MUSIC.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5731, 28 October 1905, Page 14

MUSIC.

NOTES BY “G STRING.” Writing from Villa Anna, Rudolstadt, Thuringia, on September 1, Mdlle. Antonia Dolores says:—"l am taking a rest in between the seasons in this lovely part of Germany, romantic with castlos, ruins, forests, and villages. It is quite near the battlefields of Napoleon the First— Saalfeld, Jona, etc. and very interesting. I am studying Gorman. Miss Vandour is slowly recovering from a very long illness (rheumatism), and we ‘hope she will be quite well soon. I am so glad to know my Australian friends do not forgot about us; we both look forward with pleasure to our next visit when the time arrives for it. Many Australians have come over to Europe tq study, and also on visits, and we find some in every big city. Wo dread the winter, and wish we were back with you. Mv address in Paris is Rue de I’Aroade. AVo will travel a good deal next winter .on sea and land. Of course you have heard of Mr William Kes, tho Dutch musician. Ho was conductor in Amsterdam about 11 years ago. when we met him. Ho founded tho Symphony Orchestra in that city. Since then he conducted - in Glasgow (the Scots Orchestra), then in Moscow. His position there was most important, but the war caused him to leave, and now he is free, and would like to go to Australia. He is a great artist, and a most brilliant violinist His wife was a professional singer before marriage. You know I feel very interested in the progress of music in 'Australia and Mr Kes would be a splendid acquisition to tho musical world there. Ho recently gave an orchestral concert at Lcipsic, when hie readings (particularly of the Beethoven symphony No. 7) caused much favourable comment from tho critics.”— Sydney "Mail.” _ Dr. Vincent, the well-known English organist, says that four things should characterise wedding music. It should bo emotional, prayerful, jubilant, and martial. "Many brides,” he says, ask tho organist to play the music played when their mothers were married. I have been asked to play '0 Rest in the Lord,’ a favourite funeral hymn, while tho bridal party was in the vestry. My own setting of 'Peace. Perfect Peace,’ -another funeral hymn, has also been played by request at weddings, with 'I Know that My Redeemer Liveth* and 'Oh, for tho AViugs of a Dove/” Dr. Arincent says ho would never bo surprised if he were asked to provide a chorus for the bridesmaids. ''lt would not be difficult to train them to sing a chorus, and then add a part for the father, ejaculations bv the friends, and even an interruption by the jealous rival in a minor key." Mascagni has composed a new four act opera entitled "Vestilia.” The action of the piece occurs in Rome in the time of the Emperor Tiberius. i Miss Grace Palotta, who was tempted to leave Vienna Inst January by a lucrative engagement for the variety stage in New York, made a great hit in comic opera at the Grand Opera House, San Francisco, on September 4. Her success was in the name part of "Peggy Machree,” an Irish musical play produced originally at AVyndham’s Theatre lost year for a favourite concert-room baritone, Mr Denis O’Sullivan. The new piece is

written by "Patrick Bidwcll” (Mns O’Snl* livan), and shows how tho madcap Lad? Margaret O’Driscoll masquerades ns Peggy. a humble colleen, and is married for a joke to Barry Trevor, a devil-may-care strolling fiddler of good birth. After tha London run, Mr O’Sullivan toured America with the piece, and in San upon the illness of his leading singer, ha was so fortunate as to engage tho vivas cions Viennese beauty-actress. The no. tioes are all extremely favourable. Tha “San Francisco Chronicle” writes:—• “Grace Palotta came out surprisingly well as tho madcap girl. Her spirited, vivacious acting, her assumption of th< mischievous, and her aptness in all the situations gave life to the play, anc| brought out the high comedy quite at tractivoly. She came in very happily,, too. in the music, in which she had many duets with tho star.” No song will be sung more frequently throughout the British Empire during tho present month than "The Death of Nelson.” ■ Its composer was ono John Braham, a Jew. born in London in tha year 1774. On some of the programmes of the time tho name was spelt Abraham i and that, no doubt was the original form. Braham was the most eminent tenor singer of his time. Ho had a marvellous voice, with a compass of 19 notes, Ho made his name by singing in opera, principally at Co vent Garden and Drury Lane, and it was his habit to write hi* own songs. ‘‘Tho Death of Nelson" originally formed part of a three-aot comif. opera entitled "The Americans.” produoed at the Lyceum Theatre on April 27, 1811. The piece on the whole was si comparative failure, but of tho musio "Tho Times” reported:—"The musio of the piece is good, Mr Braham, tho composer, being better acquainted than any man with what Mr Braham. the singer, can accomplish. The chef-d’oouvro of tho evening was a song on tho death of Nelson. . . . Tho burthen. ‘England expects every man this day to do his duty’ . . . would have insured success and popularity to a much worse composition." It will come as a shook and at surprise to many to bo told that some of tbo most characteristic bars of this air, that baa so strongly appealed to British, patriotic sentiment, aro- “cribbed” from a French tune. The melody sung to the words, “’Twas in Trafalgar’s Bay i We saw tho Frenchmen lay," is almost identical with the opening phrase of Mehnl’s "Chant du depart,' 1 written in 1704. But, not content with helping himself to another man's tune, Braham did not hesitate to appropriate tho first two and last two of the follow, ing lines, written in memory of the lam. ous Duke of Cumberland, who died ini 1765: "O’er William’s tomb, with silent grief opprest, Britannia mourns her hero now at rest; Not tears alone, but praises, too, she gives, Due to the guardian of our laws and lives; Nor shall that laurel ever fade with years. Whoso leaves are watered by a nation’* tears.” Braham was much respected in his private life. Ho was an excellent talker, and could toll a good story. Ho died in 1856.”