MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 187, 2 May 1908, Page 12

MUSIC.

[Br Tbebi,e -Clei.] Melba's Mansion. The London correspondent of the Melbourne "Dramatic News" writes:—'.'Messrs. Elliott and Sons,, and Boyton, estate agents, have been trying to sell at auction Madame Molba's gorgeously decorated mansion in Cumberland Place, Park Lane,-on which the Australian; diva has spent £10,000 in decorations. Madame Melba's leasehold, Which has - to 'run some years, brings the rental of tho house to £3000 a year. , Now, . Madame '. . Molba is in a saving, mood, iShe wants .to givo uip her London residence, .where she has been entertaining lavishly, ; and it is her in- ■ tention to tako, a country house,. aud motor ■ into town. To keep up a house in Park Lane with a rental of £3000 a year means for the diva, another; £6000' or £7000 a year of expense, and she wishes to bo'released from the great worry. Tho auctioneer was prepared to take for thoioase lossthan the cost of the d«ooration of the drawing-room, but no bid was forthcoming; and ; the white el©pliant was passed in.' Even iii J London there aro not,scores of new people who are a'nxioiia • just now $o spend £10,000 a year. on a town . houso." ; . Countess Clgliuccl. The deatii is announocd of , the Countees - Clara Gigliucci, Who is , better rememberod under her former name of Clara Novello, and who was at ono time a singer of the first ; magnitude. , Sho was born in London in ; June, 1818, and consequently had nearly reached her ninetieth year. She was the fourth daughter of Vincent Novello, the founder of the well-known firm of music'pub- • lishers, and after studying for a time in Yoi'k T : entered the Conservatoire deMusiqueSacre in Paris, but returned to England tne follow- • ing yea,r on account of Revolution. , She made her first appcarance in England ' ; "at. a concert at Windsor in 1833, and .soon took a , : foremost place among our singers, 'appearing at the' Ancient Concerts, the .Philharmonic Concert, and at j many; of ; our provincial .musical festivals." In 1837, at the invitation of MendeJssokn, she ' went , to . Leipsicj and . appeared also in Berlin,.Vienna',".St. Peters burg, and other towns; arid in 1839 she went to Italy, and stmdied for the stage, and made her first appearance in .'opera at ; Padua 'in 1841 in Rossini's "Semiramide" with great success. She then 1 sang on the. lyric stage in Rome and othor Italian towiis, and in 1843 returned' to England, arid appeared in opera at Drury Lane, and also in oratorio in Loaidpri and tho provinces. In the, autumn of 1843 she. married Count', Gigliucci, arid-with-'' .dreiy from' professional, life for : a time, but six or. seven years 'lator she resumed the ex- , crcise : of her profession',, and- sang in Italy and.Spain, and in 1851 returned to England and for several years enjoyed increased popularity as' an' oratorio singrar. ; In November, 1860, sho took leave of. tho public at a performance of "Tho Messiah" at the Crystal - Palace, ' and at a';' benefit concert, at'-: St. ..- James's Hall, arid then proceeded-to Italy,' • whero she continued to reside until the tima of her , death. Her voice was a high soprano, and extended over a couple of octaves. ' Death of an American Genius.' With the death of Edward MacDowell there passes .a music-maker \ whom an appro, hending critic called, '.'the most: poetic, composer, in America." The praise is just, so far as it goes. But MacDowell was more than that, —he was ono of the most spontaneouslypoetic composers with whoso-music the world is - familiar, y:irrespective', : .of;, geographical limitations! : The ;art of . musio-making was for him something more ■ than the ,art of combining-tones'for the sake of a : beauty sufficient in'itself:- 1 He wrote, for example, y four sonatas for, the piano; but, they are.not ' merely superb •"arraßgements" (as :Whi?tl6r might havev called .them)',-rr:tonal structures is- to the! musical senseV-He has'given them- titles,—the f'Tragica,'' the "Eroica," the-"Norse," , the, "Keltic" , and through- them:-he; wishes, to! ,eVokei ; particular moods, scenes, -personalities) evehts./; laone of, them he wishes,us to .feel the ; especial character and .poignancy of the; tragedy of King Arthur and Guinevere; in; : another the wild'and bardic spirit of the' Scandinavian sagas; in another the.stir and movement of- \ the-Splendid romances of the ancient Gaelio world. :»The composer has been enthralled.and swayed by the 'dramatic. and poetical appeal of these things, and he wishes us to share'hia emotion.; In his'smaller piano pieces wo find Mac Dowell still seeking; the same end,-r-still striving-to 'achieve something more.tlian.sheer Hero are a set. of ,i"Sea, ;, Pieces;!'—"A Wandering - Iceberg,", "Froml ; the Depths," "In Mid-ocean,"-. "To the Sea,". "Nautilus," "Starlight" : here is a sheaf of "Woodland Sketches,"— To a Water, Lily," . "A Deserted Farm,".- "At. an Old Trysting - Place." "Told at Sunset" in a later series, the ''New England 'aro "From an Old/ Garden;^'• ;"Mid-Winter," "In Deep Woods, I .' ''Brbin; a Log Cabin.! I ,' no symphony in the list of his_ works,, no opera, no large choral »composition;: no string quartet. Yet he was 'far from beitie a miniaturist,—he was, in fact, anything rawer - thanithat:: His four, sonatas for theipiano. : are planried upon truly heroic lines; they are large >in sfcope and •of ■ epical. sweep and breadth. ; His "Indian" Suite is the most impressive orchestral work composed, by.; ail American, and; its dirge; is the noblest and most poignant; ; musical threnody , since the "Goitordanimorung" Trauermarsch. H» wrote two piano concertos, . works, not of his best inspiratiion,—a-large number of the kind; of : 'poetically . descriptive smaller works for piano, which have been discussed above,', and almost-half -a hundred songs, of singular' loveliness 'and character., The two symphonic pocins, "Hanilet and. Ophelia". and "Lancelot and Elaine"; two . "fragments," '.'The Saracens" and "Lovely Alda" (portions of a projected "Roland'! symphony), and the first orchestral suite, opus 42, which he might havo entitled complete the record of " his output,' save for;soriie spirited but not very important part-songs for, malo, voices. The list comprises sixtytwo opus numbers and 173 separate, coniposi-tionS,-r-not a remarkable'accoriiplishWorit, jn. point of quantity, yet notable and precious in r quality. ;y„ , v . : :.'',