The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-03-23

inspired the Leader critic as follows:
THE new humorist!que morceau by
Sousa--'"The Band Came Back"-is clever
ly cumulative in interestThe solitary oboe
playing "Over the Banister" is soon rein
forced by another oboe. Then gradually,
in pairs and trios the players return talk
ing up Il dozen different airs-the clarnets
come forward in sextet-then the tubas
play ponderous melody, the oboes scream
back and forth a snatch of "Plnafore", the
three trombones shoot their salty tones
TO the ear, a quartet of French horns play
Sweet and Low" the bassoons come for
ward too All the time the music is
changing. but the interest grows. When
Sousa finally mounts the platform the
applause grows wild and unrestrained ana
when at that instant the band turns it's
attention from distracting medley ani
sweeps with an avalanche rush into Star
Spangled Banner" you feel like getting Up
on your chair and yelling, or like going out
on some field of carnage TO be shot at, as
If the favor Of dying under that tornado
of melody would be IA delight. That feel
Ing is very much akin to the amazing
energy that the Sousa marches all arouse.
No matter what one-Cadets, Washington
Post, Chicago Belle Picador, Beau Ideal,
Liberty Bell--each is strongly individual
and yet sends Il galvanic shock down
your vertebrae. 1t puts life into your soul
and ideas into your brain. You feel just
like George Elliot, 81 should want nothing
else on earth if ! could have plenty Of
music'-of course, excepting the neCces-
saries of existence. Now just what spark
or whence the spark that, touched to
Sousas magazine of musical thought
sends burst of inspirational and original
soul-loving melody into the trembling
ether-no one knows Perhaps its the
warm South-'a maddening draught Of
Hippocrene' from the father or the Saxon
melodic structure from the German moth
er Anyhow the result is Il true, intensely
patriotic American-with the artist soul Of
Polymnia-who thrills his own country
men and makes the contemporary Euro
pean composer of military music stand
agape"
The growth of the Wagner cult in
Gotham is thus cleverly narrated by
contributor to the Washington Post:
When DR.. Leopold Damrosch intro
duced the Wagnerian drama into New
York, people welcomed and enjoyed it,
but they did not fully comprehend its tie
sign its scope, and its teachings, nor the
pecularities Of Wagner's original me ethods
| and harmones in music. For several
years the great works were repeated
| every season, during which it became
fashionable fad to study the various books
on Wagner with all their explanatory
musical phrases and to attend Walter
| Damrosch's lectures when he translated
| the text and played from the score. Then
| followed a period when Wagner was
pushed aside for the Italian opera, and on
| the reappearance of the marvellous "Nie-
bulengen Trilogy" this year great differ
ence is noticed in the attitude of the audi
ence. The house is darkened, and the
people hear with reverent awe and solemn
attention; not only musicians, but schol-
| ars of literature, philosophy, and meta
| physics bow their heads and listen to the
masters wonderful application of myths
| of ancient times, with all their symbolical
meanings and emblems accented and ex-
pressed in the orchestral garden of tone
| where the very seeds and germs of the
| action are shown to blossom on the stage
| In the stupendous "Trilogy" of the
| ''Walkurie," "Seigfried," and the Got
| terda dammerung," with the prelude of the
"Rhincgold," Wagner has concentrated
all the teachings of nature and all the his
| tory of life. The great elements are set
forth, growing out of the notes of prime
| val darkness when with the birth of
| light appears water shown in Rhnegoli: !:
| in the Walkuries we have the spirits Of
| air and the fires; in Segfried we have
| earth, and in the Gotterdammerung the
| union of all elements. The lesser gods
and deniZens of these four elements
| Rhinemaidens, dwarfs, Niebelungs, the
| dragon, and all the vassals of the earth
and water-worlds-are made subservient
| TO the gods and heroes, as they in their
| turn are made subservient to Fate. The
| Norns weave out their destinies, and the
| hand of Fate brews magic potions To daze,
| bewilder, and conquer brave souls in these
| music legends aS upon the earth in The
| practical nineteenth century. Cures that
| follow broken laws, love that demands
sacrifice, the bondage of earthly life
| snapped asunder by bird-calls to somc-
thing greater and higher, and all the
struggle and tragedy Of the progress
| through the world, closing in the "tw-
light of the gods" when the spirit of love
| asccnds to ethereal realms into that new
| world made by its own power and beauty,
overthrowing Walhalla, where the "old
order changeth, giving place to new
offer suggestions of deepest interest and
| importance.
When DR.. Antonm Dvorak conceived
the idea of furnishing America with a
| distinctly national type of music he
turned for his rhythmical inspiration to
the peculiar plantation melodies. These
songs of the southern negroes are folk
songs In the truest sense. But a curious
investigator who has compiled a com
parative table of statistics concerning
a thousand popular American songs,
has discovered that only forty-two of
| these are negro tunes. If his selections
have been made on a fairly scientific
basis even this rough estimate would
seem to shake faith in Dr. Dvorak's
choice. According to this song analyst,
fully Is per cent. of the popular songs
| of the street and the curb are Irish.
| Perhaps there is more of the new Amer
lean music to be found In Are We
There Moriarity?" than in "Old Black
joe or Dem Golden Slippers" The
negro melodies are strangely like the
Scotch, with the same intervallic pecu-
liarities of the five-note scale and the
SNAP" or catch" As the Scotch We're
originally irish. may it not be. after
ALL that the mingling of Irish and
negro melodies in American popularity
proves DR.. Dvoraks contention to be
eminently correct ct?-Philadelphia Rec
ord.
Some interesting facts concerning the
expenses of the management of high
toned opera have come to light, grow
ing out of the complaint made by the
fashionable people of Washington that
Jean de Reszke purposely yabsented him
J self from the matinee at which he was
advertised to sing. The final figures
show that the people of Washington
paid into the box office for three even
ings and one matinee of grand opera
the sum of $2S,750, which included
$4,000 for premiums paid for the boxes
when sold at auction. At the matinee
Faust" was the programme. and so
great was the eagerness to see the De
| ResZlIes In this opera that no less than