Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-04

a the veil of Summer in ONE
hand and the long list of student
recitals in the other. The formal
concert season, 1929-30, for Wash
ington is closed. 1t passed into
history rather brilliantly with the
last performance of the Metro
politan Grand Opera Co. That
brief but colorful series Of operas
is understood to have been quite
satisfactorily concluded with the
smallest deficit on record. All the
larger local organizations are put
ting the final touches to their an
nual Spring programs and have
already begun with the Interstate
Male Chorus and the Schubert
Choral Club last week to set their
efforts forth before large audi
ences that seem very appreciative.
Tomorrow the Guild of Organists
has its annual dinner and pro-
gram, this time at the new Uni
versalist Church, and next week
the RubinStein Club gives its last
program for the season, with a
violoncelliSt new to Washington
as guest artist. The DeniShaWns
are following the obviously sue
cesSful effort of Roland Hayes by
making a return engagement this
season to the National Capital.
The Hayes concert last Wednesday
was practically So1d-out affair.
Judging from the earlier house for
the DenishawnS when they ap-
peared under the auspices of the
Community Institute and pre-
liminary returns since the an
nouncement of their program for
May Is, they will have another
large audience also.
THIS is the much-heralded Ma
tional Music week. This name
means a good deal OF effort and
performing in many centerS in
the United States, but has never
been taken overSeriously in Wash
ington. The National Capital is
too, often inflicted with weeks"
of various and sundry kinds to
arouse itself in the midst of prep
aration for graduations and final
student recitalS to put its music
in the same list with charities and
better homes, etc. The PianiStS'
Club of washington always has
chosen this week to give its
annual festival of pianoforte
music" in which the 10 chosen
students, advanced in training
under various Washington teach
ers, give their miniature recitals,
two an evening for five evenings.
Also this year, Josef Kaspar, dis
tinguished violin pedagogue and
formerly known as a conductor
of worthy musical organizations,
presented his annual violin recital
on the threshold of Music week,
Friday night. =
The grand climax of the week
will be the choral program at
Epiphany Church Saturday after,
noon, when DR.. Frederick Alexan-
der will conduct a condensed
chorus of $50 washington singers
in a festival event. An unusual
feature will be presented the
following day, when this same
chorus, under DR.. Alexander, will
give a program in the amphithe-
alter in Arlington, to be recorded
by a sound film concern for dis
tribution all over the country, to
be released on Memorial day.
The Washington Festival Chorus
Association, organized upon an
entirely new basis this year, has
singers from adjacent small towns
as well 80 many leading singers
and amateurs of Washington in its
chorus. The group is sponsored
by the District Of Columbia Fed
Grafton Of Music Clubs, the Music
Council OF Washington Churches
and the friends Of music in the
Library of Congress. The chief
aim of the association is to arouse
more interest in the performance
OF the best sacred music in the
churches.
y r n
THIS idea Of 'better church
music" is far from new. It is
interesting to glance back through
the pages of history Of music and
find here and there ever so often
the recurrence Of i. the phrase,
There was q movement for the
betterment Of church music"
Among the early Greeks, Plato
and Aristotle stand out as spon-
Sors for the theory that music in
fluenced the passions and moral
nature and the distinguishing be-
tween music which relaxed the
morals and which led the soul to
seek the good of the individual
and the community. They made
musical education a matter Of
state.
In italy, Pope Gregory I made
unified church song an organized
affair during his reign, 500 to 604
AID. Quite recently the Gregorian
Chant has come to the fore in
dominant popularity in the church
of that faith. About nine CEN
turtles later, in Italy, PaleStrina
rose to his own peculiar pinnacle
as a genius in the writing Of
church music. He developed con-
trapuntal perfection for singers.
While he was choirmaster a con-
certed effort swept his country for
better church music. His Mass
of Pope MarcelluS" was recon-
mended as a model of purity of
style. He wrote 90 masses, SOC
motets and much other music.
A century later, in Germany,
the great master of sacred music
writing, Johann Sebastian Bach
whose Mass in B Minor" Is in
disputedly the greatest choral
work ever written, established the
highest standard for Protestant
music, using the old German
chorales, which, in the Lutheran
faith, replaced the Latin chants
of the Roman Catholic ritual.
Coming to our own country