The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-03-02
News Of Music and Musicians

MARVELLOUS MUSICAL MEMORIES
The great singers and pianists are con-
stantly called upon to perform wonder
full feats of memory. To memorize
role in an opera or a long sonata is quite
different from learning a part in play,
for an opera singer must not only COM
nit words, often in foreign tongue, to
memory, but also the music of the role,
while the instrumentalist has both the
melody and the complicated cords in the
harmony of the piece to memorize.
How many operagoers who have heard
Nine. Nordica sing the three Brunnhildes
in Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung" have
realized the amount of preliminary labor
involved in the memorizing of those great
roles?
''To correctly memorize roles like Wag-
ner's Isolde or the three Brunnhildes in
The Ring of the Nibelung' requires the
hardest kind of work. said Nine. Nor
dica. You must put your whole mind, as
well as all your musical temperament,
into it. 1t was not unusual for me while
I was learning these roles TO spend six
hours a day with my repetiteur at the
piano. three hours in the morning and
three in the afternoon. 1 study words
and music together.
II take up the role in blocks of two
pages at time. In the morning 1 usu-
ally review the work Of the last rev
days, and then go on to new block in
the afternoon. In this way go over the
entire score many times until l am SO
Thoroughly familiar with it that when L
hear phrase l can tell you to what page
to look to find 1t. I don't think 1 exag-
gerate when / say that all told l read
through the entire score of Die Walkure
a hundred times Most Of this work on
the 'Walkure' Brunnhilde was done dur
ing my concert tour.
"Brunnhilde in this music drama is q
most trying role Most of it ranges so low
that it is best suited to a mezzo soprano;
yet the Walkure shout requires a high
soprano. Yes, you must be SO note per-
feet and time perfect in that role that
nothing can disconcert you. Think of be-
in gobliged with all the nervousness Of
debut to plunge right into that terrible
Walkure shout, and then to rush up
lot of rickety rocks with your spear, shield
helmet and-wig! That wig counts for
something, I assure you. Back there, on
the webbing heights, you can't hear the
orchestra save, perhaps, for an occasional
rumbling of a few bases, and you can get
your cues only from your own perfect
familiarity with the role.
Another reason why you must know
Wagner role so thoroughly that you are
ready for every emergency is that at al
most every performance you suddenly
hear things you never heard before. You
are singing along, when, without NOM
ent's warning, you are confronted with
monster of bassoon or demon of a
trombone that has perhaps played in the
wrong place or given special emphasis to
a phase for one night only. At many a
Wagner performance I have been pray
erfulIy thankful for my hundred 'repeti-
tons of the escore.
81 make a point Of memorizing a part
so thoroughly that I don't have to de-
pend n the prompter or the conductor.
You will perhaps have noticeod that /
rarely look toward either. 1 consider
that looking into the prompter's box or
at the conductor mars a singers perfor-
nance as much as constantly looking at
the notes mars a pianist's playing. A
prima donna can sing and act freely only
when she knows he role thoroughly by
ear.
There is one feature in memoriZing
Wagner roles. like Isolde or the three
BrunnhiIdes, which have just sung, that
makes the task especially difficult. You
In r.,
sing, but also what you don't have to
sing, for there are no tuney catch phra-
ses, as in the Italian operas, from which
you can get your cues. And let me tell
you that the nervousness a singer exper-
fences in Wagner opera is wholly different
from that which one feels in Italian
opera In the latter the public makes
you nervous, but in a Wagner perfor-
nance the work is so enormous that the
public is crowded out of the singers
thoughts ard he she is nervous about
keeping time and pitch
Few of the great singers who have been
heard in this country have had as rem
arkable a memory and lelaned their roles
with the same ease as Campanini. He
sang Vasco di Cana in Meyerbeer's
81 Africaine" for the first time at the
Academy of Music in New York city
The afternoon of the day before the per
Torrance a friend happened to drop into
his study. 81 don't suppose ought to in
terrupt you" said the friend, noticing
that the tenor had his repetiteur and was
at the piano.
"Oh, stop and have a chat" urged Cam
panini. 81 haven't looked at the third act
yet. and don't know note of it, but
there's plenty of time
At the performance the next night the
great tenor was not only absolutely note
perfect, but sang the entire role with a
spirit. dramatic freedom and finish which
Arditi, who conducted, said he had never
heard equalled.
In London he was once asked in an en-
ergency 10 sing Don Ottavio in Don Clio
vanni" The performance was 10 take
place the same evening, and he hand [
sung the role for ten years. He simply
glanced over the score, and took the part
beautifully. When, some years ago, he
was sent for at the last moment to re-
place N. Jean de Reszke. who was indis-
posed in Faust" at the Metropolitan
opera house, New York. he hadn't appear
ed in the part for about five years. yet
he went through the role as accurately
as II he had had il constantly in prac-
tice.
In fact. Signor Campanini's musical
memory was SO perfect that he knew, in
the operas which he sang. not only his
s-l 10 awa