The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-10-28
WOULDN'TLET DAMROSCH hum
OR WHISTLE IN TESTIFYING
FOR VICTOR HERBERT.
He Says street Organs Are Not the
Court Of Appeals In Music-TwO Wit.
nesscs Who Never Heard OF Expert
vianesi-Csse TO the Jury To-day.

Justice Truax will charge to-day the jury
that has listened patiently for a week 70 the
testimony of musical critics and experts In
Victor Herbert's suit against the Musical
Courier, and then the jury will decide
whether Herbert was libelled or not by a.
article that appeared in the Courier in july
1901. in which il was said that all Herbert
musical compositions were stone dead
agglomerations of puerie piracy. and
that the composer of The Serenade, The
Wizard of the Mic and THE Fortune
Teller" had never written an original
strain in his life.
The court room yesterday was crowded
10 the doors with musicians, critics, ex-
perts. singers and soubTettes. Al recess
the corridors and rotunda of the County
Court House were the scene of many heated
debates, in which the women took no smal II
part
The examination Of Walter Damrosch
was resumed when court opened. He
strenuou-ly upheld Herbert's originality
and rdiculed the comparisons made by the
experts of the other side between Herbert's
compositions and those of the great, but
dead. masters. Damrosch offered TO hum
a few of the airs from Herbert,s "N"ronade
80 that the jury could note the u..crence.
but the offer was declined with thanks
One of the experts produced by the Courier
named Goodrich had produced some sheet
music which he said was BcethoNens Ninth
symphony, and ne had pointed out the
similaritie- in it and Herbert'- Wizard Of
the Nile" Damrusch took the sheet Good
rich had identified, and laughed loud and
long when he was asked if IT were the Ninth
SYMPHONY.
NO, nor within mile Of it," he said.
throwing down the sheet, Dafniosch also
declared that not only could good original
music be written 10 order, but that
many of the most famous classical works
were so written. Among them he named
Mo1ans Magic Flute" and Requiem
and Wagner's Centennial" When asked
whether he considered the street pianos
and hand organs the crucial test of popu-
larfty in musical compositions of the Her
bert type, Damrosch looked panied. He
did no, want to answer such a question,
he said, and when ordered 10 do so. he
burst out with an emphatic NO.
Victor Herbert himself took the stand
again. 10 deny that he had ever. either
consciously or unconSciously, cribbed from
other composers. He also gave a heavy
jolt to the testimony of expert Goodrich
about Beethoven. Julian Edwards, the
next witness, an author of comic operas,
put in IA good word for Herbert's originality,
individuality and style. Edwards said
he had written one grand opera, The
spanish Student" but had found serious
work Improbable. For amusement it
was all right. he said, bu, a. a business
proposition he found comic opera was what
the public wanted
Defendants expert Signor August Via
Iesi who expressed a desire last week TO
show the jury on a piano what cribber
Herbert was, came in for some body blows
az the hands of Henry Hadley and Herman
Perlev, two more experts called by Herbert,
who both said they had never seen or heard
Of Vianesi until he testified in court Via
nesi himself had testified that every COM
poser and conductor either in Europe or
America had heard Of him az an authority.
And Gilbert HAYES Of counsel for the Cour-
ter enlvened his summing mp by humming
a few bars of a tune which he said was the
Blue Danube" waltz by Strauss. Justice
TruaS left his charge over O this morning.