The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-07-19

yf ShFAo eAAa otiO OOuitti %
AT the 'bsds.' Marienbad, Ems, AK
les-Bains and In many Of the smaller Ger
man towns they have the string orchestra
always, because 1t Is the moro facile music
and the more popular. The reason for the
prevalence Of the military band in Berlin.
Dresden and the larger towns is because the
small pay of the musicians must be added
to- by work of this kind. otherwise they
would not be able to keep those ~organiza-
lions up to the high key that they do. It
Is not at all, as u authorities have be-
ieved, who copy this idea. that the military
everything else that the Kaiser supervises,
a clever commercial arrangement" ,
Another. q poorly dressed man, 10 saying
to his feminine o~ompanion: q Iwrote a letter
to Mr.. Frankie last week aaling him II he
would play the Marohe Slav OF Tsohai-
kowsky. I've walked all the way Just to
hear It played
Sand. oh. II he win only give Handel's
Largo again. 10 the rapturous response
from the sfabbily dressed woman, whose
spirit ia. however. Of a quality that shines
In the eyes and sounds forth in the tones
Of the liquid voice.
last Sunday says another. Il was on
tu0 VOL OubShlEt6 Vi Zig CTOWu anu i neaIQ
the violin solo perfectly. every note Of II.
I was amazed at the quiet of the big crowd
that was wonderful. You do not believe
IL until you see 1t. It 10 as II they were so
hungry for the music that they scarcely
dare breathe. There was one little kid.
q Yid, and 1t commenced to cry. but it's
father just stopped It's mouth with his fist.
I thought the child would ~suffooate, but
it didn't Some way I got the impression
that the father would have let it. I never
saw such an unearthly expression on a
human faoe as he had on his when the first
notes came. It was as IL a starving man
had got a loaf. I don't believe we Anglo
Saxons will ever know what music means
to these people. I never did till I came
here on Sunday afternoons"
A smartly gowned young woman says to
her escorts:
Il nave paid IS q seat many times for
concerts that did not compare with these
in Central Park on Sunday afternoons,
and yet I have talked about them and find
that there are hosts Of people right around
here who do not realize how important
they are. and who would not comet they did.
because they are 'free.'i It 10 the .Ameri-
can idea to imagine that everything free
must be worthless. and to tell the truth
thisiis the only free thing I know about
that is really of superior quality in New
York, except the museums.
Il know scores Of fashionable New
Workers who 60 to Europe and drag around |
to every pen air concert they can find ,
and come back here and tell how wonderful |
the bands are, and at their very doors Is |
n that is the equal Of any I have ever
heard, and I've heard most Of them"
II would be an exaggeration to say
that all the 10000 auditors at the Sunday
afternoon concerts are music lovers. There
are other lovers besides those Of the scale
and clef. and to them a. we'll the park
with its picturesque setting makes a very
suitable rendezvous. They do not mind
the intrusion Of the music. they are tolerant;
and some even grateful, since the music
distracts the attention Of the curious from
their more important aims.
Two Of mature age sit dreamily con-
scious Of each other. Finally they hold
hands unsbashed. At length he says,
There are the children and q boy and
girl Of IL and 10 come toward them and
laugh uproariously at their position.
-Holdin' hands, the boy gurgles. NAV
an paw. Amt that one on them7'
you'll be dom 1t yourself says the
girl. when you get to be as old. and she
her fathers shoulder with a pro-
hand. as II dimly aware Of the neces-
sity of preserving this tender feeling.
Promptly at 4 o'clock Mr.. Nahan Frankie
raises his baton. There Is a tradition OF the
Sunday afternoon concerts which Is always
and you can tell the habitues by
the eagerness with which they respond to
the suggestion, and in a minute, following
their example, all rise from the seats and
the grass in the arbor and along the walks
and paths until the assembly is on its feet,
and then the first notes Of the Star Spangled
Banner float on the air.
The programme Of ten numbers, the
amount, Is added to by various
encores given in return for the applause,
is always appreciative, and nicely dis
OF especially well rendered selec-
tons and those whose difficulties OF COM
and execution make their perfec-
ton noteworthy.
And these selections make a potpourri of
classical pieces. with here and there q pop
ular favorite. It Is only a smaller percent
age that applaud these last, and this per-
is composed Of the very youthful.
By far the greater portion Of the audience
gives the most vigorous handolapping, which
rises, dies and rises again and again and