The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1922-01-31

Dean. Albert says, says ne:
at is rare thing for Ocala to be
fortunate enough to hear singers of
world renowned celebrity like Frieda
Hempel, and your write-up is calculat-
ed to hurt our good little city, from a
musical standpoint. Knowing the edi-
tor as well as l do, I am charitable
enough to make due allowance for his
lack of knowledge of the subject that
ne criticized.
Il think Hempel's rendition OF
Home, Sweet Home Dixie and
the Blue Danube was everything to
be desired. When you take into consid-
Grafton the two latter were originally
written as instrumental and not vocal
selections, only the true artist" could
have rendered them as Hempel did.
at would have been far better to
have ignored the entire concert, than
to have written what you did"
And yet, less than half an hour be-
fore he wrote those cruel lines, Albert
told US with his own little voice that
Dixie was brass band tune, and that
nobody should try to sing it. How are
we to take Albert-take him a comm
or take him gwine?
Wen have to disagree with Mr..
Gerig. Dixie can be splendidly sung
by those who know how to sing it. We
have been hearing it sung all our
life-Southern women and girls sang
it during the civil war and are singing
it yet. 1t was written for "nigger
minstrel" song, and we dare say many
of our readers have heard it we'll
sung by minstrel troupes. The last
time we heard it well sung was right
on the Temple stage, by a little troupe
of Ocala boys and girls, who were
pulling off homemade show. They
sang it with vim and a ring and a
melody that made every nerve of their
hearers tingle, and they received
more hearty applause than Miss Hem
pei received. AS DR.. Henry-or was
it Patrick Henry-said, eff this de-
serve tar and feathers, go to shocking
your hens"
We have no doubt that Miss Hempel
could sing Dixie beautifully, but not
| by singing like she was trying to keep
up with brass band.
We don't know why Mr.. Gerig
hauls the "Blue Danube" into his re-
marks. We did not criticise it.
We have no objection to other peo-
pie liking Miss HempePs manner OF
singing 'Home, Sweet Home" but we
see no reason why we should say we
ike it if we don't. 1t seemed to US
that in singing this song, Miss Hem.
pei was trying to paint the ily-te
express something that expressed it.
self. If she had stood up with a pens.
i've smile and folded hands and looked
of her as smooth and sweet as syruE
running out of jug, she would, in oul
opinion, have better pleased others as
well as ourself. This is a crude way
of expressing it, but high musical au
thority has declared many times thai
operate singers do not sing simple
songs like "Home, Sweet Home" tt
| the best advantage. They generally
try to act them as well as sing them
and they were not written to be sung
that way. While not sticking oursel1
| a,.I
siderable number of operate singers
try to sing such songs, and they never
failed to take most of the music out
of them with superfine execution
They have pretty much the same sue
cess as pianist in a dance hall would
have trying to jazz LEAD, Kindl!
Light"
Albert is overwhelmingly correct il
referring to our lack of knowledge o.
musical technique. When we hear {:
lady trying to shrek thru the roots
of her hair, we know she is on highes
c, and when we hear gentleman try
ing to grumble thru his socks w
know he is on lowest A-and that i
all. AS we confessed in an articl'
written several years ago, music t.
US is a sound we like. In that we ar
in the same condition of fix with tn
great majority, and it is the great ma
jority that we write for.
We agree with Mr.. Gerig that
would have been better if we hadn'
written about it at all. And if we ha'
known Mrs. Murphy was going t.
write a very nice article about it TO
| Mondays paper, we wouldn't hav
written about it. But we don't Sc
how it IS going 'to hurt our good littl
city from a musical standpoint" Mis-
Hempel didn't come here for any rea
son but the coin, and she or som
other artist will come any time tn
, IcCin is stacked I'D high enough. TheS