The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-06-02
Mr., EDDY IS HEARD
His Pipe Organ Concert Proves
a Rare Treat.
Heard to Better Advantage Than
in Dedication.
AUDIENCE WAS SMALL.
That Fact Seemed to Have No
Effect on Organist.
Mrs. hickman C0ntrqItO. Makes
LUDIENCE WAS SMALL.
Mrs. Dickman, COntraltO, Makes
a Favorable Impression.

Clarence EDDY. the organist. has
appeared in concert in Topeka SO
many. times that his reputation is
established and his popularity assured.
He has a regular clientele of admirers
who are enthusiastic over his playing
and who never miss his concerts.
This includes most Of the local mu-
steal set and a few others who do not
pose as musicians but who are ha-
bituaI concert goers and who, as such,
do as much as any of the semi-profes-
sional musical amateurs to encourage
the art in Topeka. What this town
needs, in a musical way, more than
anything else, is not more teachers of
piano and voice, or more drawing
room performers who are willing to
! give lessons for a small consideration,
but more people who love music for
lISeIT, who listen to 1t inteIligently or
are willing to learn, who know or.
want to know the best music and who
are as unwilling to be put off with
anything else as they would be to ac-
cept a substitute in any marketable
commodity. Nothing SO certainly
esta blishes the intellectual status of a
community as its patronage of the fine
arts, and judged by this standard it
must be admitted that Topeka has
]
This not in comparison with other
western towns Of it's size, of course,
but from any recognized artistic
standard.
Topeka people have a splendid
auditorium and one of the best pipe
organs in the west, yet a concert given
by one of the greatest living masters
of the instrument drew last night one
of the smallest audiences of the sea-
son at the Auditoriuna-not over 500
people. And this in the face of the
fact that Mr.. Eddy is known in To-
peka, has been heard here on a num-
/ Der of occasions, and is so well liked
that he was chosen to dedicate the
Auditorium pipe organ last winter.
OF course if the people don't like good
music and don't want to attend con-
eerts, it is their own affair, and no
good can be accomplished by scoIding
them. but If this is the bald truth
that Topeka people in general don't
give q tu'penny for good music-wilI
somebody explain why it is the pipe
organ association was organized and
went in debt for a big pipe organ? It
can't be that this was done without
due encourag cement. and if that is true
somebody, or a good many some
bodies, must be Sinking in the matter
of fulhllment of. their promises, tacit
or otherwise.
However that may be, and notwith-
standing the size of the audience. an
excellent concert was given at the Aud
I 4LOiAulH AdSL hight MI. I4QQY QGu1Cd-
/ ton concert. which drew very large
audience. since it was the occasion of
! the arst public hearing of the organ,
was in many respects inferior to his
| performance last night. The reason I'M
! dOubtedly was that having tested the
/ organ at his previous concert and be-
/ come thoroughly acquainted with its
/ mechanism, he had grasped the posi-
/ bilities of the instrument and was able
/ to get it's best effects. What Mr.. Eddy
/ not 2rcnn1nlieh with . hicr n
! like the Topeka instrument is really
/ easier to tell than what he can do and
/ did last night. The organ played by
/ him has as many voices as a band and
as much feeling and as varied eoloring
/ as a human voice. His registrat ton is
! always masterfui his technic of man
ual and pedal, perfect, and his tempOs,
/ infections and rythms reveal the mas
ter mind which has studied thoroughly.
/ thought deeply and completely grasped
the composers subtlest nuances.
The programme included a number of
new things by William Faulkes, Alfred
! HOllins and George Whiting, all among
/ the best modern writer's of organ mus
/ ic and Alexander Claimants seventh
| sonata, also new and heard for the
first time in Topeka last night. It is
| one of the best things which the great
French OrganiSt and composer has done
| and Mr.. Eddy's performance of it was
/ notable for finish of technic and digni-
ty and breadth of Interpretation. Then
| there were two old organ compositions
/ a prelude in D minor by Clerambault
! and the great fugue in G minor OF
Bach. The audience likes these old
| classics less than The Storm Fantasia
/ by Lemons, a Snowy descriptive piece
in which some striking and novel eff
| fects were attained, and the Tannhau-
| ser overture, arrangement for the Or
/ gan by Homer Bartlett, which is popu-
lar mainly because it is familiar. New
ertheless the Bach fugue was one OF
the best things on the programme. Il
is full of melody, has the finest contra
! puntal effects and as played by Mr.
Eddy the weaving voices stood out like
/ an intricate and exquisite arabesque in
the way OF being frightened at the
I pane of Bach? Some of the loveliest
melodies in all musical literature are
his, there is no musical form that is
! easier and simpler and more interesting
/ for an untutOred ear to follow than the
| fugue and although his music has been
scorned as pattern music, worked out
by mathematical formula the fact re-
/ mains that he is the great father OF
/ music and that the best of even the
/ ultra moderns trace their artistic lineage
back to him.
The surprise OF the evening was Mrs
Grace B1orei Dickman, who assisted Mr.
Eddy with his programme and who has
one of the most delightful contraltC
! voices heard in Topeka in many a day
| Mrs Dickman, who is contraltO sOlois
/ at the Rutgers Presbyterian church
New York city, has an eastern reputa-
/ ton, but was not known here until las
night However, she is assured a vel
/ come whenever she returns. Her voice
/ is of exquisite quality, perfectly placed
! her vocalizatiOn is artistic and her in
| terpretations charming. OF course one
| might expect a soleist who Travelled
with Mr.. Eddy to be well worth while
| artfstica1ly but Mrs. Dickman, it is SAFE
to say exceeded the expectations Of
most of her audience last night.