Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-12-11


= breasts in Philadelphia today is not
concerned too much with the respective
merits of Schoenberg and Skriabin. The
performance of "Rosenkavalier." next
Tuesday. is interesting, but it isn't i'm
portant. Nothing is important except
this:
In what key does Irving Berlin COM
pose?
Granting that it is not vital to the sub
ject, IL would be interesting to know the
answer. A writer in The Theatre says F.
sharp. another says B-fiat. Still others
say that Mr.. Berlin writes in C and G.
And there is wonderful story about this
shifting, transposing keyboard. Mr.. Ber-
lin is figure
His second great success is with US
just now in stop! Dook!! ListenI!!." and
the success preceding that, Watch Your
Step" is scheduled for Christmas week.
SO we ought to know a great deal about
him Unfortunately there is little TO
know. but that little is good. Mr., Berlin
was cabaret singer and then he wrote
'.Alexanders Rag-time Band" After
that, the deluge.
But who has forgotten Alexander the
giorifcation of ragtime? In THE New
Republic Mr.. Hiram Il. Moderwell has
called ragtime the one true American
music, and it Is rather appropriate that
its chief exponent should be Russian
Jew. In separate songs, Alexander"
THE International Rag" and Waiting
for the Robert E Lee" and ''Everybody's
Doing It. all OF which. believe, are from
the same brain, syncopation, the essen
tial thing. has been exploited. In ''Stop!
Look!l ListenMi" it has gone mad.
Listening TO il casually you recognize
the types of song. You hear again I'm
ND Nd to he
Life" You catch echoes of Hes a
Deyil'' and OF most of the sentimental
songs tnat manage to keep pace with the
rolhcking ragtimes. But the accents are
shifted and re-shifted. there Is no end
TO syncopation- and the marvel OF Il Is
that it is not monotonous Two numbers,
The Hula-Hula" and the magnificent
'Ragtime MeIodrama" are the highiights
of the whole series
The first of these is distinguished by the
extraordinary way in which it injects
pure Americanism, the ierky. high
spirited snappiness of our normal life,
into q lazy, sensuous and exotic atmos-
phere, and does not sacrifice one thing
to the other. The second, even more un-
usual, is a perfect dictionary of ragtime.
Virtually every manner and every style is
represented, and the bizarre action, the
absurd words which are carefully ad
justed to the music, make it the more en-
joyable.
Mr.. Berlin is credited with a desire to
write the great American opera, in
syncopation. When you remember that
he did the International Rag" an inn
perishable work both in immediate appeal
and in sheer musical excellence, in an
hour or so, you may well believe that ne
will succeed. The only weak thing in
the ragtfme manner is its sentiment, and
that is chiefly due to the lack of melodt2
invention. But ragtimc exploits the ele-
ment in music has the most potent ap-
peal, namely rhythm. 1t is a libertine,
and like some famous libertines, it estab-
fishes itself above ancient laws and
logged traditions. G. V. 5.
The first free Sunday concert Of the
Philadelphia Orchestra will be given at
the Metropolitan Opera House, Decem-
Der 49, at 3 o'clock. Tickets will be dis
tributed by the newspapers on Wednes-
day, December Is, beginning at in the
morning. The program will be that
Wagner program which was heard with
such pleasure a few weeks ago at the
Academy. Details of the EVENING
lEDGER's distribution will be given later.
At last Philadelphia will have an op-
portunity of passing judgment on Richard
Strauss Der Rosenkayalier." 1t will be
presented at the opera house, on North
Broad street next Tuesday evening by the
Metropolitan Opera Company. Although
it has been done in New York for two
seasons past, the composer had up to the
present not granted the permission for a
Philadelphia production. However, Phil
adelphia will be none the worse for the
delay. for in the form in which the Metro
politan Company now presents this much
talked-of work and with the cuts made
by the new conductor. Mr.. Artur Bodan-
sky (reducing it's length by half an hour
Der Rosenkavalier'' as a popular enter
tainment has doubly increased In value.
Der Rosenkavalier," which may be
translated 1.-THE Rose Bearer" The