The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-05-21
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
BUREAU
FREDERIC J. HAaKIN. Directed.
washIngtsn, D. C +
MILLIONS FOR MUSIC.
Washington, d. C

MlLIHONS EOIt mOSIO.
New York City, May 1s.-Thousands
of ambitious young folk with millions
of dollars to spend on their voices or
other talents have come to New York
in the past few years. because they
were unable to go to Europe.
| Can New York hold this business in
| helping budding genius to bud, now
| that Europe is once more bidding for
it? Is good music to become domes-
tic product, or must it always have a
foreign label, like champagne or ia
| BILE china?
] The war sent a large number of
European artists to the United States,
it killed off a great many OF the very
best, and it aroused American ma
| tionalism TO such an extent that for
! the first time an American audience
| consented to hear an American opera.
These three facts combined to make
New York the great art center of the
world. Today, South Americans and
| Canadians as well as Americans, who
formerly went to Europe. are a part
! of the student body of Greenwich VII
lage.
But now the signing of the peace
| pact may be assumed to be drawing
near The ban on European travel
will soon be lifted, and the art facili-
! ties of Europe will once more be
| thrown open to the world. They will,
moreover, be skillfully advertised.
Munich, will do everything in their
power to overthrow the temporary
| ascendency of New York, and resume
| their artistic domination of the west
ern world. The musical authorities
| of this country, however, and, espe-
cially the great American musical in
dustry, are going to give them a run
| for their money.
For money, of course, is the basis
of the competition. 1t is estimated
| = hot hoFr = he hat fnr1 md
| twelve thousand young American mu-
sic students were always scattered
about the great art centers of Europe.
Other thousands patronized the
schools of painting. If the average
annual expenditure for living ex-
| penses was only one thousand dollars
and the majority must have paid a
| great deal more-this would mean ten
or twelve million handed to Europe
| each year for musical education alone.
And musical education is something
which can be obtained just as well in
this country as in Europe.
1t is a we'll known fact. moreover,
that the majority of American pupils
| never receive direct teaching by the
| great European music teachers. I'm
less one displays exceptional talent he
| is usually turned over to gifted pu-
| pill who pays his tuition by teaching
| the many mediocre pupils with whom
| the great artist himself does not care
! to bother. In the case of piano stu
dents of only ordinary ability this is
sometimes a fortunate circumstance,
| inasmuch as many of the greatest
\ pianists are poor teachers and speak
| such broken English as to be almost
unintelligible. And it is always pos
sible to return to America and declare
quite honestly that you studied under
the great man himself.
AS for singers, Europe offers about
the same line of goods in the way of
| tuition that is to be had in almost
| every large American city. Some
who know about these things say that
there is much hocus pocus about the
| Wanted methods" of the foreign in
structors. One woman, who had &C.
casion to observe the teaching of
many masters" found that like doc
tors, they disagree. Some of them
made their pupils sing with tight
puckered mouths, while others said
that the jaws must be relaxed, and
still others went so far as to prop
| their victims mouths open with lead
| pencils or little sticks made for the
| purpose. One teacher of considerable
reputation, doubtless taking his idea
| from the usual type of prima donna,
told his pupils that in order to sing
well one must be fat, and he had a
| large number of American girls who
varied from the willowy to the skinny
| taking tonics to make them stout.
While a pianist is still expected by
! the American public to wear his hair
| long and have a foreign name the
same prejudice has been overcome in
] regard to singers. 1t is beginning to
be understood that a splendid voice
| loses nothing by the fact that it is
made in America. One of the chief
destroyers of what one musician has
| called the great European illusion"
is a woman who grew up on a New
Jersey farm, and was taken into the
| Metropolitan Opera company with
nothing more European than a lam
guage or two. At the age of ten or
eleven, this New Jersey prima donna
! knew she was different from her play
mates-that she had a voice. Unable
to enlist the help of her family, she
gave music lessons to pay for her own
singing lessons, which she took from a
wei known teacher in New York. At
last a great opportunity came. She
was to Sing before a famous manager
But she had nothing suitable to wear
A friend. the wife of the town grocer,
| loaned her an evening dress, and ii
was in this that she won her first en-
| gagement The manager liked her
voice, and offered her a place in his
opera company. Now thousands of
Americans delight in listening to the
voice of this attractive American girl,
who is wholly home product.
Another famous Metropolitan So
| prano.~ whose voice was trained not in
Milan or Munich, but in Baltimore. is
now accepted gratefully by the Ameri-
can public. altho she does not try to
| look foreign. and bears an obviously
! domestic name. Since the war of
| course, New York is full of budding
sopranos and contraltos, who are
! working just as hard and suffering
almost as many difficulties as If they
were studying in Europe. But they
are where their families can reach
them, and in country whose customs
and language are their own. Their
education is costing them less, and the
money they spend stays in the United
/ States.
With the signing of the peace pact,
! however, an exodus of American stu
dents to Europe may be expected.
Europe is already busy with its propa-