New-York tribune., 1907-12-01
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
Il Nc7c Edition of "FidCIiO '-Franz
and His Songs.

One of the promised delights of the present op
is a revival OF Beethoven's 't1deHo
the Metropolitan Opera House under the drec-
tion of Herr Mahler- The incident gives value TO
a new edition of the vocal score of the opera
published by O. Schirmer, the distinguishing feat-
ures which a revision of the music mace
by Gustav f. Kogcl, a translation OF the text
by DR.. Theodore Baker. essay on the opera
by H. +, Krehbie the inclusion of the four over
lures with which the composer provided II ana
reproductions of the housebills of its first per
formance in Vienna November 20. 1905. and of
its revival May o. 1874 In telling the history
of the opera Mr.. Krehbel says;
London heard IT first from Chelard's German com
pany the Kings Theatre on May y. I$A-- ~
ne Tas Ts' m , Even with n Miibran as Leonor and
Italian at Her Majcstys on May ~ Is9I @hG9 if'
There has scarcely been German opera COM
pany in New York whose repertory did not IN
clude 'Fidelio" but the only performances ht'Wh
for many years were in The veTnaeu!aT' a SIii I3i
Inverarity TO the Park Theatre produced il INST
on d9nd4 S ss' MI The Ryn Rfs s
ityl: Marcene, Miss Poole; Florestan. Nj; Man
The opera vas performed nightly for forlnlEht,
but lest that TACT Iead soInr enc Az, 10 . ,rd
with the earlier. let it quickly be recorded tnat
pss de deux With Paul TseiioR ami the ballet has
never since been as popular IN New OK as D."
Among other publications. from the same press
c.. schirmer) brief nea1lon may be made
y
which consists OF sxty-two songs by Robert Franz.
with an Introductory essay the composer and
estimate of his genius by Mr. krehbiel. hve
songs by SCHNEIDER, one of the assistant con
ductors at the Metropolitan Opera House; settings
OF six Of Mrs Brownings Sonnets from the Portu-
StIcse arranged rs a song cycCle by Gena Brdns-
cornbe and dedicated Mr. Witherspoon; Piano
Method for Beginners (which IS reilly what IL
processes TO bet by Alexander Lambert: a book
of "Master-Studies for the organ" compiled and |
edited by William L. Carl. and a History OF
Music. by Waldo Selden Pratt who is professor
OF music and hymnology in Hartford Theological
Seminary and lecturer on musical history in Smith
College and the Institute OF Musical Art in New |
York To this work II will he necessary to recur
at another time. Mr. Schindlers songs show a
graceful and fluent fancy and win no doubt soon
find way into the repertories OF our song
singers 4 valuable feature of the preface 10 the
handsomely printed volume of Franz songs is |
the comment many of them taken from the |
composers own utterances- On the subject OF the |
relationship occupied by Franz 10 his contenpo- |
raries Mr.. Krehbie says:
Franz called himself radical in music; As re-
CARDS my attitude toward the music OF today,
said he on one occasion II am riot not only ]
that should like either TO cndnSe 9, eiliiIt3tr ID -
l radical in relation to the music or TO-DAY.
In view OF such an attitude, and the fact th5t
Liszt and Wagner were among the earliest ad-
mrers of his songs. it is not strange that the |
ago hailed Franz as one OF themselves and insisted
making of him one of Wagner's camp follow
circumstance that criticism his songs chiefly
from the ranks of what Franz and his friends al
ways dubbed the Mendelssohn and SChumann |
clique. is not easy to-day. when principles more |
than feelings subjects OF discussion, TO point
out wherein the extreme radicalism professed by /
union between his songs and the music Of the |
musical dramatist of the nineteenth century. !
Franz himself to have been unable TO go |
further point out the intimate relationship |
which exists between the words and music i'll his /
songs and Wagners dramas But. surely, how
of the controversialists fifty years ago. this is
nothing novel In principle Wagner was not
whit advance of the inventors OF the mOnodiC
form out OF which grew the italian opera
three hundred years ago Quite as much as he they
declared that melodies adapted 10 the words OF
them, Weber once said. in kind ''of angelic
wedlock.'' 1t Is great charm in FranZs songs
that the melodies seem TO rise from the poems like
a exhalaton. but there have been such melodies
since the art of music outgrew its period OF
sterile formaIism. There were SUCH indeed. before
manticism rooted in the old German folk-song.
and this truly emanatton OF
tionalism and the eloquence inseparable from
natural poetic expression the most finished of
the products Of Franz's hghely sophisticated muse.
Franz proud of Wagners fondness for his
which he made to Zurich the revolutionary refugee
opened his bookcase to show his visitor that.
the OF Bach and Beethoven. his
stituted the entire musical library possessed by
the dramatic master but when the controversy
about the Music OF the Future began to rage
among the wagnerites-so strongly, indeed that
there continuing friendship between tho
two