The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-01-13
BY ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE.

The interest manifested in the con-
cert given yesterday afternoon in the
Murray theater for the tuberculosis
Hospital fund, demonstrates that this
city will support Sunday afternoon
concerts.
The concert was given under the
auspices of the writer.
And the patronage, outside Of the
boxes was largely unsolicited.
That is, the writtr made little effort
to sell tickets outside disposing of the
boxes.
Which goes to show that people will
patronize a matinee concert on Sun
day.
The amount realized and turned
over to the Hospital fund, after the ex-
penses of the concert were paid, was
not large.
But the publicity given the Hospital
propaganda through the advertisement
of the concert was the merit of the
latter.
The concert, as announced, was
made up of voice and harp numbers,
the latter by Madame Lawrence, for
chestra, and J. Louis Shenk, a bari
tone of recent vogue.
Mr. Shenk cannot be judged by the
ordinary canons.
He is not an operate vocalist.
He does not astonish by his brill
lance or thrill by his climaxes.
His art is essentially interpretative.
He might be termed a psychological
singer
He wrests the soul from the words
and the music and invests them with
their pristine meaning-hltered
through his own ideals of the singing
art.
He is more to be classed with the
German ieder singers than with the
usual concertists heard in this coun-
try.
He ranks with Alexander Heinemann
although not an imitator of that
great master of vocalism-but he is of
Heinemann's musical strata.
Mr.. Shenk's musical subtlety was
shown at it's best, perhaps, in Ring
Out Wild Bells" the Gounod number,
and in 81 Martius Am" from Charles
Wakefield Cadman's Morning of the
Year"
Cadman is a composer who is very
much to the fore at present.
His compositions in which he has
used Indian folk music and included
in their presentation both through
the medium of other Instrumentation
and through the instruments them
selves, are among the most original
and exquisite ever produced by mu-
steal writer of this country.
Cadman is an interpretative genius
He gets at the heart of things.
There is something elemental and
primal in his musical outpourings-
something that is "sensed' by Mr.
Shenk and which the latter presented
in Il Martius Am"
And brought up visions, through its
tonal paintings, of Donatello of the
pointed ears, of those half-man. half
god creatures of NEUROLOGICAL fancy.
Madame Lawrence, one of the best
known harpists of the country al
though she has retired from orchestral
work, is the possessor of an art as
light, elusive and delicious as Ariel
Her technical mastery is manifest tc
the most uniformed.
But it was so perfect that it's mani
festation was, paradoxically, unnoted
A technique that is perfect is nee
essarily like the thread that holds to
gether the fabric-hidden but ever
present.
1t is there.
And the expression would be impos
sible without it.
But it is so absolutely sure of itsel
that it can permit it's possessor every
vagrant fancy, every artistic whimsey
every excursion into virtuosity.
Her effects are fine, delicatel,
limned, full of the most exquisite nua
ances of sound and color
Especially was this heard in Belot
ta's "Pastorale," and in La Source"
There is no instrument that make.
so vivid an appeal as the harp.
It's history, traditions and lyric ex
preston give it an interest and a fas
cination possessed by no other instru
ment.
Its tonal quality makes a poignan
personal effect.
1t obsesses with a certain pleasure
BILE melancholy and centuries up Wis
ions of woods and streams and ripplins
water. far away tinkling bells and gol
den twilights, of love and moonlit dis
tances, of faint shadows of color, O