Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-04-29


Of our conductors have gwen orchestral
/ concerts here, and the majority of our
local celebrities have made yearly appear
ances on the Chickering Hall stage. Felix
Adler made it the home for his society of
| ethical culture, and crowded the place to
| the doors every Sunday morning with his
eloquence. Noted lecturers have been
unanimous in their praise of the acoustics
of the place. For two decades college
| boys have given their glee club concerts
| Der and society held for many years at
| there was no other place so Charming
| for any musical or theatrical affair But
| Now, alas, the fashionables go to the
| Waldorf-Astoria ball room, the orchestras
i and large societies to Carnegie Hall, and
/ for chamber music concerts we must
| journey up to Mendelssohn Hall or to one
| of half a dozen other cozy little places
built especially for this intimate music.
| And If we wish to purchase a Chickering
| piano We must go to a. department store
and order 1t with our dresses, our books
and our Saturday groceries.
~
| Anew composer has appeared upon our
musical horizon and one who is destined
to be heard from again and often. Miss
Crane is her name, and she comes to US
not only as composer but as a conductor
of her own works. There used to be rule
in the Manuscript Society that every COM
! poser should conduct his or her own
orchestral compositions and great many
| fairly good works were spoiled IN their
| first public hearing For it takes certain
well defined attributes to make good
orchestral leader and it does Tot follow
that because one may write correctly and
dramatically and be fairly well ground
ed in harmony and counterpart that he
express them clearly and forcibly with
their individual and collective musical
voices. Composers are seldom good con-
ductors, and with the exception OF Aaver
Scharwenka, Sousa, and the younger
may be able to impress his ideas upon an
orchestr body sufficiently to enable il to
Strauss can think of no one at the mo-
ment who combines the two gifts thor
oughly aceeptably. 1t is not true that
composer can give better hints to an
orchestra about his own works than any
one else and this is particularly and sadly
true when the composer chances to be
| woman. Miss Crane is a musician and
clever writer. She has studied hard and
she has ideas TO express and expresses
them well, but her music would have had a
lar pelttE nearing ldu sic IeslSliCu hCl
baton to some one more experienced in
this line of work. Curiously enough she
is at her best in her larger works. and in
this resembles Nine. de Grandval. In fact
she exhibits much of the French school
in her style and her effects and is most
successful in her contrasts She has an
excellent idea of the relative values of the
instruments and combines them with skill
nd 1ot1ht will win
served recognition for her talents and in
dustry.
There is a good deal of discussion in our
daily press these days about the advis-
ability of maintaining the large choral bod
| les gathered with great care and skill by
Mr.. Frank Damrosch and giving them a
permanent home of their own. England
is pointed out as the horrible example of
a nation over-run with large choral bod
les. Heaven preserve us" say the critics,
| from such musical jumboism, with
which pious ejaculation l fear l have no
sympathy. l must admit that there is
something very stirring about large col
umn of sound, surging about ones ears.
Something that thrills one when the great
est exhibition of virtuostty technical
skill, fails utterly. Something that brings
a Temp into your throat and a catch in
your breath as the most exquisitely
phrased aria has no power to do.
| Go to St. PauFs Cathedral on Tuesday
of Holy Week and hear the chorales in
! Bachs Passion Music" sung by ten
| thousand voices. Or, nearer home, go to
| Carnegie's Hall, any evening of the pres
| ent week and hear that vast audience as
| sembled at the Ecumenical Conference sing
| the long metre "Doxology" or From
| Greenlandfs ley Mountains and sit still
| without a shiver stealing down your back
| If you can. Now take any large body of
| voices and train them to sing more i'm
| pressive music, teach the possessors of
| those voices to read notes and sing intel
| ligently the music especially written for
| just such societies and note the effect.
| enough of his ingenuity In handling such
| bodies. He has shown us his skill in
! developing the vocal powers of the null
| titudes who have come to him for instruc-
| tons. He has virtually opened a new field
| in our Metropolitan music and he deserves
! the encouragement of every music lover
! within the city limits, and if he needs a
larger hall than we have to offer him, he
Will get it built, and, in it he will give us
| examples of choral work the like of which
| we have had but faint echoes in the work
| of our largest and best singing societies.
| If this be musical jumboism then let US
! welcome it. FREDERIC DEAN.
Il