The age-herald., 1900-10-28
GREAT MUSICIANS
 AND THEIR MUSIC Beethoven'S Festival Mass Re- gently Heard in Boston TWO DIRECTORS COMPARED Attractions for Birmingham This Seas on-May Festival Talk-An Impor-
 tant Step in the Direction of
 Sound Knowledge
TWO DIRECTORS COMPARED
BY WILLIAM RYAN

BY WILLIAM RYAN
 The season starts off with very brilliant musical attractions in New York, Boston and Chicago and during the winter many great soloists will be heard in connection with the symphony orchestras. Boston 8 new music hall was dedicated on the 18th of this month, and the programme was of course exceedingly rich. The principal feat ure was Beethovens mass in D. The cho- rus was large and effective; the solo quar- tette was composed of distinguished ar lists, the famous Boston Symphony Or chestra was at its best, and the director, MT. Gericke, is said to have given this splendid work of the immortal composer scholarly and altogether satisfactory reading. The mass in D ranks with the grandest of Beethoven's achievements, and is only heard in it's entirety on festival oc- casions, for it is too long for the ordinary church service, to say nothing of the mu- sical requirements-grand orchestra and singers of the highest quality. Beethoven wrote a smaller mass, which is sometimes rendered in metropolitan churches and while it is beautiful, it is not to be com pared to the mass in D.
 Gericke and Thomas Compared
 Gercke is one of the foremost conductors of the world. He is a profound musician, but he is too academic, and therefore, somewhat cold. l never liked his conduct ing as well as that of either one of a half dozen other men who have led the Boston Symphony, and he does not begin to meas ure up to Theodore Thomas in musical ge- nius, breadth or repose.
 I first heard the Beethoven mass in Gin cinnati, with Thomas at the conductors desk. It was, If 1 remember alright, at the festival which opened music hall. The eel ebrated chorus had rehearsed the music for nearly two years, and the performance was certainly a memorable one Gericke and his Boston forces, feel sure, did not equal In artistic excellence the Cincinnati effort.
 Strauss and Jnnes Coming
 Edward Strauss is delightng New York this month with his Vienna Orchestra. His programmes are made up largely of waltz music. His own waltzes are as poetic and bewitching as those of the other members of his gifted family, and at least two Of them are placed on every bill. Strauss will start on a Southern tour early in Decem- ber and will appear in Birmingham on the 10th of that month. Preceding Strauss will come Innes and his magnificent band and troupe of vocal artists. Innes has larger and more carefully selected organization this season than ever before. Those. who heard his band at Atlantic City the summer just gone give it unbounded praise.
 Sight Reading Glasses
 While no steps have been taken for or ganzing a music festival for next spring, it is understood that Mir Guckenberger, the festival director, intends to call his chorus together in December and begin the work of rehearsing. All music lovers of this sec- tion look forward to Birmingham's May festival as the one great musical event of the year.
 Assuming there Is to be festival it Is almost certain that the oratorio music to be sung will be Part II. of Elijah. Part I. was given at the festival last May, and the second part is just as lofty and just as mel odic as the first.
 MT. Guckenberger makes an important announcement-importa to all chorus singers and all those who desire to acquire a knowledge of the scientific ground work of music. It is this: He will open class or classes this week for sight-reading les sons-sight reading for both singers and in- strumentalsts And nothing in musical circles Is much needed. It is surprising to find so many persons who are able to read and sing or play with more or less skill; persons who are called good musi- cians," who cannot read at sight and who know absolutely nothing of music as a sci ence. These good musicians" know noth- ing of key signature, or of intervals scien- tifically; and being ignorant of these fun damental things-ignorant of basic princi-
  up the real musician-they are at great disadvantage in this age of culture. There must be a theoretical knowledge of music IS well as technic. Theory is just as nec- essary in music as 1t is in engineering. Without 1t there can be no substantial ad- vancement; no accurate or musicianly reading. It was so in Bachs day, and 1t must ever be so.
 To Start at the Beginning
 Now, MT. Guckenberger will start his reading classes at the very bottom, prelim- mary to actual prima vista work He will have normal course on the rudiments of music, beginning with lines and spaces as applied to sound He will instruct those who attend all about staff degrees notes, bar and double bar lines, clefs, time sigma tures the scale, the musical alphabet, oc- taves, and how many employed; the tie, the rest, the dot the accent; also rhythm, sym copation intervals and triads.
 After the two clefs treble and bass, have been thoroughly explained, the names of the notes on the different staff degrees well learned and a knowledge of intervals mas tered, then will the sight reading begin and be continued systematically. This work will be in all cases without the use of the plano forte, because the true and scientific sight reader must be able at all times to get along without the hackneyed instrument. It Is this sort of sight reading that helps on the singer or performer to the notes that follow each other.
 Famous ChOiristtr rs
 MT. Guckenberger was carefully trained in sight reading in his boyhood in Cincin- nati long before he went to Europe to study. He was for several years choris- ter at the music hall sacret concerts: a member of the famous boys choir of 800 voices trained under Arthur Mees and later under Henry Carter, the eminent English organist.
 rrbarsn pe1,ar ba c been in tbis country auch fine Anglican church music as that which I used to hear in Cincinnati in the early