The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-05-06
Mr.. JULIAN WALKERS FINE
GIFT AND METHOD ASSURE
NOTABLE INCREASING FAME.


! NOTABLE INCREASING FAME.
/ Listening to Mr.. Julian Walker S
singing Friday night il was impossi-
bic to decide whether his naturalness
was art. Or his art was the inYolun-
tary expression of his nature
Certainly he has been exceptionally
endowed by nature. His stage pres
ence is impressive and yet-he radi-
ates a sunniness, a frank ioyousnes,
that is refreshing and almost boyish
in quality. Almost, not quite For
the boy is subordinate to the man.
And the man controls his art. and
! his audience.
Mr.. Walker does make faces" at
times, but he is singulaTly free from
mannerism. So free that it is not
too much to say that his public ap-
pearance and performance. are east
est, most natural and most artistic
the writer has seen in Pensacola.
AND yet-One would hesitate to re-
fer to Mr.. Walker by so hackneyed a
term as artist. Because he is so
much more human and real. He is,
apparently, not only permeated by his
art, but his art is so permeated and
suborinated by his nature, his own
ideas, that they are inextricably
mingled.
And so it is with his voice. There
Is an exquisitely tender barytone
quality in Mr.. Walkers voice occa-
siOnally that is as intangible as the
perfume Of a distant rose, lost almost
before it is realized, in the profundo
of some lower note
Again, one wonders, what is the
real range of his voice. For, there is
always a consciousness of cOnserva-
tiVeness in his singing-a feeling that
he has gone to neither the depths nor
the heights of his scale, but has kept
well to his middle register.
That Mr. Walker has himself, as
well as his voice, well in hand, was
evident in his treatment of laggards
for whom the program had been an
DOunced for haf-paSt eight-fifteen
minutes later than usual entertain
ment hours. In that, he was more
cOnsiderate than some of their fellow
auditors. who showed their annoy
ance significantly but-sotto voice.
Mr.. Walker is also fortunate in his
a ccOmpanist Miss Mamie Maloney.
who, with true musical intelligence
and artistic discrimination so accept
ably accompanied the singer as to al
most efface herself and her excellent
work from general consciousness.
The program was largely ultra
modern with a saving SAVIOR of Han
del and Schuman, and the close if not
absorbed attention of the fiatteringly
large attendance Of representative
Pensacolians, was a matter for Just
pride, as well as a substantial founda-
ton for hopes of future patronage of
the genuinely good in entertainment.
One, wishing him the best the u
ture can bring, feels that Mr.
Walkers success will be limited only
by his ambition. There is a self-pOise
q reservation of strength, an atmos-
phere Of ability to resist the tempta-
tons Of mere convention, about this
singers personality, that promise no
slavery to mere technique even in his
mellower days, when sorrow will
have perfected what the joy of living
has so splendidly wrought.
Mr.. Walker possesses a wonderful
gOweT in his combination of voice and
personel, which authorizes him to
rise above those ordinary rules made
Only for the guidance of the unframed
mind barely within the sacred gates
of possession-at the bare entrance
to a royal road, on which intuition is
a nobler guide than precedence.
And his future will be watched with
interest by all true lovers Of music
who have heand him sing.