The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-11-17

The London Telegraph says about
Sousa:
1T was, perhaps, a pity that Mr..
Sousa did not announce more of the
march element in his opening program
at the Albert Hall, last evening. He,
it is true, played good many of them
among the encores which he accepted
with true American liberality, but
there must have been large proper
ton of the Britons among the audi
ence Who failed to recognize them, un-
til it occurred to a sensible attendant
to place on the band stand on huge
placard the name Of the piece actually
being performed The washington
Post" given as one of the encores to
an American melody bearing the char
acteristic title of "a Niger in the
Woodpile," was, of course, recognized
at once, but although the Rag Time"
March was vociferously applauded,
few, we fear, knew its name. Stars
and Stripes for Ever" was also well
received, and so also was Mr.. Sousa's
Hands Across the Eea," which was
among the encore pieces. In these
marches the American players are en-
phatically at their best, and 1T Is
pity they did not more exclusively con-
fine themselves to music of this sort,
instead of trying a version of a Hun
garian Rhapsody Ia familiar item of
Richter's repertory, but now played
with comparatively little spirit), or the
| paraphrase of the finale from Gior-
dano's Andrea Chenier," an opera
| which has been performed in the Unit
| ed States, but is unknown here. Miss
Minnie Tracey, too, would have been
| wiser to have sung some of her native
| cerpts from French operas, which were
not at all effective in the Albert Hall,
although the admirable manner in
which the vocal music was accom-
panied showed the pains which had
been taken to cultivate this feature of
| the performance. A clever trombone
player, Mr.. Pryor, was much applaud
ed for his rendering of medley of
tunes from Mr.. Sousa's comic opera,
Eel Captain" and Mr.. sousa's Quo
| tations," based, we believe, upon
American melodies, found much favor.
The tone of the band is peculiarly rich
and refined, and it would be very in
! teresting to hear them in the open air,
where, after all, a wind band is most
| in its element. The players are also
| highly trained, answering the move
ments of the conductors baton with
much intelligence. No doubt the temp
| tation to compare them with some of
! our own military bands is strong, but
the proceeding would be invdious, and
| to a certain extent unmeaning."
| The names of winners of prizes for
musical composition in the competition
inaugurated by Paderewsh have been
announced. The prize for orchestral
composition was won by the symphony
entitled -Four Seasons" written by
| Henry K Hadley music professor of
st. Paul's School, at Garden City; the
prize for choral composition is award
ed to "A Star Song" the work of Hora-
| ito w Parker, professor of music in
Yale University; that for chamber mu-
sic was won by Arthur Bird of Bos-
ton. The judges were Wilhelm Gericke,
| conductor of the Boston Symphony Or
| chestra; B. ]. Lang, conductor of the
| Cecilia Society of Boston; William F.
Apthorp, musical editor of the Boston
/ Transcript; H. E. Krehbiel, music crit
ic of the New York Tribune, and w.
j. Henderson, music critic Of the New
York Times.
DIR. W. H. Cummings will shortly is
sue a volume dealing with the history
of the words and music of God Save
the King" DR.. Cummings, who has
made a collection of early editions of
| the British national anthem, about %
| paper a series of articles on the sub
iject The forthcoming book will at any
| rate prevent, it is hoped, the almost
! annual recurrence in print of the alb
surd fiction that the tune was derived
from France The claim that the mel
ody was composed by Lully in the mid
seventeenth century rests entirely upon
a hoax contained in the spurious
| Memoirs de la Marquise de Crequi,
which was written by Cousen de St.
| Malo as recently as 1S34.-Exchange
q q
Miss Sybil Sanderson, of the Grau
| Opera Company, appeared in the first
act of ''Manon" at Memphis, last Sat
urday, but was so i'll that she sang
with great effort and was compelled
| to retire at the end of the act, her
place being taken by Mile. Seygard. A
report was spread that she was in a
serious condition, but it proved to be
| without foundation. Her friends at
tribute her attack partly to nervous
ness caused by mistake at her hotel,