The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-10-19

manager dutnOTltS ids uctH W. "'S@t
ened, not by pressure from the outside,
/ from the ambitious wives Of society
! millionnires. as some have contended,
| but from an entirely different source
-to-wit. the conductor.
Differences Healed.
You no doubt know that there was,
| last spring, complete clash between
MIR. Toscanlni and Mr.. GattI, so that
at the close of the season they were
not on speaking terms. Since then ru-
NOR has reported that the breach mas
| been healed, and that everything IS
| lovely. On tho other hand, there is an
authenticated story that when Mr..
! Gatti and his wife-Mme, Alda-and
| Mr. Toscanini and his wife met Ill
Florence, and the ladies did their best
to make things pleasant, Mr.. Toscanini
| refused 10 shake hands with his old
friend, Gatti.
Now, this has more importance than
would appear on the surface. The pen
dulum has swung from one extreme to
the other In the days OF Handel: as
you know. the orchestra was led by the
maestro di cembalo, who directed from
his place at the harpsichord fronting
the PLAYERS. AS opera grew in vogue
the authority of the director of the
orchestra increased, till, with the ad-
vent of the great conductors, like
Seidl, Mailer and now Toscanini, we
have come to the point where the con
ductor is almost omnipotent and threat"
ems seriously to infringe upon the au-
thority of the manager himself.
For this situation, which is not TO
the best interest Of music or of the
public, the press itself is largely re-
sponsible. Mr., Toscanini has been so
praised that he would be more than
4. Ill x<, u,
clusion that he was virtually, to quote
the vernacular. "the whole shooting
match" in the operatic business.
When a man is being continually
told that he is nothing short Of a
heaven sent genius, and that every
thing he does is super excellent, can
anybody be astonishcd if he accepts
the fulsomc praise that is offered him
and comes to the conclusion that he is
the leading feature Of the perffo1Tsmance'
Personally ] regard the deificatlon
of the conductor as going altogether
too far, and l trust that during the
coming season the critics will temper
their enthusiasm for Mr. Toscanini,
much of which, I will candidly admit,
| is wholly deserved. and so enable this
undoubted genius to come down from
the clouds and become something like
| human bcing-at least occasionallyl
American Superiority.
Walter Damrosch, just back from
Europe, provides important testimony
took some time ago, as you may re-
mcmrer, with regard TO American or
chestras being superior to the Euro
pcan ones. I added, you may also re-
member, military bands.
For this some, stirred by patriotic
sentiment, criticised me, and the fur
flew for time,
Mr.. Damrosch's point is we'll made,
He said:
"The reason of the superiority of
oar American orehcstras is that they
are made up of musicians OF many diff
ferent races. 1t is a well-known fact
tEat different nations excel in some
particular kind Of music. For instance,
ine French woodwind players are the
bsst in the world. The Germans are
more skillful with brass instruments.
But the French orehestras are made up
entirely OF French players and the
German orchestras Of German players,
and though French orchestras may ex,
eel j.: their woodwinds. their brass
lacks the dignity and sorority of the
brass In German orchestras, and there
is corresponding inequality in Ger
man orchestras.
"The American orchestras. on the
other hand, pick and choose the best
players they can find, irrespective of
nationality, and each department of
their orchestras is more likely to equal
the other departments than in foreign
orchcStras. Hence it is that our or
chestras are smoother and more evenly
balanced. -
What Mr.. Damrosch says of orches-
tras can be, in large measure, said
of our military and even civilian bands
They contain men of all kinds of diff
better balanced, and their tone is
smoother and more musical than that
Of the great run of bands abroad.
There is, however, another reason
which should have been touched upon,
in justice to the foreign orchestras and
bands, and that is, that the players in
our orchestras aud bands are so much
better paid than they are abroad, that
we naturally, in the course Of time,
, have attracted not only the best or,
dlnary players, but the best special
players,
Finally, there is word to be said
with regard to the instruments used in
ou. bands, with which ] was more par
ticularly concerned when 1 wrote Won
before. We make in this country to-
day the best brass instruments though
there is French make of cornet
which still has a high reputation, and
there are certain Paris makes Of flutes
which also are highly spoken Of. But
take it through and through. the
Americanmade band instruments are
today emphatically superior in quality
| TO any of those made abroad, and this
statement will be confirmed by Ameri-
cans who have travelled abroad and
heard the foreign bands, and it ac.
counts very considerably for the un
doubted superiority of our American
bands Mephisto" in Musical Amer
ica,
orpheus Club Election.