Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-01-26
BIZ oENEvRA NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Brahann
I774-1S56

lf14-loob
VTT read of few great English
w singers before the time of
Braham, in fact we find none in
the annals of English music until
Braham and Mrs. Ellington. The
great artists who delighted the British
lover of music in those days were
French and Italian. English musical
ART was at a very low mark during
the early part of the seventeenth CEN
fury, and the history of its progress
is as curious as it is interesting. IN
those days the glorious Muse found few
supporters, and those were OF
strange fantastic character. VINO
would credit at the present time the
information that our great London
center of musical art for all the world
owed much to an obscure coal peddler,
Thomas Britton by name, for the ad-
vancement of the regular concert pro
gram? II had always been a custom
to entertain companies at private
houses with minstrelsy until this man
Britton, who lived in an obscure part
of the town in small room more like
a prison than q receptacle FOR decent
auditors, gave the first public concerts
on record in London, attracting the
fashion of the age, who hooked reg
1Ilarly every week to taste a delight
of which the English are particularly
fond, and it was considered as vulgar
not to have attended Britton's con-
certs. To the Percy anecdotes we are
indebted for the interesting assurance
that this remarkable man was so cul-
fured. so distinguished, that when
nassing along the streets in his blue
linen frock with his small bag OF coal
on his back people would say There
goes the famous small-coal man Brit
ton, who is a lover of learning, per-
former of music and a companion Tor
gentleman"
Goodman's Fields June IL, 1774. His
father was a Portuguese Jew. NO
mention is made of his mother. His
father, dying abroad when he was
small lad, left him at the mercy OF
the world and dependent on his own
resources. He drifted from pillar to
post as thousands of LONDON wars
float. for a few years, but genius cher
fishes iealously those whom she has
marked for her own. Her innate IN
fluence guided this helpless street ur-
chin, as he earned his little need TOT
bread by honest means, as Vender OF
pencils singing along the CROWDED
streets. His silvery notes caught the
attention of Leoni. the great singing
master, then in London. Young Bra
ham had found in him father, and
poverty vanished at once. he ao~
vanced rapidly in his art under TINS
great teacher and went from London
20 Ianoafca TO sing in 1897. Here the
beloved master Leori died, and Bra
ham returned to London and took MS
rightful place in the muslcal Wofld
there, singing in Ireland and Scotland
for years AS early as 1909 he received
at the Royal theater in Dublin the sum
~ two thousand guineas for fifteen
nights. a fabulous sum in those Gays.
From this point the career of this great
English tenor was one OF marvellous
success, covering PERIOD OIL Sky
wears. The first time Weber hearo MN
in "Der Freischutz, he eXclalileu,;
If was in oratorio, however, that Bra.
ham excelled. The marvellous purity OF
his voice and sweetness, together with
its extraordinary power. aumIdpIy
fitted him for the highest lnterpreta-
ton of sacred music. HIS superb ue-
livery OF Comfort Ye My People Is
said to have produced sensation pc
vond the power of description Ihus
wrote Charles Lamb of this tenor.
oThere is a fine scorn in his face. Wnlch
nature meant to be of Christians Inc
Hebrew spirit is strong in him IN spite
of his proselytism. He cannot CoIqu ',t
the shibboleth. How it breaks out
when he sings THE Children of Israel
passed Through the Red Sea! me
auditors. for the moment, are as Egyp-
tians to him, and he rides over our
necks in triumph. The foundation OF
his vocal excellence is sense ana Won
derful Interpretation" BrahaIh >
singing inaugurated a new era In vocal
music He was the very first to m
froduce the use of the falsetto IN Eng
land. His method was so admirable,
his range of voice had scale OF TWEEN
ty notes, extending from A in the pass
to r. in alto, so perfectly modulated,
that fine use Of the falsetto was really
a great enchantment to its natural
beauty while his skillful execution OF
the portamento stamped his metnod
as a truly scientific one Says writer
of that time). He married and mad
one daughter, Frances Countess
Waldegraye). Death claimed this
artist at a peaceful old age, watched
and lovingly tended by his daughter.
He retained his faculties to the last,
and only few weeks before the END
came was present at a concert IN Ola
EXETER hall to hear the then rising star
of the world-upon which his was fast
setting-Jenny Lind. He made great
fortune. but unfortunately partly lost
n in specuIation. London is fuu OF
"reminiscences of the great in ali
branches of art. Not the least of these
points of interest is the Orange III
Brompton, where the first great Eng
lsh tenor Braham oreathed his last;
Article in next Sundays Herald VIII
be Garcia, the great Spanish tenor.
Aladdin WITH his wonder lamp never
worked greater marvels in the lives OF
Others than Jan Kubelik with his Won
derful violin mas in the lives OF nlmseh
and family. From a PEASANTS hut 10
nalace in four short years; from a
poor gardeners son to the master OF q
great estate from obscurity to world
wide fame, and into the bargain to nave
won as wife the most beautiful count
ess in all Bohemia-such in brief Is
the history of the twentieth century
Paganini, who is making his third tr1-
umphant tour of America.
The like of Kubelik's career has never
been known, and probably never vii
be again. This wizard of the bow witt
the high, ascetic brow, the dark, leon
inc head, the long, slender fingers, anc
the hypnotic personality, who swayf
thousands with the magic of his music
is one Of those rare geniuses seen only
about every third generation. Circum'
stances probably never again will con-
spire to produce parallel of his ca
reer.
At Is Kubelik was an unknown grad
nate of the Prague conservatory. A
20 Europe and America had pronounced
MIN the greatest violinist of the age
AZ % h. married Countess Czaky-Szell
IN the FIVE years since, he has recon
quered America once and Europe hal
a dozen times, and now is giving thii