The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-13

generation with anything but baton in his hands. To people of today this master of rhythmic measures is known only as the composer of operas whose melodious refrains have set the whole | world humming, says the New York | Times. They have responded for many | years to the haunting influence of his | musical phrasing, which is said by i Ii. my critics to be the best of it's. kind | ever produced.
 It has been declared of Victor Her. bert that out of stone he could bring | forth tunes unsurpassed for their rare combination of lightness and substance; ; | tunes that embody the personality of | the jolly, kindly man whose lyrical airs | have so long been sung and whistled | along Broadway. Broadway today is 1 mourning for the man who wrote those | airs.
 His BOundless Energy
 According to a friend of 30 years standing. Victor Herbert had but two | hC bbies-his music and his friends | Music which drove him to pad the walls l of his Riverside apartment against the | rattle of a neighbours pianou played by small children. The ''sound-proof | studio" had it's ups and downs, but | eventually shut the composer away from even the brass bugle Luigi, the genial ragpicker, blew so well.'
 'So full of heart" was the way Mar celia Sembrich spoke of the Victor Her bert who was her 'dear, dear friend"- the Victor Herbert who had been her 1 neighbOr at Lake Placid and loved flow | CTS and boating.
 "A good heart,' continued the great singer; 'and it is only a good heart | that can produce the kind of melody that Victor put into his songs. A fine character shows in music, and his was one of the finest. He went with the times and wrote the kind of music de- manded by the times. But always good music. And his kindness to young mus- slcians- he helped so many of them. They all loved him dearly. After all, these are things that tell you more than anything else about a man. He loved the country and it's outdoor ac- tivities, especially boating Fast boat ing, too You know, Victor was active, full of life, a modern in every way"
 Telling of the little orchestra" as she called it. and the Bagby concerts at the Waldorf, Mime. Sembrich said
 '1 liked to sing when Victor was con- ducting." For Herbert, being first of all a virtuosO on the violoncello, under- stood the human voice, as often do those who have mastered that instru- ment. d
 Beginning His Career
 Born in Dublin and educated in Stuttgart, Victor Herbert had the rare advantage of Irish lightsomeness and German thoroughness. He leaped to prominence in Stuttgart, while still very young, as a virtuoso on the cello, and for year or so was a member of the Royal Orchestra of that city, a dis tlnctlon accorded only to those who are masters of their art.
 And the art of Victor Herbert began 10 take shape very early in the life of this maker of melodies. In fact, it is recorded that Baby Victor began to sing when he was year old, and at the age or two knew many Irish fumes. Although his great-grandfather, an Irish barriSter, banished a son because tbat son was fontler of the arts than of the law. Victor Herbert inherited much of the talent that an older gen. eratiOn had despised.
 Just as the Baby Victor learned to hum tunes before he could talk. the boy victor played in his first concert eight weeks after he first held cello bow In his hands. Music was in him and it would out. Family reverses sent him early to Stuttgart with serious thoughts or nfe profession. He had previous ly studied cello and tonal art in Leip- slc' Munich and Berlin, so it was as an intructor at the Conservatoire in Stutt- gart that Victor Herbert met and studied with the worlds great masters of music.
 Comes To America
 In that city Herbert met the woman who was to become his wife. Augusta Forster, the prima donna, had just been booked for season at the MetronoIitsn Opera House in New York, when Her bert appeared on the scene and laid his heart and cello at her feet. She ac- cepted both, and the young couple were married and came to America together,
 Here, after many discouragements Herbert wrote his concerto in E minor which attracted Anton Seidl, at that time director of the Philharmonic. An engagement with this orchestra fol- lowed, and year later Herbert was made its concert master. At one time Herbert was one of the most popular 'cellist in New York City and was in constant demand for concerts both in and out of town. This was before he began to devote 80 much of his time to composing music.
 But the popularity of his first comic operas, whose tunefulness delighted the public ear, kept the virtuoso SO busy writing down the notes for new lyrics that he eventually gave up the cello.
 "NatOma" was produced in February, 1911, with Mary Garden in the title role. This was the one serious opera amOig a dozen. or, so lighter ones that Herbert wrote over a period of ten or fifteen years. Herbert melodies have become familiar to every American household, and some of them are on their way to become the American folk songs of the future.
 We'll known to the older generation who listened to the orchestra of Theo- dore Thomas and Anton Seidl, in which he played, and to Gilmore's band (the Twentysecond Regiment of New York;, of which he was conductor, Victor Her bert is equally we'll known to the pres ent generation that huns his Babes In TOyland." Orange Blossoms" and My Golden Girl"
 His Orchestra Work
 Florenz Ziegfeld, for whom Mir. Her bert had been writing some music the past month, said that America had lost it's greatest operatic conductor.
 And such orchestration !" exclaimed | the originator of many stage novelties. |