hundred and chorus OF six hundred
gives every week in Exeter Hall standard orator0s 10
style of unequaled excellence was by some extraor-
dina,y influence induced to deviate from its beaten
track and produce an oratorio FROM uDtred hand
a COMPOSER named Griesbach The light in which
this innovation was viewed, and the arguments
against It's repetition made by cores )ondent OF
The London Ahenaum, and the answer of the editor
"A high musical MISUNDERSTANDING why unknown
composers should have some chance TO be heard, so
well portray their position in England that we are
tempted to copy the following from number OF that
journal for July, 1854
"sAcREp H,sNoSIc The folio wing is the com
municson from correspondent to which we adveFted last
week:
O,,toro by the Sacred Harmonic Society in Exeter Ha
gives opportunity not OF c'clzng he WORK wnce
lamar 20 have often wished 70
Pa sD "a bclSnS such position, as the Sacred HamO
Society 20 produce and untried works 81 all an a"ae
that BY persons who write and 'P:ss on musen a5 W.,
cannt thinking Is one OF those notions winch no" pre-
vail OGy became they were boldly ,sserec a. s 5 sa.
of Society like the Sacred Harmonic rather 20 ppduoe
With be utmo care and spendor of esb shed excel
snes han 70 Introduce unknown candidates for pOpu favor
The audiences Exeter Hall DO not consist entirely or pnc
ps ., %sseSansous sssmblsses is hn 70 dssh, AID
them sher than to impose on TEEN me OF
10 our practice other natter ncar great EXPENSE ana
labor in a;ipg work which the menus are sun
tsined do not do so with books, for instance IN,
ms 10 the Of the composer snd considering All ne