The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1915-04-20

Mr. Walter Danrosch, Dynamo of Orchestral
Music The Most Modest and Charming of Men
BY DOLLY DALRYMPLE

Some people are born famous, some
achieve fame and others have fame
thrust upon them, and there is still an
other class not unusually cataloged;
namely, those who avoid it and to the
latter class Mr. Walter Damrosch, the
famous conductor of the New York Sym
phony orchestra belongs.
Mi Damrosch is the most modest and
charming of men.
He has never sought notoriety; on the
other hand. notoiiety has sought him and
b. his splendid musicianship and mag
netic personality he has achieved a place
among the worlds artists that is en-
viable from many standpoints.
Mr.. Damrosch has none of the affecta-
tons of the proyerbial musician he
doesn't wear long hair. or big eyeglasses,
nor does he make pyrotechnical displays
with his baton as If the dynsmics OF
music alone counted but he is just the
elegant sane, conservative man always
standing as he does daily before an ad-
miring immocuous multitude-many of
whom do not know a fugue from fur
below and fewer still breath of the di-
yinitS from a call to arms or the rate
on the stock market, and yet they are all
pleased with Mr. Damrosch, and his SUI
perb art.
Why?
because it is human; the man himself
is human and sympathetic and he speaks
to tho neophyte as well as to the mi
tiated priest in the inner halls of the
tempe-and consequently he pleases.
Speaking of the fact that Mr.. Damrosch
is minus many of the eccentric character
istics which musicians are famous for,
recalls a story of the noted conductor
which has to do with his early youth
when he played in noted orchestra.
1t seems that then he wore his hair
quite long and bushy and it very much
annoyed a thin haired young violinist in
the orchestra who was constantly com
planning Of Mr.. Damroschs coiffeur.
"Lools here, Damrosch. said the fell
low musician one day, I'D like to know
why YOU don't get your hair cut? Then
maybe l could see the conductor"
Quick as flash, Mr.. Damrosch an
swered over his shoulder:
why don't you learn to play better
and then you'd sit in front of me-
Mr.. Damroschs opinion is the last word
in orchestral music for he has done per-
haps more toward raising the artistic
standard of the American people, of
which New York is the center in such
matters than any one individual in the
musical world And this musical atmos-
phere is not a thing of growth, of slow
appreciation, of mutual cooperation, but
rather in a way something foreign and
1t has been in a measure a
forced process and stands like Metro
politan Minerva sprung full armed for
the head of Jove.
The New York Symphony orchestra,
under Mr. Damrosch, is perhaps better
known and more popular than any of the
other great orchestras, for Mr.. Damrosch
serves but one master; namely, the COM
mands of art. No matter what friends
he may have among the artists in pri-
vate life the instant he steps into the
orch estra everybody concerned is reduced
t, common leyel-all then are merely
factors in helping TO make the music
as artistic is humanity possible.
Their art is spelled with huge "A and
the written text of the composer be-
comes law.
There is no exaggeration ever with Mr..
for this wizard of the baton
galvanizes his forces by the overwhelm-
ing magnetism of his personality.
He is veritable human dynamo-and
withal the greatest aud most modest of
men.
In talking with Mr.. Damrosch yesterday
about the past winter in New York mu
sically and what effect the war has had
on musicians and music generally, he sail,
among other things:
There has not been the least depres-
sion in New York unsteady. There have
been more concerts, and. more apprecia-
ton than ever before. The opera has had
a great season and the influx of musicians |
from the other side has been tremeE-