The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903, 1895-12-21

CONSERVATORY last week. MT. hadley q
organ solos deserve particular notice.
Mr.. Hadley is very strong player. II
is to be hoped that hemay sometime
give a recital here. Miss Hoover played
a piano number. and Miss Davis gave
de Beriot's first concerto. Mr.. Movius
sang. AS the work of all these is men,
toned in the charity concert, IL can
not be discussed this week. II was.
however. of very high quality. The
audience seemed rather cold and musi-
cally unintelligent. The only numbers
that found favor were Mr.. Williams
jokes. And they were not music.
The Boston Transcript of December
3 says commenting on Mr.. Sieveking's
appearance at the Symphony concert:
Mr.. Sieveking made, we believe. his
first bow to a large Boston audience
at this concert. His playing of the con-
certo was superb. He evidently poss-
esses great physical strength, the ex-
ertion Of which he. however. never
pushes farther than the pianOforte can
bear. His technique Is exceedingly
brilliant, il not invariably perfectly sure
now and then he strikes wrong notes.
But he plays like a master for all
that. In 1.-THE matter of style he Is
perhaps just a thought old-fashioned.
He plays with more artistic measure
than one is accustomed to nowadays.
and does not by any means abuse the
musical pepper-box.'
The Glea and Banjo clubs
have been working hard. Their first
concert, with all the defects of a first
concert, had much promise.
The Banjo club did very finished
work. / do not like banjos. 1t seemed
to me that the Banjo club did not try
sufficiently to overcome the defects Of
their instruments. The great weakness
of banjo clubs is in the music they play.
No very great composers have written
banjo music. Possibly some scherzos,
some bright passages written for STAG
cato notes on the piano or pizzicati
passages for violins might be worked
over for them. AS yet / have heard
none. The only composers who have
composed for the banjo are Of the sort
that compose for the brass band, COM
posers whose whole stock consists OF
five or six chorhs, much rhythm and
some sentimentality. Now / would
rather hear a banjo club play Johnny
get your gum" which has at least a
theme-vulgar though it be-than hear
them play the Cupid's Dream Overture,
or the Crescent Club March. / would
rather have the lively niger" than
the poor white And 1 wish that the
conductors of banjo clubs felt the same
and would limit their selections to the
work of really able composers. or to
music of the primative race that has
adopted this primitive instrument. The
Banjo club. however plays what ii plays
with precision and with a good deal of
dash.
The GIee club hah a little of the same
defect in musical matter. 1t sang songs
that were half way between rollicking
nonsense and serious music. They
gave comparatively little of the best
male glee music. which is German.
They kept to the very ungolden mean.
Still there were notable departures. On
the side of comedy was the medley, and
the "dirge" for Little Willie, with its
"leitmotif'' of tumbling straddle-bugs
and it's demure Amen" 1t is a pity
that there were not more good nonsense
songs of this sort. What they may lack
in music. they make up in good COM
edy Indeed, there are number of
good old comic college songs not at all
worn out; nor by any means so old as
the Swanee River. which many of us,
those of us in particular who were once
Eastern college boys, would be glad to
hear For this work the club should
try to gain in cIearness of enunciation.
Last night the point of several jokes
was inaudible.
In serious work, so far as it attempt
ed it. the club did well. Kucken's Sere-
made was given smoothly, so too was
the serenade of Gregh. The best was
the song of the Vikings, by Tanning.
This rather lacked confident strength
in the chorus. but it was given with
fine dramatic force the slight sugges-