Los Angeles herald., 1907-11-15
The Musical w orld
Nv Genevra Johnstone-Bishop
By Genevra job
Y1ss GERALDINE FARRAR, an

Nu opera singer, whose home is In
LIZ Boston, is quoted in an interview
in Berlin as having said, There is no
art in the United States there is only
money Art is impossible In land OF
political corruption"
Miss Farrar entered a denial of some
of the phrasing of the interview, but not
its substance. She limited, too, that in
the future she would "confine her en-
deavors to the old world, where she has
found money possibly less plentiful, but
artistic appreciation more robust. 1t Is
reported that Miss Farrar is engaged
to Antonio Scott, leading baritone of
the Metropolitan opera company" The
above is quoted from a Washington pa
per. I hope 1t Is not true l would hate
to believe Miss Farrar had so little COM
mon sense-even IL she thought such alb
| surd things of her own native land. A
girl who came from such obscure paren-
| tage, who never even had a glimpse Of
| typical American society life, to remain
| In Europe a few years as student and
upon her return be received by her own
| people with open arms, all so delighted
| that she has made a success of her vocal
attainments and anxious she should
| reach the highest aim of her artistic
| dream If she did make any such re-
mark as is quoted we hope she will re-
main in the old world (where she has
never earned a dollar), for we do not
need such would-be artists here. And
we also hope she is engaged to the Ital-
ian, Scott, for it will be no loss to our
American noble business man.
Divide Musin is coming again for re-
citals and lectures on the History of
the Violin
Alice Nielsen is again member of the
San Carlo opera COMPANY.
The Schumann symphony in p minor,
to be played by the symphony orchestra
Friday afternoon, is most interest
ing. 1t is really Schumann's second
symphony, was originally written in 1841,
but was not revised and put into its
present form until 1851.
The last number on the program of the
symphony orchestral concert Friday aft
ernoon is also worthy of notice, it being
festival march and hymn to liberty
(symphonic poem) for orchestra, written
for the Inauguration of the seventh sea-
son of the Chicago orchestra and respect
fully dedicated TO Theodore Thomas
The stage of the Philharmonic was a
veritable battle field one evening last
week when the 1873 instruments called for
by the score of Nicode's new Gloria"
symphony were holding high carnage.
This is probably the most stupendous
piece of scoring ever done, not excepting
the Strauss tone poems and the Mailer
symphonies. 1t calls for impossible di-
visions and subdivisions of the orches-
trail groups-re all of which 1t
would be impossible to meet; to that it
necessitated the intermittent withdrawal
of groups of players from the regular
orchestra to furnish the music behind the
scenes In addition to this lavish instru-
mentation a mixed chorus and boys
voice is required to sing the closing
Gloria" The man who painted this big
musical canvas is Jean Louis Nicode,
by birth a Berliner, but at present
resident of Dresden. Six years of his
life has gone into this one piece of work,
and whatever may be the eventual ver-
dict in regard TO its value as an art
work one can but admire the tremendous
amount of patience, energy and musical
knowledge which has gone into building
UP this gigantic 'house of sounds" 1t
is difficult to dispose of work of such
magnitude and art significance in a few
lines. 1t deals with the old problem of
the struggle between the actual and the
ideal-"a song of storm and sunshine"
being the sub title. 1t is full of bizarre
bits of realistic tone painting which rival
the great Richard himself. Strauss also
established the precedent Oh WrltlHS q
musical autobiography, an example which
Nicode more or less follows, although
he had the good taste not to label it
1.-THE Life of a Hero as Strauss did.
In one part of the score Nicode resorts
to an expedient which Strauss, with all
his wealth of fantasy and love of sem
sation, never thought of using. In order
to illustrate the idol worshiping pro-
pensities and the sensation seeking pleas
ure of the multitudes he gives long color
ature passages to clarinet soloist, the
trombones supply the imitation of fade
phrases of heroic baritone, feat which
at the close is greeted by the applause of
the listening crowd, in this instance fur
nished by a half dozen pairs of casta-
nets. This and the twelve bird whistles,
representing the "early mass" of the
feathered songsters, are episode eccen-
tricities and absurdities which have moth
ing to do with the score proper. In spite
of sll this exaggerated realism the con-
trolling idea is one of profound nobility
of thought and sincerity of purpose on
the part of the composer. He is man
no longer young, and one feels that he
has put his life blood into the work
without knowing more Of the man and