New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-05-23

MUCH OF THE OLD TINE ENTHUSIASM
~orAnLE FEATURES or THE FIRST CONCERT
PROFESSOR pAINE's NEW cANTATA.

~orAaLE FEATURES or THE FIRST CONCERT
PROFESSOR PAINE's NEW cANTATA.
ivy TgLraKAru TO THE TRIBUNE
Cincinnati. May The opening OF tho eighth
vx.,r,., Music Festival here tonight was marked
- .ucb happy meeting Of auspicious circumstances
,.t ons docs not need TO be seventh son of seventh
con nor even a shrewd Yankee guesser to fore
tai highly successful outcome for the affair and
,.rh.ns the beginning Of new era for the time
hnored institution. The public interest, as displayed
~ thu attendance on the opening concert IN The oecor
-. 90 MANY of the business houses along the principal
...,s IN the public prints and the conversation of
r.one wherever you meet them,
- rr.at.r than IL has been for six or eight years.
49,, e doubtless largely due TO the wisdom Of the
roucv adopted by the directors last year In calling
:, the whole public for sub
.asr,,on To guarantee the financial outcome of
~. festival The directors. fancy scarcely fore
80 the f,l effect of their own plan They were looking
10 thu dollars simply hundreds OF people found II an
.rv matter twelve months 20 promise from pstri-
-, ..sons 10 take season ticket two year later,
a ali these hundreds unconsciously transformed
,.,o AGENTS. who felt II duty not only TO be en-
..sr.,st,c themselves, but TO infect all with whom
g.. came In contact with the same
.rtsu,asn In consequence the scene
!, the first concert was ono that
ony,d I'D memories OF the Old-time enthusiasm
,~s,.h rave Cincinnati her magnificent Music Hall,
49, M.
A.. Museum and many other outward signs of gentle
D,.,ra II "a beautiful enthusiasm which heightens
~. pleasure of the moment and is big with promise
for the future. c.. $1,000. ,,.a 60 tho
.ssrn ystor the moss interesting of the series IN
,,s whole Festival scheme there are scarcely hall
,.o compositions that not heard in NewHork In
~. ...son recently ended Two of tho hafdozen were
,.rtorn,ed tonight. They hymn for solo voices,
.orus and orchestra In Seinep Ordnung schaht der
,r.rrs sy Weber, and cantata specially composed
tor The occasion by Professor John Knowles Paine
~ Harvard College. The hymn is splendid, sonorous
r,ecs Of music which represents Weber IN
irhs in which we have had few oppor'uhi-
49, 70 study him, namely, as
wr-Ner IN the choral lines laid down by Bach. do
~, think It has ever been given before in America,
and its choice as an opening piece was an admirable
stroke on the part OF MI Thomas
ns solo parts were sung by Nine.
Kslisch- lehman, Mss Emma Cranch, Theodore j.
roedt and Myron ", Whitney. How these artists
oertorrned their task need not be stated Greater
curiosity centred naturally In the chorus, for affairs
IKE the Cincinnati festivals want all raison d'etre
unless the choral muuc supplies It. The choir
is not what It was In Its days
NJ rlory and far from whatcit ought to be. Cncin-
natl has lost OF late years, where such places as
Buffalo, Pittsburg, and if excellent Judges are 20 DO
believed, Petersburg, Va, have gained. The great
nrran tuned TO the low ptCn VI W.
rbomas,s orchestra and thus mado servlceable
10 festival ends, was used to buoy up tho Singers
and yet there not tho pure vibrant quality
which used to be so uplifting, nor tho prompt at
tack and sustained power which one
was Justified In expecting as the fruit
n two years of study. But I am told
the choir has been unstable in It's Constitution during
the greater part Of this time When there was plain
railing as In the Lutheran choral introduced by
Weber all went well, but splendid fugued finale was
not exhlarating
Professor Paine's cantata is the third compost
6on by an American writer that the Cincinnati
festival have oecas,oned. 1t is setting Of
portion Of the ode entitled any Country by
George Edward Woodbury., published in 1.-THE At
lantc Monthly' Of July, 1887. There
n no time for detailed discussion bat
10 the credit of Professor Paine, 10 ought to
be said, with emphasis, that his music was worthy Of
the occasion, and does honor 70 BIS countrymen.
The oedipus excepted, it seems TO me the
best music that he has given to the world
and IN refinement of Instrumentation and warmth Of
feeling It surpassed much Of the Greek composition
II is riumphantly swelling strain, nobler by far than
the poem TO which IT is welded, and showing fewer
evidences of mechanical toll II. T. K.