The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-04-08
Miss carey Discovered Him.

Miss Carey Discovered Him.
Eyes, Miss jamie Carey discovered
me; people always ask that question,
he said "a mutual friend had heard
me play some place and took me to
Miss Cafey's home to play there. She
was interested in me. and taught me
as long as I stayed in neokuk. It.
was she who inspired me to make
music my profession. Before meet
ing her, I had never thought serious
ly Of it as a life job"
"Te tell the TRUTH" Mr.. Lester con-
tinued, EN- glish people don't think
much of music as asprofession and
consider ftmore of a pastime for anna
teurs, so had never decided on
music as a means Of earning liveli-
hood. On, it isn't only English peo-
pie who object to taking musicians
work seriously" the native of that
country said "You find the same
thing true here in keokuk,' and then
he told about meeting an old friend
of his, prominent business man in
the city who met him on the street
one day upon former trip home, con-
graduated him upon his successes and
then said:
when you get ready to settle down
to real work. come back to keokuk.
Nov what do you think Of that?"
the artist composer asked. And here
he told what he thought. A musician,
a composer must have the very finest
sort of technical training to do his
work, and l should say it is many
more times severe than that needed
by the engineer or the architect, and
yet people think we don't work, he
said. .s. -,'t
Ill.,. '"'7TFFasss "a ..sEgs sEEsiSSS J
w.t., The Trend Of Times.
Mr.. Testers opinion on the musical
trend of the times and musical causes
and effects are interesting and worth
taking note of. In speaking OF his
success at getting things published
he told of writing things Which filled
the public demands. And does the
public taste change much and in what
direction?'' he was asked.
indeed it does, and it's getting
better" he said emphatically- Can
ned music and the ragtime jazz stuff
is what's doing it. People get tired Of
it and when they do, they Want some
thing better to take it's place. Rag
time always kills ITSELF" he asserted.
"And please don't misunderstood
me, have no personal grudge against
that type of stuff, and it's all right for
people who like it, Mr.. Lester said.
He stated that he would never write
any of it himself ITS fatal to COM
posers," he said. n r.i,8< f.. (
Judged by Choral Work.
II Judge country unsteady by its
choral work." Mr.: Lester said, land
the type Of music which is interesting
and civic choruses all over
the country today is better than 1t
has ever been"
At the present time Mr.. Lester is
especially interested in work of this
sort, for during the war both he and
Mrs. Lester devoted great deal of
their time to this phase of music.
They are both directors of the Civic
Music association at Chicago. and
during the war each Of them had
charge of community and camp sing
ing at Fort Sheridan and at the
Great Lakes naval training station. |
They worked here under government |
orders and, in cooperation with the
Another duty assigned |
to Mr.. Lester was the supplying of
artists to appear before the boys at |
the nearby training camps.
The number and the various kinds |
of musical works which Mr.. Lester |
had had published are many, and it
Is remarkable how many different |
fields of writing he has been success
full in. He has done songs, chcs'uses.
oratorios, anthems, piano numbers
and operas His latest work is an
Indian opera called "Se-a-wan-a," be-