The herald., 1898-02-27
Stray Chords

Rafael Joseffy, the eminent pianist, goe:
to Europe in May, and perhaps to play ir
London.
Herr Anton Sedl will go to London ir
May to preside again over the Wagner
operas in the regular season at Covent
Garden.
A Pittsburg dispatch to the New York
Courier says: Chairman w. N. Frew, OF
the Art Society announced tonight that
Victor Herbert had accepted an offer tC
conduct the Pittsburg orchestra here mex,
season.
Paderewski has been suffering from ar
attack OF influenza, and this has delayed
the completion of the long-expected Po.
lish opera. He is, however, now better
and will play soon at the Gewandhaus con.
cert, Leipsic, under the conductorship OF
M. Nikisoh
Josef Hofmann has arrived in New York
After a short rest he will begin active work
March /, when he will make his first ap-
pearance in the Metropolitan Opera house
with Theodore Thomas. On the afternoon
of the Sd he will give his first recital in
Carnegie Music hail.
Some of Verdis sacred works, upor
which he has occasionally been engaged
for some years past, will, 1t is said, be
published by Messrs. Ricordi either late
in the spring, or more probably in the
autumn. They include a mass, and settings
of some of the Psalms.
Sir Arthur Sullivan has parted with his
riverside desidence at Walton, and he will
henceforward divide his time chiefly be-
tween London and the continent. The pop.
ular composer has plenty of work on hand
with Mr. Pinero's new comic opera. and
a new cantata for the Leeds Triennial
festival next October.
Rumor has it that M. Lamoureux, the
famous French conductor, has abandoned
the direction of his orchestral concerts In
Paris, and Is contemplating the founda-
ton of an opera house there, where dur
ing the exhibition in 1900 representations OF
opera will be given on an extended scale
and without distinction of schools.
Puccini's first opera, lie WILL" given in
Milan in 1888, had a tremendous success
Then came 'Manon", and then "Boehme' -
La Tosca" will come next. Says the
maestro, II am now working on it, and II
Will certainly be finished this year. The
drama is taken from that of Sardou, by
Luigi 1llica and Giuseppe Gacosa. II
Will be produced at the Opera Comique in
Paris or Rome in the first months of 1889
possibly on February 1, a date for which
| have n weakness. Manon Lescaut' was
first given on February l, 1893, the 'Boehme
on February l, 1896 and so L wish La
Tosca' to be heard for the first time or
the same date in $780,"
When the eminent Boston critic, Mr.. Ell
son, was lecturing recently at Nashville
he said, among other things: have stud
led much in American natural music and
composers, and l am firm believer that
American music is only southern music,
which is characteristic and poetic. The
Indian music is not distinctive American
music-that Is to say, 1t bears a kinship
n of NJ thnr
Southern music is not African music;
on the other hand. 1t has been
almost altogether modified by sur
roundings. 1t is an American growth.
| think that some day some COM
poser will arise to follow Dvorak's
lead, and give the southern plantation mu-
sic it's real classical setting Musicians
should do for American music what lite
rary men are doing for southern types
and customs.
The New York Tribune of February
18th says: About seventy-five we'll known
men and women yesterday afternoon as
sembled at the home of A. W. Drake No.
81 Clinton place, to discuss plans for Sc
curing permanent orchestra for New
York city. In the course of an argument
in favor of the plan, Richard Watson Gill
der said: Educational endowments may
do something to foster the creative arts,
though nothing can absolutely create the
artistic creator. But given the genuine
orchestra-fitly Iceland all the world of
original and creative music can be brought
into being, can be re-created, for the hap
piness and the uplifting of mortals. A
community without art-above all a COM
munity with music-is a community
without soul. A city dedicated primarily
to trade needs especially the detachment
of the spirit that comes through hearing
fIn aNl,l ,lapN -l~I..
the passion for the best; this desire for the
highest in the most ethereal of all the arts
that has brought us together today" Is
there any good and sufficient reason why
the same argument is not applicable to
Los Angeles, and why the same kind of a
movement may not be started here?
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