The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-11-04

Clubs and Their Goal under this heading Tn recent issue of his valuable paper, saying:
 Music clubs, the country over, are completing their plans for the new sea son. Their announcements presage great " increased activities, particularly with respect to presenting famous zrtists at their concerts. This is as it should be, for, after all, it is the celebrity who in- spires local talent and fires the spirit of those who woo the muse. Without the incentive of great names. without the glanor of the triumphs of the favored of fortune, without the qualification that comes only when something very difficult CT. profound or otherwise beyond the or dinary grasp, is superbly achieved, music
 would lose not only much of it's popular appeal but would tend to become quest without a goal.
 The importance of the music clubs however, is not to be measured by what
 they do in the way of presenting noted artists. That Is subsidiary to their chief function, and is not what has given them
 their important place among the funda- mental musical resources of America.
 Perhaps too few stop to recall that the
 music club is a typically American insti- tution and. as such, has excited the ad- miration of foreign observers Liza Leh- mann, in her autobiography, urges Eng fish women to follow the American lead. To the American music club she largely ascribes the circumstance that in Amer ica there is large public for a much
 better class of songs than English pub fishers at present find much response for"
 "'As Nine Lehman has pointed out, these clubs were organized primarily for the study of part songs, and she credits them with singing music of this class with exceptional finish. Even the small cities have their music clubs''-to quote her autobiography-"th encouraging the study of vocal chamber music.'
 More than ever it is to be feared that too many music clubs may lose sight of their study function and devote their time too freely to miscellaneous programmes, often of the most hackneyed nature, sim ply because these programmes serve the purposes. and incidentally the vanity, of those who appear upon them. It is not the quest of noted guest artists that is at fault, but misuse of the clubs own material. Doubtless if is going too far to say that it is sheer waste of time for any music club to present typical he- terogeneous programme in which the So- prano sings an air from Madam Butter fly" a talented girl violinst basks in the grateful measures of several kreser adaptations, and a pianist leaps from Chopin to Schumann and on to Debussy and Grainger in her group of four num- bers; singer violnist and pianist having chosen their selections on the basis of dis playing their individual powers and best concealing their limitations. But it cer- tainly is not making the most of the clubs opportunities.
 Far better little less personal glory for the few appearing, and little more musical substance-a matter of pro- gramme building rather than of the in- divdual numbers--for the many listening The club that sets for itself serious course of study and uses it's soloists and it's choral resources to illustrate and ex- emplify what 1t studies, should be given the recognition and commendation it de- serves
 'On the other hand Miss Van voorhis said, 'the managers of concert series perform their. mission. presenting the great artists of the world, who are us- ualy too expensive to be included in the music club course, but whose art and prominence make them popular, and every community wants to hear them; consequently the progressive concert man. ager presents them. As I said before, every angle of musical endeavor has it's especial mission. and unless there is ab- solute /co-operation. none. can succeed; but with it. all can succeed in the musical upbuilding of community in- dividually and America collectively"