The age-herald., 1901-10-06
O6servotlons 0m Lohengy1m
 And Otker Matters MMSscoI
BY WILLIAM RYAN.

I the performance of 1t in Cincinnati sev- | eral years ago under Theodore Thomas leadership.
 A recent number of Music, w. S. B. Mathews brilliant and scholarly maga- zne published in Chicago, contains a thoughtful and timely paper on 'fhe Art I of Accompanying, by MT Guckenberger.
 In all the great army of pianists in this I country, very few indeed are able to ac- company a singer or an instrumental so- loist that is to say accompany in an artistic or musicianly way. Concert so- loists declare there is woeful lack of good accompanies in every part of the l United States, and a cry for accompan- ists has recently gone out from Boston. l the musical hub. It was this wall that prompted Guckenberger to write his arti- l ele He discusses the question of artist accompanists in a style that is at once entertaining and helpful "As we have a true and absolute course by which to attain the highest art in piano playing, so there is and must always be a sure and positive course to- follow by which l to reach the art of accompanying. After pointing out certain requirements | for the beginner, MT. Guckenberger says:
 aThe pupil having arrived at about the l age. of IS, should take up the reading Of l old ecclesiastical music in which he will l different voice parts, such as the soprano, where middle Ciis written on the first line-alto, where 1t is placed on the third. and tenor where it occurs on the fourth l line of the staff Having once mastered the art of reading and transposing this style of music, even to the almost lm- possible task of playing double choruses of eight separate and distinct voice parts on the piano, he will, if he be eager to | QOOQ piano player or singer does not carry | with 1t the broad term musician-look around to explore newer fields with which
 to improve his reading and musical
 knowledge.
 "Ie will now come in contact with chamber music. This in its loftiest con- ception means string quartettes. In play ing these string quartette scores where by he encounters the familiar and bass 1 clcfs, he also meets an acquaintance which he had found in the old church music. This is the alto clef, used for the viola; also in some instances the tenor and alto-rarely the G clef-for the cello | It is absolutely necessary to play on the 1 piano most of the old classic string quar- tettes of the masters. for of all the forms of musical expression the most classic. l therefore the most refined and elevating is the pure string quartette.
 Becoming thoroughly familiar with l the reading and playing of these scores he must now proceed to the easier sym phonies and overture scores of the old masters" and so on.
 Mir. Guckenberger ends with this whole some advice:
 When talented pianists will quit drumming at the piano six and eight hours day on purely piano compositions, and will use some of their time in learn ing to play the original scores of ecclesi- astical, oratorio, string quartette and or chestral music, to which they should add the playing of the vast store-house of piano chamber music-such as piano trios, quartettes and quintettes they will at least, through this plan, develop into such good sight-readers and accompan- ists that real vocal and instrumental ar- lists will find no more cause to complain | of them.'
 l Piatti's violoncello, according to his own expressed will. has been sold to 1 Mendelssohn, banker of Berlin and a son of the great Mendelssohn. One hun dred thousand francs (s2O,000) is the sum the banker sent Piattis daughter, the widow of Lochis of Bergamo.