The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-12-23
Highest of all in Leavening Power-LatetU Z. s. Govt Report.
R@AL BakiRs
ABSOLUTELY PURE
MUSICAL MATTERS.

Mr.. Frederic Deans lecture last night on
"Oratorios and Their Writers" was well at
tended, the hall of Hasbrouck Institute be-
ing comfortably filed.
The lecture-the longest yet given-placed
the beginnings of o~ratorio in the rude
medieval miracle and mystery plays. After
their absurdities had caused their suppress
sion by the church, st. Philip de Neri caused
to be performed III his oratory s(in Latin,
ordtorio) simple dialogues illustrating Bible
histories, of which the principal speeches
were either sung or accompanied by music.
The first ''oratorio," scarcely more than a
mystery play, was composed by
Cavaliere, to words by Laura Guide
cioni. TIL stage directions read,
in part:-'W ccrpo, the Body. may throw
away some of his ornaments, such as his
gold collar. The World and Human Life
are to be gaily and richly dressed; and when
they are Invested of their tfappings; to APP
pear very poor and wretched. and at length
dead carcasses." This moral diversion may
be finished with or without a dance-the for
mer preferred. The list of the principal
composers of ~olatorio includes the names of
Carissnni, j. s. Bach, whose passion Music''
stands as a separate department. of oratorio;
Handel, Graun, Stradella, Haydn, Beethoven,
Spohr and Mendelssohn. It was from Haydn,
Handel and Mendelssohn that the musical
numbers were taken.
OF all the choral societies of which Mr..
Victor Baier is the director the Tabernacle
Choir does him the most credit and itself the
least. Out of the thirty OF more who sang
in the chorus last night those who possessed
a real singing voice or had received SYSTEM
tic vocal instruction could have been counted
Oh ones fingers. This, of course, excludes
the soloists of the church, and deals only
with the mass of the choir. With such ma
terlal Mr.. Baier has formed a choir that is
able to sing i~ntelligently such complicated
music as THE Heavens Are Telling or
AHow Lovely Are the Messengers" or even
the "Hallelujah Chorus.n They sing ac-
curately, the parts do not become confused,
as a ruleathey maintain accurate pitch; in
fine, they are a distinct credit to their con-
ductor. 1t is evident that most of the credit
does belong to the conductor, especially in the
case of the contraltos, who lead in 'How
Lovely Are" They had been trained care
fully, and sang with absolute precision, but
the individual voices were so harsh as to seri-
ously impair the effect. This will do for an
example of why it is that the choir reflects
credit upon. its conductor for bringing so
much out OF a chorus whose individual MEM
bers are not as a rule unsteady trained or
talented
The artistic success of the evening was
Mr.. Henry l.. Cases 'Sound an Alarm"
The one reason for this was that Mr.. Case
sang it as if he knew what it meant, and
meant to sing it so. 1t pays to put thought
- - oo OAO AIM ASAh 0is
Hart has a fine voice, which will be in
time much finer. His lower tones especially
are rich and sweet, but-he sang go God
Have Mercy and "Honor and Arms in ex-
actly the same way. A little attention
would have shown him that in the passage
"Vanquished a Slave That Is Half Slain,o in
the latter, lies a world of boastful derision-
which he did not develop. 80 God Have
Mercy" was much better sung. Mrs. J. H.
Gilmore sang with Verdure Cladn in too
slow a tempo. Her voice showed to excellent
advantage, however. Her second number
was Come Unto Me- from the Messiah.
All the music for next week is in the
church column. As for the week that is
past there are two young sopranos that nave
visited the city this week whose voices have
afforded the audience especial delight. One
is Miss Ida Hoppe of New York City, who
sang at Hasbrouck's closing exercises yester-
day. She is yet a student and does not sing
upon the professional stage for which she is
preparing. Her voice is a high soprano,
clear, sweet and flexible. Her enunciation
is distinct, and she sings with an understand
ing of the spirit of her songs remarkable in
one so young, for she is but seventeen years
old. 1t seems to me that the future career
af Miss Hoppe will bear watching, for know
that she is studying continually and not
running by indiscriminate concert singing a
voice which has great possibilities.
The other was Miss Ida Belle Cooley. of
whom / know nothing more than that she
sang here last Tuesday night at Hasbrouck
Hall, with Mr.. Homer N. Bartlett's accompan-
iment But her voice speaks for itself. 1t is
a meZzo in quality, and sweet to a degree.
After all, there is nothing more satisfying
in the feminine voice than what I can de-
scribe only as the quality of youth.
And now to all musicians and to all music
lovers, a merry and musical Christmas.