in the pride of youth, intentionally tries to forget transfer the simile to the art of music-where his generation, and yet he remembers it for the the last chapter begins, and the old chapter sake of its accomplishment. He looks forward; reaches its end. In the mingling of types yet is he held by the trammels of the past. And there is often a terrible confusion; and it is at therefore, in some mysterious way, the past, this point that the cheaper and more popular using angels' wings-wings possibly beating unto forms of music step in and, for a moment, in the exhaustion-spreads its influence over him, and confusion of things, make an unthinking multifor a time he is restrained and hushed. He is tude applaud the effects of cheapness. To return, merely in leash. He, in a word, is only among nevertheless, to the more serious point of the those who desire to complete the last chapter; subject, one finds that music is so much a matter and his youthful views of the past naturally of period and of interval, in its immediate influence his desire for the future. Then, slowly significance and effect, that the fading out of a arising from the things that have gone before, he past spirit and the beginning of a new thought begins to note a wonderful dream, a dream become so identified that they constitute in unthought of, undesired perhaps, but nevertheless themselves the final, the ultimate, the dying most certain of its appearance, rising out of his thought of a generation. My point may be brain. With pulses of life all quickened, with a explained even more definitely. Music is the desire inflamed, the dream, he understands, must counterpart, in its progress, of human life. But be realized in action. The last chapter, so far as generations overlap one another; the old men the new artist is concerned, has been completed; do not die in their ripeness just because the the new chapter is to commence. Let it not be young men are advancing towards their middle thought that this is any merely incidental age. The last chapter is not always a definite occurrence, any fanciful linking of generation severance between the past and the future. The with generation. The history of music teaches summer leaves have half the freshness of spring so much through every succession of family to upon them, even though the spring has died; family. The theory may be tested as a truth the autumn gold is half casketed in the green of from every point of view. the summer. Winter is the chapter that is the Take, for a single instance, the career of last of the aforegone things, and the first of the Beethoven. He was indeed destined to complete things that are to be. Palestrina had the a symphonic chapter, even as Mozart was monastic spirit with him, and his spirit turned to destined to complete an operatic chapter before a sort of solemn triviality. The spirit of Mozart him. Yet, upon carefully gauging the matter, and of Gluck languished towards Bellini and you will find that Beethoven had to hark Donizetti. Purcell and Handel spent themback upon the past before he could begin selves in Bishop. Thus, link and half-link, the to complete his chapter. Again this was a last chapter is completed; but because there is case of the link and the half-link; again the ever a new half-link the continuity of music new genius, in the act of spreading forth glorious goes on, just as sun and half-sun make up our wings towards the future, was compelled to use summer and our winter. all the flight already accomplished by the dreadful past; and, with that, the future genius completes his own chapter, before another such arises to overlap his work and to start away upon a new dayspring. We should not, however, forget that the advent of great genius is also the occasion of the spreading of a private school of impostors who, recognising in part this theory of the last chapter,' are very ready to rise upon such waxen wings as those of Dædalus, upon which the sun has but to shine in order to melt their ambitions and to send them flying to ruin by the simplest of mundane laws.

The tragedy of the completion of a final chapter in music rests in the irrevocable struggle of a new greatness striving with a double influence a struggle so often marked on the one side by human suffering and human pain, on the other by human neglect and human contempt. There are ingenious scientific arrangements-to be, for a moment, frivolous-in any magic-lantern effects, whereby you will find that a new pictorial subject very gradually effaces the old, and that there is a moment when there seems to be almost a struggle between that which is passing and that which is to be novel to the spectator. It is at this midway point-if one may at once

VERNON BLACKBURN.

Occasional Motes.

The Nave of Truro Cathedral is to be consecrated on Wednesday, the 15th inst., when the Prince of Wales (Duke of Cornwall) and the Princess of Wales intend to honour the ceremony with their presence. There will be three full choral services the direction of Dr. M. J. Monk, Organist of the during the day, at which the music will be under Cathedral, with Dr. D. J. Wood, Organist of Exeter Cathedral, at the organ. We hope to give an account of the event in our August issue, when Truro will form one of the illustrated articles in our Cathedral Series from the pen of' Dotted Crotchet.'

Hans von Bülow had a caustic tongue. On one with a laurel wreath. This token of appreciation he occasion after playing at a concert he was presented at once deposited under the pianoforte, stating that while he was very much obliged, he was not a vegetarian! Another story of his wit is related in the Life and Letters of Sir George Grove,' noticed in another column.

At St. Louis the redoubtable Hans

gave a concert at which a dreadful screaming soprano played the recitative from the Choral Symphony preceded him. As a little prelude to his solo, Hans O friends, not these tones!' 'Just like him," says Grove.

Dr. Josephson undoubtedly deserved well of his audience by introducing this composition, since he was not only responsible for the poetic German translation, but also for the first performance of this valuable work in Germany. The venture succeeded completely the work achieved a striking success (durchschlagenden Erfolg). A laurel wreath was proof to the jubilantly applauded composer that it is not difficult for Germans to accept the good from whatever direction it comes. (Generalanzeiger.)

Dr. Walther Josephson, the conductor of the will be read with interest by reason of their gratifying Duisburg Gesangverein and of the Musical Festival nature:referred to on page 478, was born at Barmen, Rhenish Prussia, on April 16, 1868. The son of a Protestant clergyman, he studied art and literature at the Berlin University, and musical history with Philipp Spitta, the famous biographer of Bach. Professors Reinhold Succo and Johann Schulz were his teachers of composition and pianoforte. In 1893 he accepted the post of conductor of the Oratorio Society, and organist of the Evangelical Church at Insterburg, East Prussia. He remained for six years. in that little town on the Russian Frontier, and during that period founded the Lithuanian Musical Festivals. In 1899 he exchanged the east of the Empire for the west, by accepting the conductorship of the leading Choral Society of Duisburg on the Rhine. Here he

DR. WALTHER JOSEPHSON.

The work, which had been rehearsed by the chorus with exceptional care and appreciation, met with an enthusiastic reception. The composer, a fresh, elastic gentleman of fifty-five, was greatly honoured, and he was presented with a splendid laurel wreath as a memento of the Duisburg Festival. (Duisburger Zeitung.)

The work made a powerful impression, and we can only thank Dr. Josephson that he has acquainted us with this pearl amongst English compositions. The great applause with which the composer was greeted was thoroughly justified. (Rhein- und Ruhr Zeitung.)

Now,

A charming story is told in connection with the late Sophie Schloss (since 1850 Frau Gurau), one of the most distinguished singers in Germany, who recently died at the age of eighty-one. At the Lower Rhine Musical Festival of 1836, at which 'St. Paul' was produced, her father Herr Schloss, although a perfect stranger to the composer, importuned Mendelssohn to hear his little daughter sing. He said that it depended entirely upon his (Mendelssohn's) verdict whether his little girl should be educated as a singer or not. When the child, aged fourteen, was led into the room where the composer of St. Paul' was seated, she was terribly nervous, the colour of her cheeks rapidly changing from red to white. Mendelssohn was quick to perceive her state of mind. Kindly stroking the head of the little maiden, he said to her in tones of encouragement: what will you sing to me?' The dark eyes brightened and the youthful face smiled as she replied: 'Auf Flügeln des Gesanges' ('On wings of song). Really!' said he, 'Well then, let us take flight together.' He then seated himself at the pianoforte and accompanied her in his own composition, while she, encouraged by the confidence he had inspired in her, poured forth the lovely tones of her rich contralto voice, filling the room with their beauty. As Mendelssohn withdrew his hands from the instrument he said to her: That was excellent! You have a golden voice, and must positively become a great singer.' Sophie soon afterwards entered the Paris Conservatoire, where she became the favourite pupil of Bordogni, studying with ardent zeal, and fired by the ambition that she might soon be able to sing something tolerably good to him-the kind strangercomposer who to the end of his life was one of her best friends.

labours amid more congenial surroundings and within easy access to such well-known art centres as Düsseldorf and Cologne. He has already conducted two musical Festivals in Duisburg,-one in 1901, the other in May last-while every winter he performs The draft programme of the Birmingham Musical with his Gesangverein a number of important Festival (to be held on October 13, 14, 15 and 16) works by old and modern masters. In 1901 he has been issued. Dr. Hans Richter retains his post was appointed Königlicher Musikdirector. That as conductor, and Mr. R. H. Wilson, of the Hallé Dr. Walther Josephson is alive to the importance of Choir, Manchester, will make his first appearance moving with the times is proved by his having at Birmingham as chorus-master of the Festival. secured the first performances in Germany of The scheme will include 'Elijah' (Mendelssohn); Bruckner's posthumous Ninth Symphony, and Messiah' (Handel); Mass in B minor (Bach); Sir Hubert Parry's 'Blest pair of Sirens,' of which Psalm xiii. (Liszt); Te Deum (Bruckner), first perlatter he has made an excellent German translation. formance in England; Voyage of Maeldune The following extracts from German newspapers on (Stanford); Symphonies by Mozart, Beethoven, and the first performance in the Fatherland of Sir Hubert Berlioz, and The Apostles' (Elgar), composed Parry's Blest pair of Sirens' and the work itself expressly for this Festival.

evolution of this situation is interesting. Most The absence of an overture to Israel in Egypt' of the existing English compositions of the best has led to various expedients in supplying a want class for male voices have been influenced in their that is not felt in Handel's other oratorios. THE style and, what is of more importance, their choice MUSICAL TIMES of April, 1870, contains the following of resource by Cathedral traditions. The top part information concerning a performance of Israel is almost invariably only possible for a high male by the Windsor and Eton Amateur Choral Society, alto, a class of voice not at all common in conducted by the late Dr. G. J. Elvey:

Wales. Hence Welsh choirs have been hard pressed to find varied music to suit their T.T.B.B. constitution. In this stress they were led to use adaptations of pieces selected from the ample repertory supplied by well-known French composers for the innumerable male-voice choirs in France, and they soon found that this dramatic and nervous music was suited to their peculiar genius. The next step was for Welsh composers to imitate more or less successfully this style of composition. The question now is, should Welsh choirs continue to lavish their splendid natural capacity on music for which musicians generally have little respect, and the practice of which tends to render them incapable of performing the finest music and unable to pit themselves against the best English male choirs?

The opening recitative was preceded by an introductory symphony composed by Dr. Elvey, we believe for a portion of his musical degree.

Handelian enthusiasm finds a votary so far north as the Shetland Isles. We hear of a gentleman who the chorus at the recent Handel Festival. Dr. Manns came all the way from Lerwick in order to sing in did not regard him as rational Scot who would pursue the even tenor of 'a rash intruder,' but as a his ways' in helping to 'swell the full chorus.'

Echoes of a luncheon-table at the Handel Festival :

:

That wherever Handel got it from, its there!
That the soprano leads were not so good as the
Leeds sopranos.

That 2,000 Yorkshire singers could- (but this sentence had better remain like Schubert's B minor Symphony).

The reference in last month's issue to Herr Josef Nešvera, and the performance of his De Profundis' at the Bridlington Musical Festival (page 383), has elicited from the composer the following letter | Fleischmanngasse addressed to Messrs. Novello :

ESTEEMED SIRS,-THE MUSICAL TIMES of June having printed my portrait and a very kind criticism of my De Profundis' may I beg of you to be good enough to convey to the Editor as well as to 'Herr Dotted Crotchet my sincerely felt thanks for their kindness. Altogether the accounts about my work received from England have made me so happy that I have made up my mind to make the acquaintance of that good country as soon as possible. Our newspapers printed translations of the accounts of the Festival at Bridlington.

Thanking you most heartily for your kind interest on behalf of my work, I am,

With highest esteem,
Your gratefully devoted

JOSEF NEŠVERA.

A tablet has been affixed to the house 451, Vienna, in which the composer Gustav Albert Lortzing lived between 1846-49. An interesting letter of his, by-the-way, has recently been published. It was written, evidently from this address, by the composer to his brother on November 10, 1847. Lortzing had just received the news of the death of Mendelssohn, which deeply impressed him. At that period he was conductor at the An der Wien theatre, and was rehearsing the choruses to Antigone' for a performance to be given in honour of Mendelssohn, who was expected to come and conduct his 'Elijah.' Lortzing writes:Now we must give the work [Antigone'] without him! He will listen to it from above, but how it will please him we shall never know.'

6

Colonial enterprise in music is spreading. Follow ing closely upon certain events in Canada comes the Zealand, in October next, not only in the general news of a Festival to be held at Wellington, New interests of choral music, but also as a suitable mode of commemorating Mr. Robert Parker's twenty-fifth year of musical work in Wellington. The draft scheme includes the performance of the following works:

Golden Legend, Elijah, Hiawatha's Wedding Feast and Death of Minnehaha, The Desert, Blest pair of Sirens, Edipus at Colonos, Suite in F for Strings (Parry), Stanford's Last Post, in addition to compositions by Elgar, &c.

During his visit to London for the Festival of which his music formed the chief feature and attraction, Herr Richard Strauss found time for a visit to the Royal College of Music. It was, to be exact, on the afternoon of Tuesday, June 9, and the interest of the visit was concentrated in the performances of the students' orchestra, which, under the composer's own direction, played his symphonic poem Tod und Verklärung.' Though it had been rehearsed but once by Sir Charles Stanford, it was played with a zest and precision, and with a fine quality of tone-colour, that Mr. H. A. Parker is the secretary of the Festival, obviously astonished as well as pleased the to which not a few in the old country will heartily composer. On such an occasion compliments are wish all success. apt to be of a somewhat perfunctory character, but there could in this case be small doubt of the genuineness of the praise which Herr Strauss bestowed, and which, if it may without indiscretion be made public, he afterwards reiterated in conversation, going so far as to affirm that he had never before heard so fine a performance from a students' orchestra. Considering the exacting nature of the music, this was high praise, but it was by no means undeserved. Afterwards, under Sir Charles Stanford's conductorship, the band was heard in Wagner's 'Huldigungsmarsch,' which gave Strauss an opportunity of judging of the ensemble

better than when he was at the conductor's desk.

Dr. Henry Hiles, who framed the conditions for the establishment of the Faculty of Music in the Victoria University of Manchester, and has for several years been the acting Professor at that Institution, has responded to the invitation of the Council of the University of New Zealand to undertake the supervision of the exercises submitted by all candidates for degrees in music in that University across the seas.

The conclusion of the Biographical Sketch of Sir Sterndale Bennett is unavoidably held over till our August issue.

A FASCINATING BIOGRAPHY.*

'It could not have been better done' is the impression one receives while reading this delightful 'Life' of 'G'-an impression that is deepened as one page after another is perused, and confirmed when the book is regretfully put down, but to be taken up and read through again. Mr. Graves has not only told the life-story of Sir George Grove with consummate masterfulness, but in such a manner as to revivify that remarkable personality.

is fully brought out in the book under notice. His power of observation and fondness for comparisons is exampled in the following extract from a letter to a correspondent. He says:

Did you ever notice that at the first enumeration of the inhabitants of the world (Gen. iv. 20, 21, 22) they are divided into three great sections-herdsmen, musicians, and engineers? It struck me as very interesting when I first observed it.

The Beethoven

For

Turning to the musical interests of Sir George What a wonderful career it was! Engineer- Grove's varied career, it is perhaps not surprising to working in pattern and fitting shops at Glasgow as a learn that when he first heard Beethoven's Choral common mechanic, building lighthouses, and making Symphony (under Berlioz, in 1852) he could make very railways; Secretary of the Society of Arts and the little of it.' Not until he began his official connection Crystal Palace; Biblical student, profound and with the Crystal Palace did the musical instincts enthusiastic; Founder of the Palestine Exploration within him began to blossom and bring forth fruit Fund; Programme-annotator; Editor of Macmillan's abundantly in the valuable analytical programmes so Magazine and frequent contributor to the periodical worthily associated with his name. press; first Director of the Royal College of Music; references in the book are very interesting. and last, but by no means least, Editor of the instance, at one time he thought of compiling a Dictionary of Music and Musicians,' familiarly Beethoven Dictionary.' This from a letter: Every known as Grove.' 6 To these varied pursuits must now and then I get terribly impatient to begin the be added the authorship of the volume Beethoven second edition of my article on Beethoven in the I look forward and his Nine Symphonies' and of a Geography Dictionary as a separate volume. Primer; also his interest in Chinese porcelain, greatly to it. I will have all the portraits, views and other hobbies. Versatile to a degree, his life, of spots, houses, etc., facsimiles of writing and music. one long record of hard work and highly charged By degrees, perhaps, I may do the same with with industrious endeavour, was one worthy of all Mendelssohn and Schubert.' Yes! Beethoven, emulation. Mendelssohn, and Schubert were his triumvirate, We are not altogether surprised to learn that as a Schubert being the predominant partner; no wonder child he was lively and at times exceedingly mis- that he was amused and pleased at the fitness of chievous. An early instance of his ever-bubbling things when in walking along the streets of the City humour is recorded in an act of boyish mischief he espied the collocation Shoobert and Grove, wine whereby an al fresco lecture at school was completely bottlers.' 'What a horrible bore you must think me,' demoralized by Master George's stealthy application he wrote on one of his innumerable postcards, 'but of a burning-glass to the trousers of a stooping Schubert is my existence.' schoolmate'! Music soon entered into his life. The We get some pleasant reminiscences of musicians. periodical visits of the Grove family-who seventy years ago resided where Wandsworth Road Railway Station now stands to the concerts of the Sacred Harmonic Society furnish a pleasant picture of youthful enjoyment. We quote from Mr. Graves's narrative:

The house-key was hidden under the gate, and supper left out for them on their return, which was seldom before eleven, for they footed it both ways. To secure good places in the 3s. unreserved seats, they had to be there long before the doors were opened, and then there was a regular hurdle-race over the benches to the front row. The interval before the performance began was spent in examining the score or watching the players come in-Perry the leader, Lindley and old Drag.' (Dragonetti), the famous double-bass player. Throughout the oratorio 'G.' acted as expounder and commentator, never failing to signal attention to his favourite passages. Those were golden evenings of halcyon days; they used to sing nearly the whole way back to Clapham -a habit which led to the memorable comment of a friendly policeman near the turnpike on the Wandsworth Road. The Groves had fallen in with a noisy party from a neighbouring inn, and the policeman who followed to keep them from being molested and walked part of the way with them, thus delivered his soul on the subject of music: Well, Sir, some likes the pihanny, and some likes the flute, and some likes various sorts of instruments; but as for me, Sir, I like the wocal. Indeed, Sir, I may say I'm a hog at the wocal!'

Here are two of Costa. Costa's friend, Captain
Lyon-an old Queen's messenger who lived with
him-had broken his leg, and on one occasion I asked
him if he was getting better. "Oh, yes," said Costa,
"he will walk on crotchets." 'At a rehearsal of
'Lohengrin" Costa said: "Bring back the man with
the goose.'
From Costa to Brahms is a great step,
but the stories concerning the latter are equally
entertaining. The first was told to Grove by
Dr. Joachim:-

Brahms was at W- —'s house at Coblentz. W.

is a great amateur of wine, and brought up some very special vintage and set it before Brahms, saying, Now, Herr Brahms, this wine must be drunk with great consideration. It is the same thing among wines that you are among composers.' On which Brahms at once remarked: Do you happen to have Bach in your cellar? If so, bring him up at once.' Another, related by Dr. Mandyczewski, is typically Brahmsian:

A lady at Hanover wanted to make him play at an evening party, but he wouldn't. First he got her to stand in the curve of the grand piano while he stood at the keyboard, leaning across the lid so that it could not be opened, and talking hard to her all the time. And when at last she did get the lid opened, he at once struck the low C with his left hand and a high C sharp with his right, and said, 'How can I play on a piano that is so fearfully out of tune?'

The following extracts relate to his valued colleagues at the Royal College of Music :

Parry's Blest Pair '—a noble work, which improves every time.

I must leave off [writing a letter] for Parratt is looking over my shoulder with a horrid expression of countenance (you know how fiendish he can look when he chooses).

The latter in fun, of course. And this leads us to