Omaha daily bee., 1899-09-03
Neutrality-suspicious.
MUSIC.



The summer days are drawing to a bob
tail flush, and coon the snowy pinions OF
winter will shake patches of soft white snow
on the generous bosom Of old earth. Dor
rowed from the sporting editors case)
And the result Of this state of affairs is
that the musicians who have been away all
summer are now coming back with renewed
vigor to prosecute the work Of a musical
season.
Mr.. KeCk has come flom Chautauqua,
where the breezes blew away a former hir-
suite appendage in the way, OF a prominent
mustache.
Mr.. Kratz took in a good supply OF fresh
ozone and is back at his studio.
We poor unfortunates whose business in
terests required us to stay at home should
feel grateful for the fact that we were not
obliged to go through the trying ordeal OF
travelling!
Now, every one will lay plans, and many
OF them will never be carried out. One will
be about to organize an orchestra, another a
band, still another a great chorus, and some
one will surely have an ~oratorio society, and
this gentleman will give a series of ~recitals,
and that woman will organize a swell chorus
OF women's voices. Now Is the time for the
phrase SIS going to" do ouch and such a
thing and Omaha will be paralyzed, revolu-
t%ionized, vulcanized and everything else lex
cept harmonized). But the town will wake
UP as unsteady slow and stupid as ever, and
rubbing its harmonic eyes will turn over
and take another nap. Meanwhile the bands
will play, my Rag-time Baby"
The fact is plain that Omaha is not a
musical town. Strangers coming here ex-
pecting favors say that it is, but those who
nave located here long and earnestly know
inherently. Mrs. Cotton, who is probably the
best known teacher in the city, and who is
entitled to an opinion based on the longest
local experience, probably, said to the writer:
My pupils sometimes feel so discouraged
that l am affected, too, because they say
that when they sing, people will always re-
quest as an encore some insipid song Of the
street."
Ihis Is Omaha generally. There Is a
colony of real genuine lovers of good music
and 1t is a pleasure to see with what avidity
they listen to a concert.
The only trouble is that this charming
colony is not large enough. No, for its size,
Omaha is not a musical city.
In many eastern cities there are good
choral societies, good orchestras, good bands,
wv VIZ w dlSO BOOu puDllC-SDlrlteQ
men of means, who are willing to spend a
few thousands or a few hundred dollars each
year for the development Of a good musical
atmosphere. This is only a sentiment. Such
a remark is frequently made to the writer.
MUSIC should be self-supporting." 1t Is
wrong. The premises are wrong. The foun-
dation is wrong. Music should not be, can
not be, self-supporting any more than
schools. But musicians should be self
supporting. Teachers should be self-sup-
porting. Far be it from the object OF this
article to suggest a home for leisure
musicians who would not work. No., what
is wanted is a home where they can work.
An educational institution, an auditorium, a
demand for better music in the theaters,
larger orchestras. Then the town will take
a tumble and waken up in dead earnest.
Music will never wake 1t up, says the cynic.
What nonsense, to be sure. What wakens
up a camp, a church, a picnic, a park, an
assembly, and what brings the people to a
climax at a convention?
1t is a sentiment. Is 1t? What is an art
gallery? What good do pictures in the
progress OF commerce.? If this Is a senti-
ment. what name is given to the provision
of a free education in the French language,
and in the German language, and others, In
our public schools? Is it for the encourage
ulent Oh tue EXISTENCE OF lTlSn- americans,
German Americans, Swedish Americans,
French Americans, British-Americans and
goodness knows what else, so that the rarest
thing nowadays to find is a plain, ordinary,
everyday American?
Music Is an art which needs development.
We tax our people for the education of chill
dren in these languages and in dead Ian
guages and in painting and drawing, and
only one teacher is allotted to that greatest
of all arts, that cosmopolitan heart throb,
music.
Are there any rich men In Omaha to-
day registered as patrons of the musical art?
Any who give willingly to the sustenance
thereof?
No.. the burden OF Indebtedness incurred
by attempts to introduce the best music and
the bes. musicians into Omaha has been
borne by some musician. who has been
obliged to take the money for the artists
out OF his regular studio income. II you do
not believe 1t ask Joseph Calm, Hans Albert,
Franz Adelmann, George Holbrook date
Apollo club. e.. NJ. Jones or the writer, and
drop a line to L. A.. Torrens or Martin Calm
of Chicago. and Homer Moore at st. Louis.
What Is wrong, and where is the remedy?
Will some one answer?
The story Of Peer Gynt," a drama, was
written Dy Hendrix lDben ana TRANSLATED
into English by Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen,
Peer Is supposed to represent a type OF the
modern N~orseman, whose boastfulness
finds consolation in the past achievements
OF a distinguished ancestry. He lives a life
of imaginary heroism, and so strong are his
ideas OF what he might be, that he actually
comes to believe that they are real.
He is the scion Of a mighty family which
has been reduced In circumstances
His mother Aase pronounced Oose)
takes him to task for his Indifference to the
charms and fortune of one Ingrid, the
daughter OF a rich farmer OF Haegstaed,
who was in love with him.
Peer disposes OF the question in his own
boastful way and tells absurd stories OF how
he had ridden reindeer over the glaciers.
and his mother, being impotunate in her re-
quest that he should act differently, Is
seized by him and deposited on the roof OF
a mill, where he leaves her.
He appears unlimited at the Haegstaed
wedding and finds that the bride has shut