MUSICAL NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5777, 22 January 1897, Page 1

MUSICAL NOTES.

[By Counter-Tenob in " Cantebbuby Times.]" It is reported that Miss Bessie Doyle, the violinist, is married. This year is the centenary of the birth of Schubert. Mrs Miller, a Melbourne amateur, is stated to be receiving £5 for a vocal item every Sunday in a Johannesburg church. During a recent tour in the north of England, Mdme. Patti was too unwell to appear at two concerts at Newcastle, and her place was taken by Miss Ada Crossley. At a performance of " The Messiah," in the Sydney Town Hall, on Christmas night, Mr H. Weir sang the tenor solos. The Sydney Mail states that he was in good voice, and was much applauded for his singing of "Thou Shalt Break Them" and " Every Valley." Mr A. H. Gee is stated to have sung with great success at the Crystal Palace concert on Saturday, Nov. 21, in Berlioz's "Damnation of Faust." He was cast for the part of Brander, and gave with splendid effect the famous Bacchanalian song which provides the subject of the subsequent burlesque "Amen" fugue, his rich voice telling out exceedingly well in the large hall. :.'.-'"' "....• A " first violin " tells a Sydney Morning Herald contributor how once, at a private dance, he was asked by special request for a solo, "und I play something from Chopin to make the heart break, und when it is over the company clap, und the ladyof the house come forward und tank me und say, * Tell Mr Chopin how grateful I am to him for the pleasure he has given us all'— she tink evidently dat I keep Chopin in my backyard to write dese little tings for me ! " Calve, the famous operatic singer, is a Spaniard. Emma de Eoquer, the real name of Mdme. Calve, was born in Madrid of a Spanish father and a mother from the south of Prance, in the Department of Aveyron. Her father was a civil engineer. He died leaving several children, of whom she was the eldest. She found that it was necessary to help along her brothers and sisters, and that is what finally decided the career of Mdme. Calve, who, having had a very religious education, at first at the Convent of Ste. Affrique, in the country of her mother, and finally among the Sisters of the Sacred Heart at Montpclier, and, tempted by the calm life of the cloister, began to think of taking the veil. Wagner (writes George Moore) was the greatest of all musical colourists. His melodies, his motives, are as beautiful scraps of definite colours in a picture, and he weaves these scraps through rich russet, and brown, and yellow harmonies. He weaves and he weaves till design is nearly lost, but the colours are so soft, so rare, and so delicately shaded that we cease to caro for beauty or strength of line; we cry for more colour. That thirty violins shall play tlio same noto tremblingly. That the contra-basses shall strive for notes boyond the compasses of the instrument, and produce a dreamy depth of souncUeolour, . subdued tones in which again dreams may float, vanish, and come again in tender sighs and thrills incalculably prolonged. It would be interesting (says the Bulletin) to hear Madame Marehesi, or Santley, leetiu-e upon the classical method of musichall voice production. Thero must bo some virtue in the nasal stylo of warbling practised by such hard-working professors as Charles Godfrey and Chirgwin. A comicopera singer with a good voice, but un educated, has a short life at the game, yet a Kiel-cards goes on for ever. A certain class of twang seems to preserve tho voico against breakage, let them knock it about as they ma}'. It lends expression alike to maudlin sentiment or rough humour, and lias considerable magnetic charm for tlie multitude when properly worked. Superior singing-masters sueei- at tho twang-'s barbarity, but thoy don't attempt to explain, why a veteran twangev retains his

good old top-note in defiance of all accepted rales. Most of the greiit composers (says the Musical Courier) were poor conductors. It is said that when Beethoven conducted his symphonies the players used to ignore his beat and todk their time from the first violinist, the leader. Schumann shrank from giving the initial beat, and did not like to stop the orchestra at rehearsals to explain the interpretation of any particular passage. Mendelssohn used to select a fow passages here and there and work on these until they went smoothly, but many of the difficult passages were "scrambled through." When Wagner came to London m 1877 for the festival at the Albert Hall, Hueffer says that when he conducted he " made the orchestra nervous, and the musicians greatly preferred Hana Eichter to him." Wagner in his younger days, however, had been a very great conductor, as had also Weber and Berlioz. If few composers have made good conductors, still fewer conductors have done anything as composers. Ada Crossley, judging from latest samples of the jam awarded to her, is (says the Sydney Bulletin) within easy distance of earning a steady .£SOOO a year. At present, she must be making quite half as much. Among sundry notices of her performance at the Sheffield Musical Festival, where she ranked as principal contralto, London Daily Telegraph said " Miss Crossley's voice, if she had no other merit, would plead for her with golden-mouthed eloquence," whilst the local papers were unanimous in praise of the Australian lady's artistic method. Birmingham Daily Gazette calls her " a superb artist, who, to a magnificent voice, adds the much rarer . gift of refined and correct artistic feeling," and the Glasgow Daily Mail talks about " the great contralto, Miss Ada Crossley." In another two years' time the Hinglish press everywhere will have accepted Crossley as a power on the platform. Then she will command a special fee for her name in addition to the prices now paid her for singing, and Australia's chance of hearing its graceful daughter again before her hair turns gray will be 1 in 50 or thereabouts. Why do musicians wear long hair ? (asks the Musical Opinion). Some people suppose that they do it because, as in the case of Samson, they believe that their strength lies in their locks j others cynically suggest that they do it from affectation. It seems that the explanation lies in quite another direction. A Boston medical journal declares emphatically that long hair comes to the musician because he does no night brain work. Composers, who are presumed to have this night work, are bald in the same" proportion as other people ; but instrumental performers Have ' usually fine crops of hair, and retain their locks to an advanced age. These performers spend many hours a day in practice^ but they do not give up the night to mental work, which is surer than anything else to make a man's head turn billiard ball. On the other hand ifc seems — according to the Boston oracle— that brass instruments, notably the cornet and the trombone, have a fatal influence on the hair. This is explained by the fact that in blowing their instruments the faces of the players are congested, which " affects their entire heads, and anything throwing blood to the head has a tendency to make the hair fall out." Alas ! yes"; and a man playing the trombone next door will affect an " entire head " that does not rest on his own shoulders ! Amongst tho numerous musical prodigies who have appeared before the publiciiuring the last two or three years, the performances of young Joseph Hofman appear to have been the most wonderful. At the age of nine he had perfect musical execution, and performed his own compositions. He could also, without any effort, play from memory some of the most difficult and high class compositions of the greatest musicians. His precocity was so great that the continuance of his performance was forbidden by medical men until he had attained a stronger and riper age. The annual prize at the Paris Conservatoire was some few years ago gained by a girl, Mdlle. Eenie, aged ten years. Her stature was so small that pedals forthe piano upon which she was to perform had to be specially made to permit her diminutive feet to reach them. Another little girl, aged nine, Juliette Vone, a pianist, won the first prize at the Namuf Conservatoire. Another lad, Henri Marteau, had a golden palm leaf presented to him atßheims in recognition of his wonderful musical talents. Three infant prodigies — sisters, aged six, seven, and eight respectively — a violinist, a violoncellist, and a pianist, lately performed with great success in various towns of Germany. Nothing in modern times has been more wonderful than the feat of "Blind Tom," the negro pianist, in his performances in. the United States. His powers of imitation are phenomenal. 'Having invited performers to , the platform to play most difficult pieces wliich he has not previously heard, Tom then sits down to the instrument, and repeats the piece from beginning to end, not missing a note. The rest of his programme consists of "imitations •" on the piano of various musical instruments and of human speech — " a musical box, three airs simultaneously," &c.