The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-08-21
MUSICIANS And THE WAR
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
BY Frederic }. Haskin. DIRECTOR
Washington. ID. G.

Washington, Aug. 21.-The con-
scription of aliens will mean feeble
musical season this winter. Our Italian
opera, our Russian symphonies, our
French orchestras and our Hungarian
soloists will many of them depart TOT
training camps, leaving a gloomy
prospect of closed opera houses, va
cant halls, empty theaters ann quiet
streets For the greater part OF the
musical talent that the United States
has coaXed to it's shores is of military
age.
Such is the discouraging. picture
drawn for the American pubnc py
persons who live by the production OF
music. They predict every sort iof dis
aster from a Faust" sung entirely by
women to the disbanding of the local
masculine choir of Milwaukee, II mu-
sicians, especially alien musicians are
taken in the draft. Moreover, the
musicians themselves moved by the
thought of a world without music
have intimated that it might be well
to follow the example of other coun-
tries, and, as far as it is Just ana pos
sible, to exempt musicians as Whole.
Ministers and theological students
have been exempted as whole, says
one prominent musician Whom Amerl-
cans have adopted as their own, yet
ministers as a class do not give any
thing to their country. They are mere
lly propagandists, preaching that
which someone else has given. But
every real musician is a real com
poser The rhythm within him sooner
| or later will find expression in some
sort of composition. Suppose they nao
taken Beethoven and Wagner before
| they were thirty, and sent them 10
war? All, it is enough to cause one
| to shudder, Yet there may be sew
| eral embryo Beethovens in the United
States today
Musicians in the Army.
! This idea that musicians should be
shared on account of their value to
| the country is not new. Many famous
| musicians are in the armies of the
| belIigerent countries Of Europe, with
perhaps the exception of Germany, out
it has been the policy of each govern
ment to put them in positions Where
| they are out of danger.
| In Germany, according to the best
| reports, they have not been put into
| military service at all Germany Is
extremely proud of its musical reput"-
| ton and it intends to protect it. Dur
ing the whole period of the war Berlin
| has kept it's opera; it has kept open its
| musical Conservatives, and has left It's
| teachers and composers in safety. The
| same is true of Munich, Bayreuth and
| other large German cities.
| Occasionally, one of our own Dor
| rowed musicians has gone back to
! fight for his country, but it is interest
| ing to note the speed with which ne
was discharged from military duty
| the moment he was wounded. AT the
| beginning of the war, for example, We
| ali heard with a pang of personal loss
| that our great American violinist, the
| Austrian Fritz Kreisler, had gone back
to fight and had been wounded. But
| it was not very long before he was
back again, his leg a trif1e stiff, but his
left wrist in it's usual famous working
| condition.
One authority has attempted to
| point out that the various countries
are protecting their musicians not be-
| cause they are musicians, but beca Use
their physical health was such as to
| make them undesirable as military
| material. There is one flaw in this
| argument, however-@The musician OF
today is usually a healthy specimen.
Artists Who Are Sportsmen.
There is a story to the effect that
Albert Spaulding was once caught
playing tennis by his manager, who
imm ediately raved, tore his hair and
insisted that no American audience
would ever tolerate an artist who was
also a sportsman. Mr.. Spaulding,
however, seemed to feel that his own
physical health was more necessary to
his art than was this particular lido
syncrasy of the American audience, so
he refused to relinQuish his morning
hours on the tennis court. But today,
every artist has his own little pet out
door sport. Pasquale Amato is not
afraid that his love of swimming and
fishing will affect his voice; the Zim-
balist family revels in all outdoor
sports from hunting to golf, and Ga
brilOvitch has even cut his hair and
gone in for surf bathing this summer.
| No, there would be no difficulty in
obtaining a healthy quota of musicians
for the army if the government decid-
ed it wanted them. And, apparently
it has decided that it does. since nc
provision has been made to the con-
trary.
biggest Musical Season Coming.
Meantime, preparations are going
forward for the biggest musical season
. | that we have ever had in America
Many new operas are being rehearSed
by the Metropolitan Opera company
/. | numerous sopranos. tenorS and bari
tones are practicing English transla-
lions of German songs for concert
work turnout the winter, and every
where choruses. choirs, orchestras and
bands are looking forward to an ac-
tive year after long vacation. Never
} have musical prospects looked bright
eF. Is it any wonder, therefore, thai
musicians and impreSarioS resent the
intrusion of the draft, and urge the
exemption of musical talent?
The opinion of the whole profession
is tactfully voiced by Efrem ZimbaliSt
the famous violinist, in his answer tc
an inquiry of Musical America" E
prominent musical journal, to wha
he thought of the draft. He says
1.-The great outstanding fact in time:
. of universal sacrifice is that all meT
stand equal. since that life which al
are asked to give up for some cause i:
. as dear to the humkest individual a.
to the one endowed artisticaHy by ma
ture. Neither can give up anything
greater
, ,.rrhis to me shnnId he the x-iewnnin