New-York tribune., 1917-08-19

Cucc an opera enJlLlcI tsAN OF NhS
Blue Stocking? Perhaps il was
"Victor, the Blue Stocking" The
founder Of the New York Philharmonic
Society was not named Uriah c. Hill,
bu. Ursli Corelli Hill; that fact was
msde known TO the world by the So
ciety's memorial history. Of which Mr..
Darby evidently never heard, though IL
and the history OF the 0rstorio Society,
written by the same author whom we
are TOO modest to name), are useful in
correcting errors made by Frederic
Louis Ritter in his Music in America
Where is Pietro Floridis's Italian Sym
phony Orchestrs? Do two concerts
given by q picked-up band make an
organization deserving q place in his
tory?
"When Theodore Thomas left the
New York Philharmonic he accepted
the musical directorship Of the Ameri-
can Opera Company. When ne sot
back to New York after an absence OF
two seasons he attempted to revise ms
old orchestral organization, etc" MI
Thomas was conductor of the Phlihar-
monte continuously from 1877 TO 1884,
except for one season spent in Cincih-
natl. His engagements by the Amer''
can Opera Company and the Philnar-
monic Society did not interfere with
each other. II is amazing to learn
from Mr.. Darby that the College 0i
Music which called Mr.. Thomas to Cin-
cinnsti was founded by Miss Dora
Nelson" We were on the ground al
the foundation and are somewhat pow
erfully persuaded that the founders
were some of ,he prominent citizens OF
Cincinnati and that Miss Nelson was
an Office employe. Cincinnatlans VIII
also learn with surprise that the hrst
than that. and orchestra concerts
,heir city was organized by Michael
/ BRAND in 1894. There was Cincinnati
orchestra nearly twenty years carrier
| than that and orchestra concerts
twenty years. earlier than that
! ard that and again that And is the
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra still in
existence? Where is the Minneapolis
Orchestra generally conceded to rank
with the Boston symphony" In Min
I neapolis?
In Chapter TX Mr.. Darby has forgot
/ ten what he said earlier about the
| finer, or deeper, culture Of the Southern
sri.tocrats, and says that the New Eng
( land singing schools which sprang up
"as soon as the New England conscience
was convinced that good singing was
no more frivolous and immoral than
bad singing" were "the outgrowth Of
real and widely felt popular need; they
had a practical purpose in which all
their members were seriously inter
ested. On the contrary, the other early
musical societies for the most part were
promoted by wealthy amateurs from
motives which at best were not free from
suspicion of dilettantism and at worst
were purely snobbish." Mr.. Darby's
pages devoted to choral organizations
are peppered with inaccuracies. He
says choral music association where
church music association is meant. A
notion that all good things in music
came from the Germans makes him
credit the New York Liederkrsnz with
giving "a tremendous impulse to the art
of choral singing in New York." though
il was preceded by many societies us
ing the English language, and its chief
activities always, as now, have been
private and social. As an influence on
popular culture IL always was, as it still
is, negligible. By 1888 the Oratorio
Society of New York is said to have
placed to it's credit achievements in
choral music "such as had never been
approached by any other organization
in New York, or, in fact, elsewhere in
America" Nhewl The Sacred Music
Society in New York performed Men
delssohn's "St. Paul" two years after
its first production in Dusseldorf; tho
Church Music Association performed
Beethoyen's Solemn Mass in D; the
Philharmonic Society formed choir TO
sing the choral part Of the Ninth Sym
phony in 1s4s; Ureli Corelli Hill in
vited Mendelssohn and Spohr 20 come
TO New York and conduct festivals; the
Boston Handel ard Haydn Society was
organized in 1915, and the Cincinnati
May festivals under Theodore Thomas
in 1878; but evidently choral music,
real choral music, waited till DR.. DAM
rosch organized the Oratorio Society.
Even the historian of that organization
never dreamed such a dream. (Mr.
Walter Damrosch, by the way, conduct
ed the society till 1899, not 1881
But We grow weary of this feature
Of our lsbors and shall put It aside;
only few more corrections: The first
performance in America Of Baeh's B
minor mass wss not that Of the Bethle-
hem Bach Choir in 1900; the Handel
and Haydn Society, Of Boston, sang it
in 1887 The Cincinnati May festivals
have not been held regularly since
1873 under the conductorship of DR..
Otto Singer, Arthur Mees, Frank van
der Stucken and others; Mr.. Thomas
was the conductor from 1873 till his
death, and his successors have been