Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-08-28

tour of South, Africa he got into con-
|sversation with two Beers who were
much impressed by the size of the
grand piano he was taking with him
|Son Ills tour. says M. A. P When they
We're told thai It weighed 1850 pounds
they We're astounded. eighteen hun
dred and fifty pounds!' they echoed.
low many ople does it take to
+ play I p
1t hassalWaNs been "a mystery to me
[ Why sc.ne American critics abuse me-
I for singing Tho Rosary =, writes Nine.
!Schumann-Hetnl in the September
( number of the bohemian. Il couldsun-
derstand the roasting the German writ
ers gave me for singing 1t. They didn't
like it because it was an American
song. But why should an American
critic feel that way about it, The fact
that it has achieved popularity is no
i reason for condemning it. A great
song should enjoy perennial popularity.
And am willing TO go on record that
The Rosary viii be n popular song
Long after its detractors are dead and
/ forgotten =
MI Hammerstein proposes, in his
effectively imperial way. to discipline
the expensive singers of foreign lands
fore. From Catalani to Calve. from
Mario To Caruso, they have generally
\ had their own way With the managers
of opera, quickly reducing them into
ksulhnlisson If they dared to exert their
authority. Mi, IIammersaain is willing
TO pay large wages to good singers, but
he demands OF them in return the best
they can give. They cannot sing. in
tho months they are away from New
-
and Berlin. and return in autumn with
tired and Worn voices to fill thei, Amer
lean engagements. This is the new
tHammerstein rule. and a good one,
IF he succeeds iii establishing IL he will
deserve the gratitude of our operagoers.
But in fiving a limit to the earning
capacity of Il fine voice, he is raising an
important economic question, and ar
international one. Berlin, Buenos Ayres.
Madrid and Naples will be intercAted
Eana annoyed. They, too, want the
Great singers and II Mr.. Hammersten
goes on from $SealEto year engaging all
tho singers the Metropolitan Opera
House does not actually need. and some
+ that it does8need and enforccs his rule
that out Of New York they may sing
only few times in Paris and London,
what will the rest or the world do?
After all, composers are no worse off
than other s---authorS. for in3
stance, says critic. Thousands
of them write articles which
are as good as the average
musical composition--Iuch better, in
fact. These articles appear in news
papers or magazines, are read once.
and thatEends their career Nor does
the book form, as a rule, ensure a
much longer life. Most books live at
best as longFas5 a magazine. whichfis
crowded monthlysint Oblivion by It's
successor. But cheer UP. We creators
8of music and otherScopy. II tyo,,a write
fot tile fun Of the thing-the pleasure
OF seeing yourself talk on paper--you
also get what you wanted. II YOU write
for fame, you deserve to- fail. Fame
is the irmptiest3of all bubbles. not worth
prickirg. What good does it do the
composers Of the#past that they are
famour now?? Few of them had fame
or, at least, 8greaped any reward from
it-whilei they lived. And they would
not have fame now, had they aimed at
it. NotorIety is8uute a different thing
IA thing which men like Richard
Strauss and Max Roger find very.
profitable. They try to astonish--not
the natives (these are not so easily
imposed on). but the professionals
who are a lways an easy mark, because;
few of them know the difference be-:
tween genius and technical ingenuity.