MUSICIANS AND COMPOSERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2857, 16 December 1908, Page 88

MUSICIANS AND COMPOSERS.

— Madame Calve, the great singer, does not like encores. She says she likes applause, as every artiste does, but she feels that encores break the continuity of a performance, and, being addressed to ths einger in ne.* own personality, and not in that she is representing, put out her artistic sense. "I recollect once," she says, "seeing a heroine in opera come back to take an encore after her big death scene, and I overheard the remark of a little girl in A box near me. ' Why,' said the child, * 1 thought the lady was dead !' I never forgot it." — There appears to be no limit to the dramatic discoveries of potential Carusos in lowly callings. It is not long since Mr Horace Potts, a Wakefield tram-driver with a tenor voice of "unlimited possibilities," was discovered by Lady Catherine Milnes Gaskell'e daughter at a small provincial concert ; then we read of the finding of another wonderful tenor in Mr Andrew Jones, a young Bangor cabman ; and now ,we learn that Mr Harry Sokolsky, who was rescued from boot-blacking by Caruso, is about to electrify New York- wrtb the magic of hi« voice at the Metropolitan Opera House. It is not many years sirice Signov Caruso himself was glad to earn the equivalent of eighteenpenee a day -in a mechanic's shop at Naples. WAGNER'S MUSIC. To the casual listener, the music of Richard Wagner is of little moment. So long as the orchestra plays his interest is, as a, rule, maintained, but when the music ceases he retains but a confused idea of what he has just heard, and any impression made soon vanishes ! With the student of music, however, the case is otherwise. No mere superficial survey satisfies him. At first, technical difficulties present themselves, the joy of overcoming which affords gratification to the executant, but soon these difficulties •re displaced, and a deep attraction for ■Wagner's music possesses the mind. Nor is it to be lightly shaken off! Deeper aid still more deeply does the student dip into the intricacies of this great master, until at last his mind becomes morbid, "his outlook pessimistic, and in many casee insanity or suicidal tendency sets in. To what, then, shall this startling effect be ascribed? The question is one not easily answered but ~ the following, for which no claim of originality is made, is offered to those who are interested in this subject. To the musician the music of Mozart is delightful in its exuberant spirit. It thrills the soul with exhilaration. It is the music of youth, of green fields, of cummer time, ol all that is bright and beautiful ! To this Mendelssohn adds a graver tone. Hi* music is aho melodious and vivacious, but he adopts an undertone which, although I it deprives hi» music of the gaiety of that j of Mozart, nevertheless does not , detract i from its merit. And so is it with all j the great masters ! Each has his own j style and originality embodied in his works, and yet, various as those style* may be, they permit of links of similarity which bind them all together. There i 6 but one exception, to wit, Richard Wagner. Incomprehensible, erratic, and weird, unlike anything ever heard before, the first public performance of his works bewildered the audience and completely nonplussed the critics ! By degrees Wagner has come to be appreciated in a tolerable 6ort of way. He charms the ear /• with erratic symphonies or by exquisite chord Sequence ; but what does his music express? The soul of his> music is 'the soul of what we to-day call the "submerged tenth." Wild and fierce, yet ever yearning for a love that is denied. Cruehed and beaten, yet struggling for life which brings only fresh misery. High on the heights, and f»r away, the music lifts us for a moment and shows, glittering amid the mUte of the future, the raising of mankind to perfect unity ! This is but for a moment, and then we are forced to look earthwards again, and listen to the cry of "How long?" which for ages has risen in agony from the very sculs of the- countless footsore, w^ary men and women who passed — my, and who are yet paceing — in melancholy procession through the halls of Time ! Cmall wonder, then, that to the youth of open mind this so id id picture becomes ■fascinating, and chen assumes an exaggerated aspect. To woman, too, whose emotions are le«« under control than those of man, its power tA attraction is extremely great. Tho inetinot of maternity, inherent in every woman, only*-' accentuates the emotion felt, and as the heartrending cry of the children of the unfortunate rises to her ears the 6ense of her own inability to help works upon' her and in time overwhelms her. Ay! The influence of Wagner apon the youthful student is to depress him with the woes of others, and in this life he will have 6ufficif>nt burdens' of his own to bear, but if it should be tl\it he has etrengtli onough &nd to epare, let him remember the \ong of Richard Wagner.— Chae. Cleghorn. i __^__ v THE ART OF SINGING. — Choice of a Master. — \ teacher of singing must be, or must have been, a good singer. It is noi enough that he should have mixed with or heard good singers, or have accompanied them either as orcheatral conductor or on the pianoforte or other instrument ; such experiences may gi%e him an insight into the- effects an artiste can produce, but they will afford him none into the means by which these effects can be produced. Ac well might I undertake to teach the organ, having blown the bellow 6 for my father when he practised the organ : or the pianoforte, because I turned over the leaves for him whilst he played the pianoforte, as an organist or pianist undertake to teach singing whose only knowledge of the art is _ derived from accompanying linger*. ■Without a thorough knowledge of the rudiments it is impossible to teach anything, and these cannot be picked up at random ; they must be mastered by etudy and exercise.

It is very important that tlioulil be placed, from the begimii'ir. under a thoroughly competent master, ab inferior tuition may ruin a voice, or certainly so far impair its quality and power as to cost much trouble and time to restore its original strength and freehness. In the first place, the register of the voice. soprano, contralto, tenor, or bass, must b& jjearly established. These, again, are sub-

divided Into high soprano, dramatic soprano, mezzo soprano, high or florid tenor, robust tenor, high baritone, low baritone, or basso cantante, and bass.

divided Into high soprano, dramatic soprano, mezzo soprano, high or florid tenor, robust tenor, high baritone, low baritone, or basso cantante, and bass. In England those distinctions are not properlj observed ; a singer is supposed to be capable of singing whatever music is written in the soprano, alto, tenor, or bass clef respectively. At times, no doubt, there will be found some difficulty, ever by an experienced master, in deciding t^ which class a particular voice belongs, i it is of more than ordinary limited <: extensive compass ; the quality of the vok not ite compass, is the only reliable tc«t T owe the preset ation of my voice t the study of the best vocal exercises j could find — the study of the result of stud: in the work of the great singers it was ny privilege to hear from an early age, am to my good fortune in being able to v*< my voice in its .propei register, wicfr slight deviation, for a number of yeare.— Sir Charles Santley, in "The Art of Singing" (Macmillan).