Music Notes

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7865, 29 July 1911, Page 18

Music Notes

While he was one of the most exacting conductors who over lived, Vagner was nevertheless quite alive to tho fact 1 that mistakes will ’happen even in the best regulated orchestras. Wagner, in his own compositions, wrote exceedingly difficult music for the French horn, which at that time had not arrived at the more perfect stage of development it has now attained. Nevertheless, he was well aware that tho instrument was a very hard one to play. On on© occasion he was conducting an orchestra in "Vienna, and in one of the most difficult passages of the Scherzo from Beethoven's “Broica" Symphony the horn player had the misfortune to make a slip on a high note. Among the players was Edward Maufchnor, a writer of comedies, aad he turned from his place in the vrmt row of the violins and jeered at ’.h© unfortunate horn piayer. Afterwards, in the green room, Wagner severely iated those who had laughed at the occurrence. He pointed out the fact that tho horn is a most unreliable instrument, and the least drop of moisture in. tho tubes of tho instrument was liable to cause trouble. He then warmly embraced the horn player before them all, by way of, consolation. It is not an uncommon thing to hovr that high-class concert-series in the country do not pay their way. Tho London Philharmonic in recent years has had to call upon its guarantors to tho extent of some hundreds of pounds. But how insignificant this r.ccms when compared with the less of £7OOO which it is stated was incurred by the Now York symphony concerts this season! They like doing things on a magnificent scale in. tho States. From Paris, too, wo have (in the "Daily Telegraph") a mournful account of the finances of the Grand Opera. Tho budget runs os follows: Receipts —State subvention, £32,000; subscribers. .£13,000; takings £66,$00; various, £18,200; total, £165,000; expenditure, £103,620. A loss of £l*ooo is written off on account of the floods. But whore would tho Opera be without the State subsidy? ('“Opera flourishes on tho Continent," they say.) ’“At Montreal, in a notice of a performance to be given of 'Faust/ was tho following: ‘ln the second act Margaret’s spinning wheel will be replaced by a sewing machine, on which in fiery letters may be read the name of the maker. This machine makes not the slightest noise, so that not a single, syllable of the celebrated “King of Thule" ballad will be lost" Beware, you musical ladies with husbands, beware! An elderly gentleman of Pennsylvania, according to popular report, has sued his wife for divorce and gives music as the cause of their marital infelicity. He claims that his wife's x>ractising became insniffcrable, and that the scales and runs constituted a form of unjustifiable ’cruelty—or something to that effect. Possibly if more women possessed music as a means of defence some recalcitrant husbands might seek the straight and narrow pathAn English paper reports that a singer of renown has recently visited one of tho English prisons. At the end of her visit the governor and chaplain thanked her most heartily for “brightening up the lives of the unfortunate." TMs difficult task was accomplished by singing the funereal hymns “Abide with Mo," ir Peace and Rest" and “Nearer., My God to Thee." Gloomy indeed must be the life in British prisons when- those companions of tho burial service bring brightness to the prisoners. Possibly the chaplain and the governor were lacking in a sense of humour. A New ’York Methodist - Episcopal church which has taken a poll of its congregation in order to determine tho ten best hymns announces that tho following received the requisite number of ballots: “Nearer, My God to Thee," “Abide With Me," “Jesus, Lover of My Soul," “I Love to Tell the Story," '*Lead, Kindly Light," “Rescue the Perishing," “Rock of Ages," “Onward Christian Soldiers," “What a Friend We Have in Jesus." Four others were tied for the tenth place: “Love Divine, AH Love Excelling," “Just .‘/s I Am," “Faith of Our Fathers, LiviAg Still," and “In the Cross of Christ I Glory." The origin of “The Old Hundreth" has been traced back to tho French Protestant Psalter of Beza. published at Genova, in 1551. It also appeared in the 1 year' 1561 in the Anglo-Geneva Psalter, and in the samo year was published in l another edition of that work which was published in London. Nobody has discovered the name of tho composer, but sinco it first appeared in a French publication it does not seem natural to ascribe the tune to an English or German composer. Take Bach homo with you and commune with him, study him with loving diligence, taking first what happens most to strike your personal fancy—for oven in Bach there aro some things which almost anyone can like —and thus habituate yourself to this style. I know of no .finer, deeper nor higher musical education. In a word, sweeping as tho statement may seem, I make it circumspectly, and with complete conviction, that there is no more trustworthy gauge of a man’s musical nature and culture than his appreciation and lovo for Bach. In him you find what is highest, noblest and best in music; and furthermore, it is through him that other great composers are best to be appreciated.—W- F. Apthorp, Illustrious Sons Of Humble Parents. Tho father of Verdi was a daylabourer. Wagner’s father was a clerk in a po-lice-court* Tho composer Gluck was the son of a gamekeeper. Tho father of Schubert was a schoolmaster. The father of Spontini, the opera composer, was a farm labourer. Tho father of Handel was originally a barber. Cherubini, the great Italian opera composer, was the son of a theatre violinist. Jean Beethoven, the father of Ludvig van Beethoven, was a chorus singer. The father of Spohr, the great violinist, was a country doctor with a small practice. The father of Palestrina, the composer of sacred music, was a cook, or, some say, a waiter. Hans Bach, the father of tho Bach family, was a baker. Over two hundred of his descendants have been famous as musicians. Tho father of Haydn was a wheelwright. Tho father of Rossini was a baker. He was also town trumpeter, and instructed his son on this instrument.