New-York tribune., 1902-12-28

fantasie caprice by vieuxtemps the Faust fan n,
| Sant-Saens.
The Choral Art Society of Brooklyn. choir OF
1 confessional singers, directed by James ii. DOWNS
which pursues artistic aims similar to those OF tne
i Musical Art Society of New-York. will give the first
concert Of Its fifth IN appended in
fnii: mGEi0" '''''''''
Rrla ..sdoramus Te Christie paiestrns ina
Glory to God .bacn
j; Solos tof Or .Pn.aas6o P1ano19Ete- n-nt
Caprice Espagnoe fbetnberser
Ts 81 Ha Sss%ss t5s aia4sus Ms7a
The angels and the sI1s sasphssdas" s herds. :
Old German Folksong Frank n Damfossn nIo
panofoTe 6aaey soi9 Eaade Dc MacDows
.TaSe Heed Ye Shepherd swninH' .......pe Pearsal
bgs Ray e Gara9a W5fd B:a Leopold pan,rosch
| George DevoiI tenor and Edwin Isham, barry
! tone have been engaged by the womans Phil
/ harmonic for their concert February u at the
| WaIdorf-Astoria Messrs Devo and Ishan1. who
| have recently returned from season In London,
gave two recitals IN Boston last month.
A series of six lecture recitals at the piano are
to be given by Walter Damrosch the Wagner
music dramas at Daly's Theatre Monday and
Thursday afternoons through January, commencing
January u at O'Clock. under the management Of
Daniel Frohman. The arrangement for the lect-
ures is as follows: January 12 Tristan January
e. Die Walktife' u January eles s. erfried: Janu-
ary %, 'Gotterdammerung, and the sale Of course
these afternoons Mr. Dsmrosch viii have the as
sstance OF prSmlnent artists and those alrsady
Anderson, Ellison Van Hoose. David Names, with
others to be announced later.
Miss Ada Crossley. the Australian contralto who
sails January 10 for her first American concert
of examiner for the Royal Academy of Music In
London. by the principal and council Of that in
stitution
Within week Arnold Dolnetsch will arrive in
New-York with collection OF old musical instru-
ments and begin series of concerts and lectures
which bound to be entertaining they
will be quaint and novel Attentive readers Of The
Tribune have been told of Mr.. Dometsch before.
He lives for the sake of keeping alive interest in
the music of the centuries that gone He has
a collection of the instruments which used in
the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth CEN
turies, and the music composed for them. He
keeps the instruments in repair and has learned
to play upon them. To listen to his concerts is 20
hear music 1t fell into the of Queen Eliza
BETH the Grand Monarque and the great mobiles
of Italy. Most appropriately Mr.. Dolmetsch. who
is accompanied by his wife and pupil both of
whom take part in his entertainments, VIII be
heard first in one of Mr.. Sam Franko's concerts
of old music in Days Theatre on January g. At
this concert there will be four numbers which will
employ the old instruments. These one of the
Brandenburg concerti gross by Bach written fer
harpsichord, flute, violin and string orchestra; the
song 20 Willow. Willow. Willow which Desde
mona sings in 'Othello,' with lutte accompani-
ment; a sonata for viola amore by Attilio Ari
osti, and concerto for viola d'amore. viola da
gambia and harpsichord. by Rameau.
OF these old instruments the one which is likely
to cause the greatest interest is the lutte. which
for centuries popular the pianoforte is
to-day. 1t was not until the end of the sixteenth
century that it forced out of the position
which it had held for an age the favorite do
mestfc instrument of music To generation after
generation of amateurs the lutte was 'omniun
instrumentorum princeps' the ''nobilissimo
mento.' regina instrumentorurn. Upon ii, by
the exercise of skill quite incomprehensible now
all the demands of home music were grati1ed.
Though the cavfchord. virginia. and harpsichord
suppanted 1t four centuries ago. it remained in use
and good repute down to the eighteenth century
Luther sang his hymns to it, and Bach was one of
the last composers for it.
The lutte instrument of the guitar type to
use popular phrase. 1t originated in the Orient
where it is still popular. It's body pear shaped
like that of mandolin 1t had fretted finger
board, strings of catgut, well metal number
ing all the way from four to thirteen. and was
plucked like guitar harp. It had system Of
notation of its
1T must have been very troublesome to keep
lutte in ORDER" says Mr.. A. j. Hipkins in his ar
tcle the subject in Groves Dictionary Music
and Musicians: Mace in his quoted WORK rec
ommends that a lutte should be kept in a bed
which is in constant use goes on to say that
in year two. if you have not very good
luck. you will be constrained to have the belly
taken Off as 1t will have sunk from the stretch
of the strings which is a great strength Mathe-
said lutenist of eighty years old had
tanly spent sixty tuning his instrument, and
that the in Paris keeping horse or a Lutte
was about the same Baron replied that the horse
would be like one of Pharaoh's lean kline
The harpsichord and virginia. predecessors
of the pianoforte. from which they differed the
essential principle that their strings pIuced
snapped by Quills, instead of being struck by I
hammers. The relation of the first to the second
that exempiified to-day by that of the grand
piauoforte toward the upright the square of a
generation ago. Instead of the hammers of the
planofcrte. there little contrivances of
wood which rested loosely the further end of
the key levers and moved through slot in the
soundingboard These jacks. they were called
(read Shakespeares sonnet to the dark LADY, were
armed at their upper end with bits of quill which
extended horizontally under the strings so that |
the jack being lifted by the pressure of the key |
variety of touch in these instruments and to |
obtain variety of tonal color and intensity resort
was had to mechanical devices multiplication of |