New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-01-21
THREE HOURS OF
OLD MUSIC AND
ITS PERFORMANCE
Archaic Concert by Sam Frankie
and Some of Bach at
Philharmonic

The lovers Of serious music in tho
metropolis were called on yesterday
TO enjoy, or endure, about three hours
OF compositions which are archaic in
the sense that Millions poems and
Shakespesrcs plays are archaic. They
dated from n period in which artistic
ideals were different from those which
prevail to-day, and in which there were
different media of expression.
In Aeolian Hall in the afternoon Mr.
Sam Frankie, with a small orchestra,
tried to make an audience appreciate
tho beauty Of orchestral music as II
was in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. In Carnegie Hall in the
evening, through the generosity Of Mr..
Charles M. Schwab, a concert which
was injected into the Philharmonic So
ciety's anniversary festivities essayed
to bring TO the attention Of an audi.
ence which fell much short of festival
dimensions the beauty and dignity OF
the music of Bach. To accomplish this
purpose. very laudable in itself but
somewhat outside the field Of the Phil
harmonic Society's activities, the Bach
Choir, of Bethlehem. Penn. was
brought to town to sing some old Luth-
eran Church hymns, and. with the help
Of the Philharmonic Orchestra, per-
form some fragments of the great
Protestant masters setting OF the mis-
sal text.
Mr. Franko's experiment was delight
fully successful; the effort OF Mr..
Schwab and the choristers from the
centre of the country's steel industry
evoked only modified rapture for some
of its features, and the painful convic-
ton that the Bachian bark had been
treacherously torpedoed by others.
Never ia the history Of New York-we
speak advisedly-has the genius or
Bach been so outraged as IT was last
night by the Bethlehem choir's singing
Of some of the stateliest hymns OF the
stout old ritual of the German Re
formed Church. Not only in the en-
ployrnent of sickly, sentimental nuances
and lamentable languishing ritar,,
dandos were they made to SOUND
like sentimental love songs, but,
to cap the climax. the melody
to which Martin Luther wrote Christ
mas hymn for his children ("Vom Him
mel Hoch, Da Komm Ich Herr, was
hummed with closed lips, with the har-
monies with which Bach enriched it. Al
ter that IL was difficult to sit out the
performance of one section OF the
"Gloria" of the 3 minor mass and three
sections of the "Credo." Here the tech
meal efficiency of the choir invited ad--
miration at least. though the reading OF
the conductor, Mr.. Wolfe, challenged
anything but admiration. After Beth
lehem's exhibit the Philharmonic Or
chestra continued it's celebration along
legitimate lines by playing the G minor
symphony of Beethoven, which was a
feature of its first concert, seventy
four years ago December, 1922.
At Mr.. Franko's Concert of Old Music
the programme was made up of Clio
vanni Gabriells sonata, Plan Forte,
one Of the earliest examples OF or
chestral music; Vivaldis Concerto
crosse in d minor, Mozart's sixth sere-
made for strings lin which 1t was IN
teresting to note recurrence to the
older form illustrated by VivaldTs
piece), three dances by Johann Her.
mann Schein 1890, and the over
ture TO "Oedipe a Colone" and some
ballet numbers by Sacchini. There
was sufficient compensation in the beau
" of all this music for the listen
ers. but its educational value. which is
large, might have been increased had
pains been taken to inform the audi
ence Of the changes made by modern
arrangers. H. E. K.