Evening star., 1897-03-20
Mr.. jerome Hopkins Takes Some Exceptions
to Q Star Interview.
Asks Why Local Organizations Are
Not Supported II the Musical
Taste IL So High.

hiusicai taste ana culture OF the peGpv
Of Washington
After quoting several complimentary ex-
pressons from that interview in rather a
satirfcdl sense. Mr. Hopkins says:
Now. may 1 ask how such a coleur de
rose picture of Washington musical society
| Is to be reconciled to the facts that
Il. The Choral Society, admirable as are
| It's objects, officers. members and achieve
ments. yet consists of but l6S voices
when. the article states so voices were
soon recruited for the Inauguration chorus
ana the surface Of the community was
only SKINNED. three times that number
OF perfectly competent vocalists could
nave been secured" Further, how /, in
tnat your Choral Society is so poorly sup
as Its members have assured me7
II Washington is the most musical
| OF American Cities how is il that she has
! S ~ pelmaheht concert orchestra. no series
oi classic chamber music concerts and no
I theatrical orchestra of more than ten
| men? '''
| b About those Inauguration pieces vour
| friend must have been joking when he
| called the Soldiers Chorus from Faust and
/ tne vocal part of the march from Tam
nauser among the most exactinR in the
| entife range of music (sic). for some mu-
| slcians have heard of the six and eight
part choruses by Handel Bach and even
spohr Rubinstein in Nero and wagner
| IN l-ohengrfn. compared to which the in
| SeiecliOnS were but Chtid'S nlay
| Roasting or even burning musicians
Is not always difficult art nor is n a
sign OF bad meat. and IL newspaper critics
| n; IA washington were ever guilty of Offering
outside artist 1 fail to perceive cause for
| Standardization. Florence, in Italy. once
| missed Rosstnl. kalkbrenner, In Paris.
| went about defaming Chopins technique
Handers Oratorio troupe "a band of Iousv
nddlers The late John s. Dwight of Bos-
ton Journal of Music dubbed Wagner
.ne milliner composer, and Archbishop of
oaizours once gave the immortal Mozart a
| Soosing kick. but unconsciously kicked
himself into infamy and into the encyclo-
peaias at the same time. The Boston
quldnuncs abused the late poetic Gott-
schaik compositions and piano vfrtuosity
| comparing him with the stupid OTTO
Drese to the formers disadvantage, etc
| but the lapse of time has not caused aay
or SAID vandals to brag of their brutality
D. Ihat six out of ten houses have a
piano each, is scarcely a good gauge of
| nuslcality, unless the way in which those
piaMos are handled and kept in tune is
additionally reported.
u found children in Boston. and plen-
~ OF them, who. after seven years attend
I! ance upon the public schools, did not know
.ne aiphahet OF the stan. and could neither
name the notes nor sing seconds and thirds
boston Is we'll known the best town for
negro minstrel trocpes in the country. So
| sne Is not to be accepted as a standard
a
| long shot VIM. Mason, Arthur Whiting
f. A. MacDowell and others of her purest
| talent have deserted her. The sailors of a
worthy vessel do not commonly desert
| their ship.
-. How is it that great operatic organi-
Iatons DO not always count with the
greatest cocksureness upon Washington
support: Was not Damroschs Wagner
company, with its magnificent orchestra d
great orgGniZation? and didn't il fail i'm
washington as 1t did in PHILADELPHIA and
Baltimore?
IS. How is it that the late Georretowa
Amateur Orchestra was allowed to eyapo-
rate with all its sweetness of sound and
PERI ume Ihat Was confederation that
surely deserved better fate. sprinkled as it
was by Sc many of the fair young violin
lsts of the feminine persuasion Why, OH.
why. did this most musical of all cities
let 1t die down. down, down, with neither
tear or sigh in pity OF its fate? Echo
or your proprietor OF well-known music
establishment should answer why, WHY
or should disentangle this knot.
y. Their as to choirs, L may have been
unfortunate. but since my sotourn here /
have heard several that 'wobbIed' terribly
and all of us know that wobbling music is
| only less delightful than wet music, as
the violinists call a damp atmosphere when
their strings snap!
he great Rubinstein once told me that
ne stroiled into Calvary Church, New York,
1t being near his hotel Che Clarendon),
but could stay only a short time for the
music drove him outr Yet they Thought
that that was the crack New York choir
at that time. the director being MosenthaI
conductor Of the also crack Mendelssohn
Club of that cit. 1 wonder if your music
establishment proprietor ever heard Dos
serts choir at st. Stephens r. c. Church.
or Trinity Church choir (Epis), or the
famous GregOrlan choir of Father Young
at St. Paul's Redemptorist Church in New
YORK! 1t may be remarked that in choirs
as in other things. tastes differ but the
two best choirs l have heard thus far in
M \ q h In f0y1 hax-A NIaH
of the Epiphany and of ST. Matthews
Roman Catholic Church. At the last-named
the contralto is surely a prize.
10. As to the absence of 'beery songs
ana great demand for songs In foreign
tongues. l would ask your chronicIer if
the tongues make the songs? Also wheth-
er there can be no good songs whose words
are not foreign? and further. whether he
really believes that every song with for
eign words must OF necessity be good? |
believe there are a few very 'beery' songs
with foreign words sung in very beery
beer gardens by very beery singers and
still more beery auditors! Now. how can
such pugiistic facts be reconciled? 1 re-
spectfuily call upon some kind friend to
rise and explain for the benefit of human
lily In general and your readers in par
ttcular.
|; tll. How is it that in your public
schools the children get only two half
hour lessons a month from a male teacher
and two each week from a female teacher?
l always wondered whether a male lesson
was better than a female lesson or not
And yet that Washington is the most
musical city, in the world.
But most marvellous of all, how 1t is
that, nevertheless. your public school chill
dren sang the principal choruses in Men
delssohn's Oratorio, Elijah last season
with the full score In their hands. They
might as well have had the Koran in the
original. doubtless with the additional ad-
vantage of a critical exposition on Men
deissohn's works. as the report for 1885
assures us, and yet when dozens OF those
same children came to me the other day
not one OF them knew enough to open its
mouth properly to sing.
Nehr hcht" the dying Goethe ex-
claimed. More Hight indeed is needed ON
all these perplexing Inconsistencies, for
poor musical tramps like this deponent
always love 10 learn something IL possi-
ble.'
Modest Merit.
Frum the Philadelphia Press.
Manager-"You claim sir. to have every
H6Ca nf