The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-07-26


Professor Mark @. Baker has worked inde-
fatigably in training the Chautauqua chorus
from Washington, whose constant improve
ment does him great credit. Professor Baker
possesses an unusually sweet and highly cult.
waited voice, and IL he had hailed from New
York or Boston instead of the inland city of
Elmira he would have caused furore.
A HERALD reporter asked him the other
day: Professor, where did YOU finish your
vocal training?"
SIN Leipsic about ten years ago." he re-
piled.
"Do you consider the German music schools
superior to our own?'
"In a sense do; and in another sense l do
not The German maestro is a great stick1er
for practice and for thoroughness. Although
l studied In a German conservatory, was
drilled in the Italian method, my voice being
too light and smooth in quality for
the German ,gutterals, which, in my
opinion, are largely owing to the rug
gedness Of the German language. They
say over there that we Americans are
able to. take a four-year musical course in
three, owing to kind Of get-up- and-go-
ahead manner we have; but the German who
takes four-year course in five years-seldom
in less time-beats us every time He is
thoroughness personifed as to method and
technique. Do you know the difference be-
tween q man and a woman musically con-
sidered? will tell you. A man is for time the
brightest scholar musically. The sopranos
and altos of chorus class will catch onto
and conquer the musical difficulties of a
score twice as quick as the bassos
and tenors The man will catch at
high note or difficult run again and again
before he makes it his own, but when he has
once caught on he never quavers before that
difficulty again. That note, that quiver or
that run is his by right of conquest wherever
he sees 1t, and in whatever key it may be writ
ten. A bright woman will conquera brilliant
aria, or shake to perfection through measure
and bring down the house with rush Of bird
like trills, but if she gets married and gives
up her regular practice, as so many married
singers have q slovenly trick of doing, she
forgets it all in less than three months. When
she again energies into the singing world she
has to pick it all up again. Prima donas are
more numerous, and more successful as a rule,
financially, than great star baritones or tenors
The Germans say there never has been great
female composer, and they do not believe
there ever will be. They say also that she
cannot pursue the intrcacies Of harmony for
over year before she is struck dumb before
the vastness OF the subject, which lies
at the base of all musical composition. Now,
| believe that woman may yet be born
musically endowed with such a sweep
of genius as will constitute her one of the
great composers. Woman is young yet
intellectually. The composer of a great ora
torio or grand opera must have an inward
ear SO delcately attuned that he can hear all
the instruments of the orchestra, all the parts
of the choruses, and all the arias of the solo
lists before he can write chorus, air or score
Don't you see that that is the grandest intel
lectual feat of creation conceivable? Great
musicians have all been first born with this
divine perception of sweet sounds, and heard
these great motives surging within their own
minds before they could be written and it
takes deal of cultivation and study to give
it expression. A woman, say, may some
timeIyet be born to create music as well as
to voice the creations of master minds, as she
now does SO well.''
"What do you think of the new method Of
teaching harmony?'
'There is, in my opinion, not one scientific
method OF teaching harmony. There can be
no short cuts to 1t. Modulation may be
taught in comparatively short time, butwh
ever tackles harmony, the science OF music,
might as we'll take off his coat and roll up
his sleeves for solid, hard work. or course
there are improvements in musical construc-
tion and method. The German professor says
to his class, ou will please to begin on the
E cleft or the { A string instead of so
many bars from the beginning, on page 2l, as
we do over here. There are methods and
methods of teaching. Some of our American
methods are better than the imported article
but for drill, and to get the nonsense knocked
out of you, go to Leipsic or foreign school
where the profession of a musician is honored
of all men, from the king on his throne to the
peasant in the field. Everybody abroad knows
good music from bad, and while the Germans
are not all good singers, their voices being too
rough at times for refined ears, they do enjoy
their saengerfestS, and get deal of fine fellow
ship out of a musical club, of which every
community has one or more" IL. l.. >.