The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-05-13
The Musical Festival.

Mention has been frequently made IN
these columns of an approaching musical
elaborate character have been completed
and the festival programme is published in
the advertising department of this paper.
The attention of all our readers and all low
ers of music is asked to this programme. 1t
is the best advertisement the best recon-
mendation, and the strongest appeal for
a free, hearty, and ungrudging support of
the festival, by this and the communities in
the surrounding country, that could be con-
trived. The managers have been unstinted
in their provisions for musical drill and for
entertaining the public. Musicians and the
general public should display spirit as lib
eral and willingness as spontaneous to
contribute, by participation and attendance,
to the complete success of the festival and
the encouragement of the management For
this is not an isolated affair, a speculation, a
musical convention" of the old conven-
tional stamp. 1t is the beginning of what is
designed for a permanent and annually re-
curing festival of music. 1t is not neces
sary to enlarge upon the desirability of such
an institution, from every point OF view, to
this community and the communities of CEN
trail Vermont. 1t is one OF those single
things which in the aggregate are necessary
to build up the prosperity of the people, to
contribute to their happiness, and to pro-
mote the development of their finer and
better qualities For the first time in its
piled with the facilities for holding such a
festival. 1t has now, through the enterprise
of Mr.. ID. A. Guptil, public hall of perfect
acoustic properties, convenient for mu-
sicians and spectators, and having an easy
seating capacity of two thousand. 1t has
the men who have been willing to risk
their money and put their labor into an en-
terprise like this festival. There are graft
flying indications on every hand that all
these things have been marked by the pub
lie, that they are appreciated, and that the
appreciation will be so clearly demonstrated
as to make the establishment of the festival
a permanent institution and an annually
recurring event. 1t is certainly due to the
men who have embarked in this scheme,
that this question of both financial and
moral success should be placed by the pub
| lie beyond the shadow of doubt. We be-
| lieve the public can be trusted to do their
part as completely as the managers are do
| ing theirs. The people certainly cannot af-
ford to come short in any particular. The
| array of local talent alone has often filled
the concert hall, while the list of distin-
| guished vocal and instrumental musicians
from abroad, is rarely surpassed on metro
politan programmes. AS conductor, Carl
Zerrahn needs no advertising. Those
who heard Miss Howe, the soprano, at the
concert by Gilmore's band, in this village,
in the fall of 1882, will recall her singing
with the pleasantest of anticipations. She
had then but recently begun her public
career. Her conquest of her listeners was
complete. Her numbers We're rapturously
encored, and she was honored with repeated
recalls. The report of her singing says
Her trilling, her wonderful high notes,
her pefect staccato in the Theme and Naria'
tions by Proch were the admiration of every
listener and the praise of every tongue
She sang as sings the bird in June, bird
| like in the cearness and sweetness of heI
notes, and in the ease and simplicity of hel
manner" Mrs. Shepard pianist, has, we
believe, never appeared in Montpelier, but
many have heard her at other places, and
her reputation as a musician of fine ability
is we'll established. Mr.. Harry l.. Cornell
basso, is also a new acquaintance here, but
one which everybody will be glad to make
Mr.. II. G.. Blaisdell, chorus master and
leader of orchestra, is one of the first musi
clans of the country, and he will have witt
him the well-trained corps of performers
who compose his famous orchestra. Thi.
band increased to twenty-five pieces fol
the symphony concert at Burlington, vii
be an especial attraction Thursday evening
Friday evenings concert will be the CRANE
occasion of the festival Miss Howe, Mrs
Shepard Mr.. Cornell, Mr.. Stockbridge, a.
soloists, Blaisdel's orchestra and the granC
chorus, with the selections chosen, viii
make a royal feast of music. Trains to ac
commodate the people at a distance, com
ing and returning will be run. There
should be not less than two thousand peo
pie at the Golden Fleece Friday evening.