New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-01-28

too poor to maintain himself during the pre-
scribed tenure. Competitions for composers he
considers rather undignifed." 1t is, he says.
infinitely better to give commissions to men Of
marked ability and allow them to work at leis-
ure. In short he tells US, 1t Is the eX-student,
not the student. who wants looking after; let
the institutions which are educating young mu-
sicians be relieved of the grewsorne thought of
what is TO become Of them.
Mr.. Sam Franko's concert Of old music at
Mendelssohn Hall next Thursday evening will
be a veritable Mozart celebration. Only music
by that composer will be performed. and nearly
all OF 1t viii be practically new to our concert
rooms. The pieces will be a fantasia for strings
and organ in F minor, the symphonie-concer-
tante for violin and viola, with accompaniment;
a divertimento in B fat for strings and two
horns, and the so-caIIed Peasants Symphony"
Mozart's designation for this brilliant bit Of
musical humOr was Elm Mustkalischer Spass"
that is. "A Musical Joke" Under this title he
entered it in his autograph catalogue under date
Of June, 1877. When the music publisher
Schlesnger printed it in 1856 he called 1t
"Bauernsymphonie, Die Dorfmusikanten"
C'Peasant Symphony; the Village MusiciansO
and by this title it is most widely known in
Germany. Though not so designated it is a
veritable sinfornetta though rudimentary in
its forms for obvious reasons it being a slit
on the amateur composers possibly also the
PROFESSIONAL as well as the amateur performers
OF his day. If any one shall choose to extend
the period whose composers are parOdied down
10 the present he viii be amply justified; but II
Will be necessary then to attribute what
set down by Mozart as the fruits Of ignorance
as the products of a conscious purpose. Mo-
zarts BASES sound fiat while the vioas play
the chord OF y fiat. the second violins the chord
Of A. the first vioins the chord Of G and the
horns the third and fifth Of F. Time when
such a tumble Of notes could only be set down
in ignorance or played through ignorance or
by accident; In a score OF to-day they might
occur for the sake Of 'poignancy" Of express
sion Mozart perpetrated his musical joke one
month after he had composed his deeply pa
fore he finished Don Giovanni"
Here is Jahn's description of the work: "Ig-
norant composers and unskilIed performers are
ridculed together in this piece, which is in the
form Of a divertimento in four movements for
string quartet and two horns The ridicue Of
the players is very broad. as. for instance. when
the horns. where they should come in solo in
the minuet, play actual notes. or when the first
violin at the close of long cadenza, consisting
of a number OF trivial disconnected passages,
finishes off with an ascending scale and goes
at least half tone too high. But the most
amazing confusion occurs at the end. where in
the midst Of fanfare in T major for the horns,
the string instruments strike in after the
other each in a different key. A semitOne high
er or lower is treated a matter Of small i'm
portance thirds are carried on even where they
are out Of place; but sometimes when a part
seems to come in too soon, when nothing but
accompaniment is heard for several bars, If
the principal parts pausing too long or
when at a particular point a note occurs which
sounds eXcruciatngly false, 1t is only by the
context that be assured that actual /
mistake has happened. and that the composer
does not deserve to be Kissed on his own &C
count This is repeatedly the case also in the
MAN and treatment of the movements as a
-IoIa hoy Al aft he 1Igl matt
and passages occur Of the customary kind, with
here and there a striking modulatiOn but there
IS a complete lack Of power to grasp or carry
out an idea: two three bars bring each effort
to an end and there is a constant recurrence 10
the traditional formula of the closing cadence.
The attempt after themauc elaboration in the
finale is very ludcrOus. il is though the COM
poser had heard Of such thing, and strove TO
initiate II in a few phrases, greatly TO his own
satisfaction. The art is most remarkable
whereby the pretended ignorance never becomes
nense throughout The effect rests partly on
the shrewd conception Of what is truly comic
In ignorant pretension (for nowhere is irony
more dangerous than in music the impression Of
discord being one difficult to contrOD, partly
OF the perfect mastery Of the instruments dis
played by the composer.
Miss Susan Strong makes her temperance
here Tuesday afternoon at Mendelssohn Hail. |
where she will sing this programme:
Aa a,, f'o q F Tassi di Tarauto 741 si
Der Erlkonig % @64Ssn
quand de doris List
WO WELT err
Mer Borodine
FIeurs dam0ur
Les enfauts Lncen de Fagny
Two songs roger gutter
Tho Birthday horDay
A concert will be given by Miss Jessie Quin-
tana Fara at the Astor Gallery. Waldorf-As-
toria on Friday evening
Miss Lena Duthie. at the Waldorf Myrtle
Room tomorrow evening. will give a costume
recital Of Scotch and Irish songs.
The popularity OF Handles Messiah which
has grown rather than diminished in recent
wears. has led the Oratorio Society 70 choose the
same composers Judas Maccabeus' for its con-