The San Francisco call., 1909-05-23

OF EuLeLlAlnlnS al anger Qn-
awares
The Imagination. with which
music has exclusively to do.
grasps with larger and ffrmer
hold the things that are distant than
81 does those which are near at hand.
Contact with composers defes the op-
GRAFTON OF vision. and thus it happens.
frequently. that talent and genius are
seen in better light near the horizon
than across the street. Ethelbert Ne
win. for instance, struggled in Boston
with only medium success, and then
went to Paris, where he had more
American pupils than he had in the
Hub town He was more the American
composer in Berlin. Algiers and Flor
ence than he was in his native land
And 50 with others Of our native music
writer's We like them best when they
go away; we understand them better
ovo- the hiatus of our own neglect.
and the distance which divides makes
ou- hearts grow foncer.
= CALIFORNIA COMPOSER
IRE eastern press accounts of a re-
cent concert in New York suggest these
vagaries. Critics in New York seem
10 have discovered p genius in Cali
fo-ni2. He is william J. Mccoy. who
wro.e the music OF The Hamadryads. r.
which was the masque presented by
TIE Bohemian. club at its annual forest
recently played in New York at a con
cert given by the American music so
ctety 81 Carnegie han. The program
was arranged by David Bispham. who.
as 2 -aansfactGrer or programs. is
Ar-o-ica5 most adept artisan. Frank
X. .,-caz, - re directors desk of the
People symphony orchestra. led the
-neatalis,s through the forest
hre1-sls tone poem by the California
compose. ut is proper to call Mccoy
California composer. because while
ne Was g. rife careless in selecting his
natai s-ate. he Tade amends for the
so1-aful indiscretion By adopting this.
q came he-e." said he to me. with one
lune- Nov feel as though / had
seten.D
y HAT THE PRESS SAYS
Before detailing part of an interest
ing chat that he gave me recently on
American music. should like to quote
.here some Of the things which the New
York critics had to say Of this COM
poser. vine belongs TO US.
The Hamadryads. says the New
York sun authority on music. came
down like no wolf on the fold. but
rather Ike the voices Of cooling doves
and hOoung owls out Of the big trees
OF California, echoing and re-echoing
in Carnegie hall SO far as recent
memory may answer. this gay spring
concert was the first far cry in a
wilderness OF effete and sedentary
eastern cosmopolitanism. 1t was the
first Pacific overture sent overland
from a genuine Bohemian club jinks.
An artistic traveller from the local
players could vouch for it that this
Bohemia was not that of Europe's 5
operate PUccini or patriot Smetana.
chief conservator of harmonious Hama
drvads that found new tongues in the
oldest forest trees was first in the
heart Of yesterdays program makers.
David Bispham and Franz Arens, and
his name is William J. Mccoy"
Another critic says that the work
Is one Of very great beauty and that
81 is admirably constructed. while
still another finds the composition
great in imagination and distinguished
by rich orch hestral coloring. "A
nreezy, world wood spirit sings through
this modern transcription from the an
tiQue pagan world"
Maynard Dixon, well known in this
city wrote TO the composer that the
work was certainly well received.
Making due allowances" he continues.
for sentiments Of association, I am
not ashamed to confess that was near
10 the weeping stage on hearing it
again. I did not realize it could dig
in so deep
David Bispham writes TO the COM
poser that his composition went ex-
tremely well and that Arens proposes
10 repeat it with other Of Mccoy s
compositions at a forthcoming concert
The moral Of this is: Do not disable
the American composer, nor wing him
with the shaft Of cold neglect,
NEW OPERA
Mccoy is busily engaged on an
opera. The book is by Charles K.
Field and the music by Mccoy 1t is
completed within year. A production
Of the work is assured, says Mccoy,
provided the producer thinks as well
OF the completed score as he does of
the work in its incomplete state"
The opera is a study Of the life and
passion Of Cleopatra and of the ruin
OF Antony. IT follows the traditional
story OF the pair and there is much of
spectacle in il. In form IL will be
operate rather than like musical
drama.
The chat about his opera led the
conversation to other works by
American composers for the opera
stage. Frederick Grant GIeeson, you'll
remember. wrote the score of grand
opera "Montezuma, and died waiting
for a producer. I asked Mccoy if he
had faith to believe he'd ever see his
piece before the footlights. He said
he had.
ABOUT AMERICAN MUSIC
What Modest Altschuler Of the
Russian symphony orchestra said
about the future of American music. -
continued Mccoy lis most interesting,
but not altogether correct. think He
claimed that IL was from the popular
music Of the cheaper composers that a
national school Of music was to be
40 frIr co of