Connecticut western news., 1921-05-26
MUSICIANS UNION CAUSE
 FOR CUT IN CONCERTS
Several New Compositions Will Be Shelved as
 Result

OL CILSC ao III pISNlOuS NedtS.
 That the public concerts of the annual Festival of the Lltchiicli . County Choral Union have been cut . this year from three 70 two as a . direct result of demands made by the . musicians union of New York City, l is the news which developed here Sat urday and which was confirmed. to a | representative of "The Courant", by | Carl Stoeckel who, with Mrs. Stoeck- el, makes the Festival possible. For the same reason, the initial presenta- tion of original orchestral compost tions, conducted by the composer, which, in previous years, has formed the most brilliant feature of the Festival, will be omitted. In other words, what has been prophesied all winter, in New York musical circles, regarding the New York Symphony Orchestra, has actually happened in the Norfolk festivals. The musicians union has killed the goose that laid the golden eggs.
 How Art is Sti1ed
 This outcome is probably the most curious case of industrial warfare which has ever developed in the Uni ted States and, from a spiritual standpoint is one of the most tragic. A purer case of commercialism de- liberately stif1ing art wi1h no benefit to anybody it would be impossible to imagine. No more perfect example of art for arts sake than the Litch- field county festivals has ever exist ed. Not one single penny has ever been asked or received from the pub lie. Not one cent of profit ever ac- crues in any way, shape or manner. The entire expense is annually dead loss, borne by two altruistic persons. The element of 'social position" or social eclat which gen erally plays part almost correspon- ding to financial returns in such in stitutions has been deliberately dis criminated against. The Norfolk festivals were not planned for per sons who were in a position to hear good music in the large cities. They were planned and supported solely for two purposes: first, to dissemin- ate musical and artistic education among the rural and semi-rural populations of Litchfeld county; and, second, to reward and give a public hearing to composers and per 1 formers whose art was of such a de- tached and lofty artistic character that it did not find its merited outlet in the ordinary and semi-commercial 1 channels of musical art.
 Compositions on the Shelf
 The last tragic note lies in the fact that not only one party to the con troversy but every party will suffer. The Litchfeld county public will be deprived of the most brilliant pro- fessional feature of it's musical week ; three original musical compositions which had been in preparation for a hearing this spring have becn laid on the shelf with the consequent heartbreak to their composers; and, lastly, the very members of the Mu- sicians' Union who were to benefit by the act will receive less in collars and cents for their weeks work than they have received before. If one more unfortunate feature is needed to complete this artistic crisis it lies in the fact that the actual musicians in whose favor the issue was forced did not want 1t and would have avoided it if they had been allowed. The seventy-fve New York instru- mentalists who, for years, with few variations, have made up the Norfolk orchestra (and incidentally have been the personal guests of MT. and Mrs. StOeckeI were quite willing to give their services this year on terms which would have made the usual program possible, but were prevented from so doing by the New York union of eight thousand members, most of whom have never heard of the Norfolk concerts and practically all of whom would have been profes- sionally incapable of competing for the work which the seventy-five play CTS have been forced to leave un- touched There IS no question of open shop or closed shop in this case at all. There is no question of one set of musicians taking work from another. The facts are, simply, 
 of money is available for producing artistic works of a non-commercial character. The actual performers are willing to produce it for that amount, but their union says they must ask more. The reply is that If the work cannot be produced for that sum it cannot be produced at all. Very well, then, says the union, it shall not be produced at all. And it isn't. So there you are.
 How the Case Shapes Up
 The sequence of events, remote and immediate, which have led to the crisis are as follows:-
 Over twenty years ago there were singing societies in Norfolk as in most country towns but in the late nineties the society of the period in Norfolk was crystalized into The