MUSICIANS AND COMPOSERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2666, 19 April 1905, Page 80

MUSICIANS AND COMPOSERS.

— Sisnor Esposito, who has written the musio for "Peg-gy Machree," the new play recently produced at Wyndham'e Theatre, London, although an Italian by birth, has resided in Dublin nearly all his life, and has become "more Irish than the Irish themselves."

— Madame Melba, Siguor Caruso, and Herr Kubelik suffered so unfairly at the hands of the German pre=s that no offer, however tempting, will induce them to perform again in Berlin. Paderev. ski also refuses to visit Berlin again.

—Dr Joseph Bridge, organist of Chester Cathedral, and brother of Sir Frederick Bridge, was on February 8 presented with an album containing an address, some silver plate, and a cheque for 200gs, in recognition of his services to music in the city of 1 Chester for the past 25 years. Mr R. A. Yerburgh, M.P., made the presentation. — The London Telegraph recalls a curious incident in connection with Berlioz's "L'Enfance dv Christ," which was revived by the Royal Choral Society at its concert at the Albert Hall on January 26. The charming "Shepherds' Chorus" owes its origin to a practical joke played by Berlioz upon the musical critics at o.ie of tho Philharmonic Society's concerts in Paris in 1850. An "archaeological curiosity,'' announced as the composition of Pierre Ducre, maitro de mus-ique de Sainte Chapeile, Paris, in the seventeenth century, but really the chorus just mentioned from Berlioz's pen, was brought forward on that occasion with gieat success. All the critics save one were completely taken in, and among - the remarks that the piece elicited was : "If only M. Tieilioz could compose such music !"' — Edward Grieg, the famous Norwegian composer and pianist, was bom in 1843. At an early age he entered the Leipsic Conservatoire, where he studied under such masters of music as Hauptmann and Richter for harmony and counterpoint, Keitz and Reinecke for composition, and Moscheles for pianoforte playing. In Grieg's cas© early associations were everything, for the romantic worlds of Schumann, Mendelssohn, " and Chopin, in which he lived, have had a i influence upon his music, which an intimafce acquaintance with earlier and later composers in after years has been hardly able to affect in arsy marked degree. As soon as Grieg left Leipsic the- characteristic Scandinavian features of his talent began to take tangible form. The pongs and dances of his native land absorbed his fancy roore^ than the study of any great composer's works ; and he shares with Chopin the remarkable characteristic of showing in his compositions the stamp of a particular nationality. Grieg Is one of the links between the present that has learned to appreciate Wagner and the past that adored Mendelssohn ; and it is satisfactory to learc that the master's health has made a turn for the better.

— There are. enme interesting thiners in "The Life of Sir Herbert Stanley Oakeley." One of th« mos.t cliarmmg reminiscences in the book _ is one of Madams Jenny LindGoldsohmidt, who cam«-» io see Professor Osikley whon ho was ci-ippled from an accident while driving in an "einsnanner" down th-e Z&rmatb "Valley. "Oh, Mr Oakeley," she exclaimed with naive seriousness, "we are fearfully and wonderfully made."' The compiler of this book recalls an instance of the magnetic charm of her voice . "In truth, in her singing the mere 'timbre' and power of voice was in itself a -wonder, though but the beginning of wonders. She sang once in my hearing in the Schoolhouso drawing room at Rugby ; and in the hearing also, it scon appeared, of boys playing at cricket nets on the other side of the school close, a quarter of a mile away ; for they stopped playing-, and stood listen ing; a notable tribute of athletics to art ? " Mr Oakeley (as he then was) was for some time musical reporter for the Guardian. At the. Gloucester festival in 1862 his song-, "Break, break," was sung by Madame Sainton. Tennyson objected to the repetition of the words. "You musical fellows," he observed to Mr Oakeley, "make me say twice what I only said once I*

The I/C-ods Mercury of February 18 writes: — A mo .'-c merit is on fn^t to pro«ont a testimonial to lhat granJ old man of the musical world, Prof"«sor Manuel Garcia, vcbo on St. Patrick's Day, 1905, was 100 years of ago. Th •> invntor of tho laxyngosrope, an n tb- 1 a,rcatc-t tca-jher of singing that the ninp^enth century, or probably any cll-er, ha> seal, ho made h-^h -^ debut as a teror in an operetta of his own composition produced at Cadiz v. hen he was only 1?. Later, he took London by btorni, and astounded New York by producing 11 new Italian opera* within o single year. That was, in 1827 — 10 years before Queen "Victoria ascended tbo throne ! It i.s strange to think thai this veteran, who is living amongst 11=, was aliv\j, though only an infant in arms, when Nelson met his deat'i at Trafalgar, and that he was a. boy of 10 years old when. Waterloo was fought and won. And yet this wonderful man quitted the operatic stage in 1529 becaiiFe- "his phy«iq\ie was not equal to t.he strain." Hie 70 years as a teacher of music must have bopn a strain also, but his constitution proved equal to it. He is a dear old gentleman, beloved by all those who come into contact with him, and, judging by his comparalivel> youthful appearance^ — for he looks like a "boy" of 70 — he may be spared for further years to his countltss friends and admirers.