New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-07-01
MUSICAL COMMENT.
,,I-SIC At YALE-MR. PARkERS COM
MENCEMENT ODE-BANJO CLUBS
AND CHORAL UNIONS.

When a choir of sixty voices. supported by
orchestra OF local musicians. sang.
..younges. and blithest. and awaited long,
The heavenly maid. sweet Musics child divine.
With golden Tyre. ard JOY of thoric song,
Leads all the Sisters Nine
., the commencement exercises OF Yale tnver-
city last Wednesday, there others besides
Professor Parker the composer OF the ode. who put
4 special and local Interpretation Mr. Sted-
mans lines Attention has repeatedly been called
n the innovation exomplifed in those exercises.
There we're graduate oraons. and music was
called OF 10 pay much more dign!fed part than
ever before. The ode served TO bring the fact
10 mind that a new department had been established
in the university within the academic year. the
Department OF Music. and that the new professor
had determined 10 make the department an inlu-
initial factor not only in the university. but also
IN the city OF New-Haven In his lofty endeavor
Professor Parker has had the hearty support OF
the corporation and an experiment has been begun.
the outcome Of which will be watched with unusual
interest by every patriotic student of musical
progress in the land.
heretofore music has played inconsequen,ial
mart at Yale. So far it has been in the hands
Of the students themselves, It's cultivation has
heen confined TO the Glee. Banjo and Mandolin
clubs-orcan.zations which, have social but
artistic value. In this respect Yale like all our
Eastern colleges. stands IN sorry contrast 10 the
state universities in the West. Michigan Uni
yersity not only has musical department. but
with that as an initiative agency. it is pro-
noting musical activity which has already
hrought the little town OF Ann Arbor into lire
with some o. the largest cities OF the East in
respect OF the practical cultivation OF music 1t
not only enjoys concerts by the best American
organizations. such the Thomas. Sedl. Dam
rosch and Boston Symphony orchestras. and the
Kne!sel Quartet. but It hears all the travelling
vrtuosi OF note and itself gives annually choral
festival OF most ample and dienifed proportions.
All these things are made possible by the unver-
sity and since Professor Stanley has been at the
head OF the musical department, there has also
been established in Ann Arbor Conservatory OF
Music which Is closely allied with the university.
At the University Of Minnesota there is no musical
department. but Nine. Schoen-Rene. a local teacher
Of singing at Minneapolis. aided and encouraged by
the faculty. has organized Choral Union among
the students which numbers over two hundred
members and has given concerts at which classical
oratorios and smaller compositions OF the same
grade of excellence have been performed Similar
is the cultivation which music receives at the
University OF Wisconsin. 1t is true that these
Western institutions have advantage over the
Eastern in that their students are OF both sexes
but that fact neither lessons the LONELINESS OF the
spirit which their musical activities illustrate.
excuses the spirit which finds satisfactory express
sion in the singing OF doggerel dittes. the PUNK
ing OF banjos and the twangng of mandolins in the
older colleges of the East.
We are more concerned with the influence which
the new department at Yale has begun 10 exert
in the community in and outside the university
than with its academic aspects. 1t may be said
however. that Mr.. Parker. who Is the professor OF
the theory OF music has given instruction in har-
mony, counterpart, strict and free composition
and the history OF music 10 a class OF twenty-five
students since last October, and his list for next
year already numbers forty-fve. Besides this
Samuel 5. Sanford professor OF applied music.
whom the elevation OF the Batteu chair into dig
nlfei department is largely due. has taught piano
forte playing to a great many more students The
department has probably been felt more potently
outside the university than in. The last few
months have promising effort made 10 es
tabiish orchestra capable of giving symphonic
concerts and accompanying the choral societies OF
New-Haven and vicinity. The movement did not
20 out from Yale, but 1t IL due to the coming OF
Professor Parker that 1t has secured the fostering
care of the corporation. Like all towns OF It's size
. New-Haven has a score or SO Of good and fair or
chesral players. who provide the theatrical and