The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-01-08
SPERANDEO;
ORCHESTRAL;
AND YOUTH

; There was an audience Out TO heal
Sig. Giovanni Sperandeo last evening
which he may we'll consider a compli-
Iment to his reputation hereabouts. II
was Of sufficient size, considering all
weather and other conditions, and
was of high quality, many OF the most
prominent musicians in keokuk being
seen in the pews of Trinity Methodist
church where the concert was held.
Sperandeo is a singer rather than
la vocalist; a man who looks upon
music as one of several mediums OF
depression, and who understands that
lit is better adapted to expressing
emotions than ideas Probably, he
never concerns himself with the high
lly intellectual pursuit of figuring out
what abstract philosophy was intend
ed by composer Of a nocturne; but
he always feels that the place of song
/ is to bubble out those feelings that
rise in most men and all women every
once in awhile and that some persons
/ find difficult to express. Under the
stress of war, some men swear, 9th
ers shout, and one can easily opine
that Sperandeo would sing song.
How MUCK of this is temperament
and how much his very sensible
knowledge of the limitations of his
voice, one can only guess. IL ne sang
the music that Caruso likes to sing,
he would only make himself ridiculous
and Caruso could not sing some
things that Sperandeo sang last even
ing nearly so well as the younger,
less famous singer.
Sperandeo's voice reminds one that
the word cantatrice is feminine, and
at least this writer never saw it's mas
culine form. If az has masculine
form, it is exactly the word to apply
to Sperandeo For not only his
music and his choice of program, but
his voice and his training has given
the qualities inherent in that word
cantatrice. 1t is a sweet, birdlike
voice, with the pure resonance Of a
bell in which the overtones blend with
yelvety smoothness. The. tones re-
tain their roundness in the upper reg
lister, and are very sweet in the mid
ole register-and Sperandeo knows
enough to keep out OF the lower reg
lister as much as possible
His high degree of intelligence
he is senior in Washington univer-
Stis at St. ives uIIlf cAQulSlIc
Interpretation of music, but he makes
his singing much more than a reading
of the notation on the staff He makes
that notation merely the expressing
of song, as Booth made the language
of Shakespeare the expression of
feeling by another method. He did
nothing better than the song about
the maid of Dundee. and that was no
hattor he Tfafs ",
sang.
keokuk's Real Orchestra.
Probably there are many people in
keokul who do not have adequate
knowledge of the Hicks Concert or
chestra, and the present writer con-
fesses that he never heard OF it b.
fore. This critic knows all about
hicks and gold bricks, and rather siis-
pected that. the local orchestra was
well named. All this was an ela-
ment in the surprise approaching
amazement which came upon him last
evening when for the first time he
Heard tat Hicks Concert orchestra
which had half the program
1t is an orchestra with few equals
in Iowa. and adjoining Illinois and
Missouri in pure musicianship.
The first glance at the program
showed two Wagner numbers, and the
first thought was that the director
mad plenty of nerve at least. But the
mind Of this writer was confounded
when that orchestra proceeded to play
the festival march as it ought to be
played and thus prove that it can play
wagner with only sixteen pieces by
sheer force OF the ability of its youth
full director ana of it's members. 1t
did not have enough woods and reeds
for the Pilgrims Chorus which came
later, Int yet managed without them
the best possible.
It's Instrumentation is well planned,
apparently with some reference to
the individuality of some of its mem
beers. Some OF its player are ar
lists. and the others viii BE-, If one
gives them enough time for develop
.ment- As always. the director is the
thing: and this director who looks
ike high school boy conducts his
orchestra as accurately and as thor.
oushly as man seated on the bench
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