The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-02-08
By DOLLY DALR YMPLE

pearance, tall, dark, with iron-gray | hair and mustache; brown eyes and massive forehead. like the King of the | Violin), "and when I tell them that I am Javanese, they raise their eye
 brows and declare that I'm the first one of that nationality they have ever known. I was born in Batavia, which l is the capital of the Island of Java 1 Dutch colony--and I lived there un- :, til my parents went to England when I was a mere boy.
 I "One evening an amusing thing hap pened in Springfield, where I was playing soon after came to America" MT Gumprich said 'I was with the
 Russian quartet, which made trans continental tour that season. A tiny !, little fellow--a dwarf-who was play ! ing in show which was in Spring | field heard me play and was interested
 in the cello and came up and spoke to | me. I said to him. Pige mana (the
 Javanese for 'howdy doD and he | threw his hands up in delight and all most hugged me, and said he was a
 Javanese, too, and that I was the first he had ever met in America.
 "I took up the cello which I regard
 as the most beautiful and soulful of
 all instruments" MT. Gumprich said, I 'as mere pastime in the days when l I lived in affluence and elegance, be- fore my unfortunate investments in England swept my fortune of $250,00o away studied the cello with Julius Klengel@-the greatest cellist of them all; this was in Leipsic-you under stand. long. long before the war. There 1 l played in the Gewandt House or chestra, to which pupils were ad ! mitted after passing certain examina tions. At that time everything mu- sical was printed in English, there being on an average of between 900
 and 1000 English speaking pupils studying at I.eipsic.
 When I first went to England to live. I played under Charles Hawley. l whose wife, Madame Norman Neruda, was one of the greatest artists of that day. I was a member of Sir Henry Woods Queens Hall orchestra, with a magnificent personnel of about 150. The largest number of men that , have ever heard play together" said Mir. Gumprich. s"was at Bayreuth. when I heard Wagner with his baton oyer $50 men. ] was then only years old. but it made an impression upon me that have never forgotten.
 Tt < is almost impossible to estimate the growth of music in America during the past 10 years" said Mir. Gumprich. "I have perhaps travelled over America more extensively than 90 per cent of your native Americans, and I have seen the tremendous progress of mu- sic. not only in appreciation. but in composition Mcdowell, Cadman, Car Tie Jacobs Bond ard other American composers have made a fine reputation for America in composition, while American singers and instrumentalists
 have come to notice with fine equip
 ment Tn their respective lines.
 "The greatest drawback that Ameri- ca has to musical perfection," MT. Gumprich declared emphatically, lis ragtime and jazz music. Did anyone l ever hear any music in a banjo-real music, l mean? Or a saxaphone? I never heard one of these instruments | that was in 'tune-did you? Jazz mu- sic and the modern jazz dancing, which requires the music are a great drawback to artistic music l to real music, and have left their i'm press upon Americas progress, re-
 tarding it very, very much.'