Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-03
THE MUSIC WORLD.
Proposed Congress in Connection
With the Worlds Fair.
OBJECTIONS THAT ARE RAISED.
None Are Serious, and Urging Them Only
flinders the Project.
KALI MEREs SUCCESSOR AT WOOSTER

Two important matters determined at the
recent meeting of the Music Teachers Ma
tional Association, at Detroit have been
made the subject of considerable comment,
mostly adverse.
First, it was resolved to omit next years
meeting and to reassemble again in 1882
at Minneapolis. The DISPATCH, has
already placed itself on record as
favcring biennial sessions of the National
Association in order to leave every second
year free :or the various State associations,
thus enabling each to do its own work bet
tex and to cooperate moro effectively with
each other in furthering the common cause.
Many who favor the general policy of bien-
nial meetings are, however, opposed to
dropping the meeting of 1891, which they
thiEk should be held in order to formulate
authoritatively the now inchoate plans for a
proper representation of musical art in the
Worlds Fair at Chicago in 1898. This
brings up the second and more important of
the two matters referred to above.
1t was resolved at the Detroit meeting to
hold in connection with the Worlds Fair
an International Congress of Musicians
upon scale commensurate with the dignity
of the art and the importance of the occasion.
The whole matter of arrangements and de-
tails was instructed to a commission COM
posed of some so odd musicians and busi-
ness men of prominence, about two.thirds of
whom constitute the active force, the re-
mainder forming an advisory board.
1t is objected that certain constitutional
technicalities were violated in these actions;
that the entire power to act should not have
h. 80. L. l.. 9
mission, without any report to and ap-
provaI by a general meeting of the NJ. T.
n. A. next year (1S92 being, of course,
altogether too late for any alterations BY the
general meeting) and, worst of all, that the
whole matter has been engineered by a GER
tain Chicago clique for its own personal ad-
vantages.
~
The practical question now is, what are
you going to do about it? If the constitu-
tion was cracked, it cannot be helped now.
The officers elected at the Detroit meeting
will hardly care to assume the responsibility
of calling the association together next year
in the face OF such action by the very body
that chose them. If they did, it is
doubtful whether a fair representa-
tion could be secured. And, any,
how, to secure for the musical fea-
lures their full share of recognition
in the general scheme of the fair, it is really
better 10 have the matter in charge of q
compact commission with power to act at
once upon every opportunity during the pre-
imInary work of next winter than to leave
it in abeyance during this all-important
year until it can be worked over, altered and
amended by large body unfamiliar with
the details.
The whole question practically narrows
down to the composition of that commission.
What if the scheme has been worked up in
the personal interest of some particular
clique? That is inevitable; most people
that put their shoulders to such a
wheel expect personal benefit from it,
and it is only right that they
should. But that benefit it is pertinent
to observe, depends chiefly upon making the
affair s. successful as TO commend their
maa@Eement of it to the public at large.
There is also the correlative risk of losing
reputation by a failure to rise to the meas
ure of such high duties and responsibilities.
1t all comes back, then, to the question of
who compose that commission.
Here is the list as given by the Musical
Courier:
The commission will consist of President.
Perkins, of Ohio; Treasurer,.W. H. Heath, of
Philadelphia; Executive Committee, Frederic
J. Gleason. Q. L. Fox, ]. 81. Hahn, e. L. Doll,
Ladwig Thomas. Mrs. L. Heerwagen. ]. H.
F. klapp. Mrs Myra Ross Wagner, c. B.
Rhodes, Robert c. Bernays. Mrs. Annie G.
Parker, Constantin Sternberg, c. b. Cady,
W. F. Heath, A. Rommel, John W. Met
calf, Rudolph de Roode, J. w. H. Eckert
Henry +. Roy, Henry Scbwing, G. B. Whitney,
+. Mueller, Lily R. Church, Walter Petzel, NJ.
J. Epstein w. A Barbe, Mrs. E. ]. Mcmillan,
Ermina D: Cochran, Mrs. A. Layton. E. T.
Baldwin, Charles w. Landon. Henry Harding,
w. H Neaye, Johannes Wolfram, E. Cook,
n M + TdSeE HoTsss Ensss
Clark, Jr., John P. Meakin, NJ. H. Eddy F. R. |
Webb. j. c. Fillmore, Edward Fisher w. E. |
Fairclough; programme committee. A R. Par |
sons. Clarence Eddy, n. W. Root. c. Lavallee, |
Z. Sternberg; examining committee of Amer |
ican compositions, Dudley Buck, E. w. Bowman, |
S. y. Whitney, ]. II. RosewaId; advisory board,
]. H. Knowles, Rev. DR.. Gunsauius Fred |
". Peck. Marshall Field, n. 4. Fairbank, |
George w. Pullman, Edison Keith, George |
Upton. W. K. Sullivan, William Penn Nixon
John W. Scott, Washington HesIng Lyman |
Abbott Bishop Potter, Robert Colfyer Felix
Adler, Chauncey NJ. Depew, General Sickles
h Henderson, Gustav Kobbe. H. 7. Finck.
Theodore Thomas. Anton Seidl, Arthur
Nikisch ana Frank Van der Stucken.
Surely such men as the three general officers
and, among the Executive Committee. such
members as Messrs. Gleason, Hahn, Pfeffer-
kern, Sternberg, Cady, Whitney, Baldwin,
Landon, Wolfram, Jarvis, McDougall and
Fillmore-all men of national reputation
have enough at stake to be depended
upon to see that this great enterprise is
carried out in worthy manner
and not prostituted to personal motives. 1t
is, of course, necessary to have the Execu-
tive Committee mainly composed OF Chicago
musicians most of whom could not be ex-
pected TO be known throughout the country.
But it is TO the men above named that the
country at large will look to bear the re-
of the Executive Committee's
actions. As to the programme and examin-
ing committees and the advisory board,
their membership is certainly above cavill.
However constituted, and whether for
better or for worse, this commission is the
BODY de facto to arrange for this occasion of
immense opportunity. No other can now
be created, at least by the NJ. 7. n. A,
which is the organization from which the
by all means should come.
This being so, it is surely best on every
side to bury all differences of opinion as to
the action already taken, and to unite with
one heart in aiding the commission to make
the proposed International Congress of
Musicians, the gtanlest organized effort in
the cause of music yet made in the 400 years
OF New World achievement then to be
celebrated.
x*s
Mr.. d. h. b. Haas. who has been for the |
past seven years connected with the Hollins
Institute, Virginia, has Just been elected
principal Of the musical department Of the
University of Wooster, o. He Is said to be
a man Of thorough education. both literary