"FROM BRAIN TO KEYBOARD."

MACDONALD SMITH'S SYSTEM
OF TOUCH AND TECHNIQUE.

"The most striking discovery of the present generation for practical musicians."-Musical News.

"Wonderful work is being done by Mr. Macdonald Smith in the application of his new system. . . . He is giving hundreds of lessons by ail with the very best results."-Musical Courier (New York).

"It is clear that Mr. Macdonald Smith has studied the subject carefully, and acts upon well-ascertained scientific grounds.”—The ily Telegraph.

"The great, the supreme merit of Mr. Smith's system consists in the fact that it involves the total abolition and disestablishment of all at terrible scale-practising and five-finger exercising."-Westminster Gazette.

"May be distinctly regarded as a boon and a blessing to men."-The Referee.

"Mr. Macdonald Smith's system of training the fingers, hands, &c., for pianoforte playing is most excellent, and in every respect wel orth the high fees charged for lessons."-Organist and Choirmaster.

"The excellence of his methods had been abundantly proved."—The Times.

THE SYSTEM EXPLAINED.

The correct translation to the keyboard of the pianoforte of the notes of written or printed music, together with the proper interpretation the expression, presents an interesting and difficult problem to pianists, viz.:—What is the best means of acquiring that quickness of eye, ain, and muscles, requisite to the perfect rendering of pianoforte music?

In considering this problem, we are forced to a recognition of the fact that very much depends upon physical health and development. rfection of eye, brain, and muscles are an exceptional occurrence, and, where non-existent, require to be developed by artificial means, ice physical perfection and a healthy condition of the organs named are a sine quâ non in the proper training of the musician. To achieve s desideratum is the aim of Macdonald Smith's system of Touch and Technique. Many ingenious attempts have been made to develop s perfection of action and control, and thereby to ensure freedom and rapidity of voluntary movement, but hitherto none has been mpletely successful. The problem remained to be solved by Macdonald Smith's discovery of the principle of "full-contraction," with at remarkable success is shown by the practical experience of hundreds of pianists of all ages and of every degree of proficiency. The use of the exercises alone results in a most pronounced improvement in delicacy of touch, good loud tone-production, command of lependent rhythm in the two hands, general rapidity, confidence," grip," stretch of the hands, flexibility of the fingers and wrists, besides ny other benefits.

There are other difficulties encountered by the pianist, depending upon purely mechanical considerations, which would still exist were hands and arms formed of wood or iron, instead of bone and muscle. But these have been reduced to a science, and are met by TECHNICAL RULES." The latter, which, combined with the "full-contraction" exercises, comprise the system of Touch and Technique, indispensable for the easy and correct rendering of “ skips," quickly-repeated movements, trills, and other technical difficulties of the yboard. The System affords the player invaluable assistance which is unattainable by any other means by even the most advanced student, and is indispensable to beginner and proficient alike.

COMPLETE course of SIX LESSONS, BY CORRESPONDENCE, THREE GUINEAS. Experience with 2,000 pupils in various parts of the world. "PIANOFORTE PLAYING" and other articles by MACDONALD SMITH, 32pp., post free, 7d. Full prospectus, 16 pp., post free. TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR PERSONAL LESSONS (TO CONCERT PLAYERS ONLY) ON APPLICATION.

MACDONALD SMITH, 19, BLOOMSBURY SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.

R. ATHELSTAN G. IGGULDEN, Mus. Doc.

JR.

(Dunelm), F.R.C.O., gives LESSONS and prepares for all USICAL EXAMINATIONS by post. The Dingle, Reigate, Surrey. R. WARWICK JORDAN, F.R.CO. (Examiner R. WARWICK JORDAN, F.R.C.O. (Examiner chool of Music, &c., &c.), has a VACANCY for an ARTICLED UPIL. Magnificent Organ, Hydraulic blowing. Elaborate Musical rms for a Youth who would soon be useful for Daily Services, idress, Grafton House, Lewisham High Road, S.E.

Pices. Excellent opportunities for learning Choir-training.

For

R. F. J. KARN, Mus. Bac., Cantab.; Mus. Doc.,

Trinity College, Toronto; gives LESSONS, Personally or by st, in HARMONY, COUNTERPOINT, FUGUE, FORM and NALYSIS, ORCHESTRATION, ACOUSTICS, &c., and prepares

3. OXFORD FIRST MUS. BAU, 150, AFSOCIATED BRAD, enior Harmony (Honours), Counterpoint, 1903; DURHAM, 1902, 01, 1900, and all previous years; MUS. BAC., LONDON,

103; 1903;

DR. HAMILTON ROBINSON, Mus.

Doc.,

Dunelm, A.R.A.M., F.R.C.O., Lecturer on Harmony in King's
College, Lond.; Organist and Choirmaster, St. Stephen's, South
Kensington. PIANOFORTE and ORGAN LESSONS, HARMONY,
COUNTERP
COUNTERPOINT, COMPOSITION, &c., Personally or by Cor-
Preparation for University, R.C.O., and all other
Examinations. Classes. 25, Palliser Road, West Kensington, W.
DR. TINetical) BY POST. MSS. revised; Teachers helped
TINDALL, A.T.C.L., teaches Music (practical
Psychon System). 63, Biddulph Mansions, Elgin Avenue, W.
R.
ALFRED W. TOMLYN, Mus. Bac.
(Durham, 1892); L.Mus.T.C.L. (1888). COACHES for
EXAMS. Prospectus, &c., 58, Comiston Road, Edinburgh.
MR.PERCY WOOD, F.R.C.O., teaches HARMONY,
tions. Terms, £1 1s. for ten lessons. 60, Crownhill Rd., Harlesden, N.W.
COUNTERPOINT, &c., by post, and Prepares for Examina-
R. HAYDN GROVER, Alto, Temple Church;

MR

02; OXFORD MUS. BAC., 1902, 1901, &c.; L.R.A.M. (Composition also Director of Choir and Organist of St. John's Church,

ad Pianoforte), 1902, 1901, &c.; A.R.C.M. (Theory of Music, Comosition and Pianoforte Teaching); CAMBRIDGE and DUBLIN, IUS. BAC.; L.Mus. and A. Mus., L.C.M.; L.T.C.L., A.T.C.L., and pecial Certificates, 1903, 1902, &c. Special and individual attention iven to Correspondents. Terms moderate. MSS. corrected for ublication.

Analyses of Classical Works for Examinations.

70, Parkhill Road, London, N.W.

DR.
R. MARCHANT, Mus. D., Oxon., F.R.C.O.
(Author of "* 500 Fugue Subjects and Answers," Novello's
Primers, No. 35), &c., PREPARES CANDIDATES for all Musical
Examinations by Post. 10, Glebe Crescent, Stirling, N.B.

M

[R. H. H. L. MIDDLETON, Mus.B., F.R.C.O., L.R.A.M., A.R.C.M., makes a SPECIALITY of COACHING or DEGREES. L.R.A.M., 1897-1903, FORTY-ONE SUCCESSES; A.R.C.M., 1897-1903, ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN SUCCESSES. Equally good results in R.C.O. and other Examinations. Address, Hazelwood, Dollis Road, Finchley, N.

MR. EGBERT ROBERTS gives LESSONS in

VOICE PRODUCTION and SINGING, at 60, Berners Street, W., and 45, Pentonville Road, N.

W. HENRY THOMAS, Professor of Singing at

the R.A.M. and G.S.M., has resumed LESSONS for the Winter Season at Bond Street Studio, and at his private residence. (Oratorio singing a specialty.) Address, 7, Lidlington Place, Harrington Square, N.W.

Clapham Rise, will sing at his CONCERT in Assembly Rooms,
Balham, on October 5. Band of the 2nd Life Guards will play some
of his pieces. On Thursday evening, October 8, Mr. Grover will
direct the music at the Harvest Thanksgiving Service in St. John's
Church, Clapham Rise. Selections from Mendelssohn's "Hymn of
Praise" will be sung. Soloists, Miss Irene Melton, Miss Isa Lyell,
and Mr. Herbert Grover. Augmented choir. Ladies and gentlemen
willing to volunteer their help at this and future services are invited to
communicate with Mr. Haydn Grover, 6, Childebert Road, Balham.

MADAME ELISE J. HEMERY. VOICE-PRO-
DUCTION, SINGING, ARTICULATION, COACHING,
ACCOMPANYING. Perfect Sight-reader. Visits and receives. City
and West-End Studios. Address, c/o N. Vert, Cork Street, W.

MISS MARGARET MCINTOSH, Pupil of Mr.

Edward Iles, is now resuming her LESSONS for SINGING and VOICE PRODUCTION, at 60, Berners Street and at 27, Craven Road, Willesden, N.W., where applications respecting lessons and

engagements for Concerts and At Homes should be made.
MISS
ISS ALICIA JEPHSON, pupil of the late
Paris, gives LESSONS in VOICE PRODUCTION and SINGING.

Maestro Coen, of Florence, formerly with Delle Sedie, of

Bonci of Covent Garden.
Highly recommended by Delle Sedie, Mascagni of Italy, and Signor

For further particulars, address, care of Messrs. Forsyths, Ltd.,
Deansgate, Manchester.

THE MUSICAL TIMES

AND SINGING-CLASS CIRCULAR.
OCTOBER 1, 1903.

BANGOR AND ITS CATHEDRAL.

At evening [at Penmaenmawr] the moon one eminently bright, and our thoughts of anger being now past, the rest of our journey as very pleasant. At an hour somewhat late, e came to Bangor, where we found a very mean in, and had some difficulty to obtain lodging. lay in a room where the other bed had two en. . . . We went to worship at the Cathedral. he quire is mean, the service was not well ad.'

length, lined with branches at the entrance to
resemble a grove, with seats run along the sides for
the promenaders to rest them. The vocal ability of
Carnarvon and Bangor were in full force on this
occasion, assisted by Mr. Hayden, of St. Mary's, of
the former place, who accompanied on the melodium.
The corps musicale consisted of forty or more vocalists;
and allowing for the diluting effects upon the human
voice of a chamber containing from seven to eight
hundred persons, with an area of upwards of
470 feet long, better adapted to the sax-horns
of the Distin family-the concert went off with as
much eclat as could fairly have been expected.
We may say all present were struck with the novelty
of the thing; while few could have had any previous
conception of the brilliant spectacle presented by
the illuminated Tube and the animated countenances
on which its coruscations fell.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwll-llandysiliogogogoch.

It may be assumed that George Grove, as one of the Engineering Staff, took an active part in promoting and arranging this concert, which, by the way, is duly noticed in THE MUSICAL TIMES Thus recorded Dr. Johnson while on his of fifty-four years ago. Judging from internal orth Wales journey, in company with Mr. and evidence, Grove probably contributed to the [rs. Thrale, during the month of August, 1774. local journal the account from which we have Vere the great lexicographer to re-visit Bangor quoted. Certain it is that, during his sojourn ow, at this interval of 129 years, he would at Bangor, 'G' must have known full well the ave a different tale to tell. It is true that he village at the farther end of the Britannia ight not wax enthusiastic in regard to this Tubular Bridge-that Anglesey parish which arnarvonshire city per se, but such institutions bears the pronounced Welsh name of (Please, the North Wales University College and other Mr. Printer, exercise more than your usual care lucational features would certainly meet with in setting this much-lettered place, as the process is approval. He would find that the Cathedral may exercise a spell over you) — uire is anything but 'mean,' and that the ervice is remarkably well read' (or intoned) y Minor Canon Hughes Williams. Moreover, Did Shakespeare visit Bangor? If we turn to ere Dr. Johnson to mount the picturesque Part I. of his King Henry IV., Act III., we eights of Upper Bangor, he would not only be shall find that Scene 1 is laid in that city. harmed with the lovely environment of the Tradition has it that the conspirators, Hotspur, Ienai Straits, but he might perchance find Glendower, and the rest, met at Plâs Alcock,' ccasion to be pleased with the two famous now the site of the City Vaults Hotel. ridges that span those Welsh waters-the immortal Bard gives us, in the Scene referred to raceful Suspension Bridge (opened in 1826), above, some interesting references to the Welsh nd the famous Britannia Tubular Bridge language, a tongue probably in the nature of a opened in 1850), both noble specimens of sealed book to him. Mortimer, who could not English engineering skill with which the names speak Welsh, thus addresses his wife, who could f Thomas Telford and Robert Stephenson, not speak English :espectively, are worthily associated and peretuated. Both these bridges will be found in he landscape view on page 643.

The name of George Grove is associated with he Britannia Bridge. As a young engineer he ssisted in the construction of that gigantic work, and contributed to The Spectator of June 23, 1849, in account of the floating of the first tube, this being one of his earliest appearances in print. The tubes were constructed on the Carnarvonshire shore of the Straits. A month previous to the floating of the main tube, preparatory to being hoisted into its elevated position, an unusually novel music-making took place in that elongated ron structure. The event is thus recorded in

the North Wales Chronicle :

CONCERT EXTRAORDINARY. Friday evening [May 18, 1849] a Concert was given to the whole country round by the Engineering Staff at head quarters connected with the Chester and Holyhead Railway in the great centre Tube of the Britannia Bridge, which was brilliantly lighted up the entire

Thy tongue

Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penn'd,
Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bower,
With ravishing division, to her lute.

The

Hotspur, who may have become acquainted
with Llanfair P. G. (as the above-named village
is abbreviatively called), took a different view of
the Welsh language, as later in the scene he
says:-

Now I perceive, the devil understands Welsh ;
And 'tis no marvel, he's so humorous,
By 'r-lady, he's a good musician.

name is derived from two Welsh words, ban cor,
Bangor ought to be a musical place, as its
meaning good or high choir. Its Cathedral,
with which we have especially to do, is snugly
situated in a hollow in the centre of the city.
One of the most ancient of existing Sees, it was
founded by Deiniol (or Daniel), the first Bishop,
in the 6th century. The Cathedral has passed
through many vicissitudes, and has been more

than once destroyed-first by the Saxons in 1071, and again by Owen Glyndwr (Glendower) in 1402. It remained in ruins for nearly a century, but it has been restored and added to, the last time under the direction of the late Sir Gilbert Scott. The eminent architect reverently preserved and used up much of the earlier sculptured stone that he found. In this connection he records:

This exhuming and restoring to their places the fragments of the beautiful work of the 13th century, reduced to ruin by Owen Glyndwr, used as mere rough material by Henry VII., and rediscovered by us four and a-half centuries after their reduction to ruins, is one of the most interesting facts I have met with in the course of my experience.

the nativity and restauration of our Gracious Soveraign King Charles, when the minister was readinge of divine service, the said Maurice Hughes was settinge of Doggs to fighte and baite one another at the Churchyard wall over against the door of the church to the disturbance of divine service and the congregation there present.

While on the subject of Records, a curious entry from the Baptismal Registers may be quoted:

Dec. 11, 1807: Owen, son of Hugh Jones, of Llanrhwydrus: a Vagabond.

And another, from the Burial Registers :

Oct. 18, 1749. Sidney Jones, wife of Henry David, was Buried. She was murdered as is supposed by her brother, Richard Jones.

Before making mention of some Bishops of Bangor, and referring to matters strictly musical, one or two peculiar features of the Cathedral may be noticed. Curfew has been rung on the tenor bell for centuries, and is still rung daily at As the chiming is now

Of the Cathedral destroyed in 1071, there remains a buttress and rude round-headed window, now placed in the south wall of the Choir. When King John invaded Wales (A.D. 1210) he burned the city of Bangor and seized the Bishop, Robert of Shrewsbury, before the high altar, and would not release him till a ransom had been paid of 200 hawks, according to some authorities, the hour of 8 p.m. 200 marks according to others. The western concluded by the announcing of the day of the tower was added in 1532 by Bishop Skevington, month on a smaller bell, no one can charge who also rebuilt the nave. In the south wall of curfew with not being up to date. The Cathethe south transept is the supposed tomb of dral also serves as the Parish Church of Bangor, Owain Gwynedd, Sovereign Prince of Wales, of which there are two vicars with equal rights. who reigned thirty-two years and died in 1159. A Parochial Service in the Welsh language is The edifice is singularly devoid of antiquarian held twice on Sundays; on these occasions the interest in regard to its monuments, but a tomb-music is sung by a mixed choir. Fully Choral stone (of a member of the Rathbone family) in Services (in English, of course) are held twice on the churchyard has this parental epitaph:Sundays, Saints' Days and their Vigils, with Evensong on Saturdays throughout the year, and daily (at 5 p.m.) during the summer months.

Father to the fatherless so much,
You will seldom meet another such.

In

The Bishops. One of the most distinguished At the west end may be seen fragments of a 13th-century pavement formerly placed at the occupants of the See was Anian (Einion, or east end of the Cathedral. The ancient designs of christening the first Prince of Wales-born Eujan), who died in 1305. He had the honour of the tiles have been copied and reproduced in at Carnarvon Castle, April 25, 1284. the pavement in the Choir. A pair of lazy-tongs recognition of his services in administering that (or dog tongs) is a curious relic of old times, (or dog tongs) is a curious relic of old times, sacrament, King Edward I. bestowed upon the when churches and churchyards seem to have Bishop certain ferries and manours' in the been greatly troubled by canine interlopers. neighbourhood, which constituted the barony by These tongs are so constructed as to grip the which he is said to have claimed his seat in unwelcome animal round the neck, whereby he Parliament. Moreover, Bishop Anian compiled could be ignominiously ejected without fear of the Pontifical, or Liber Bangor, the greatest retaliation in the nature of a bite. The Records manuscript is thus described by Browne Willis:treasure in the Cathedral library. This precious

of the Cathedral contain a curious 17th-century reference to these ecclesiastically disposed 'Doggs.' Here it is :—

The Presentment of the Churchwardens of Llannor, for the year 1682.

We present Maurice Hughes of Llannor, Tayler, for disturbinge divine service and sermon severall times in the church of Llannor.

We present the said Maurice Hughes for breakinge Robert Rowland his pate on Sunday morninge, being March the fourth to the great effusion of his bloud-who meetinge the minnister and others, cominge towards Church, they were all amazed.

Further we present the said Maurice Hughes for dareing the minister at the altar, haveing a staffe in his hand-threatninge him wth the sd staffe near his face, and threatninge us the Churchwardens, vilifyinge the whole Congregation May the 6th being Sunday fighting or quarrellinge with some one or other every Sabbath wth in the Church or Churchyard when he is att home; and May the 29th, being

It is a folio of a moderate thickness containing 32 Offices, and has abundance of Anthems, with musical notes to them for Singing. At the beginning are the Offices for making and ordaining the Acolyti, Subdiaconi, Diaconi, Presbyteri, and Episcopi; Forms of consecrating Churches and Church-yards, &c. Forms of adjuring of bread, cheese, and honey; Offices for all Sundays and Holy days throughout the year; Prayers in times of pestilence, war, and other occasions.

The 13th Office contains the Mass; the 19th the form of the Chapters electing their Bishop. In the latter end is the Office of Baptism (where twice immersion is expressly enjoin'd), &c.

This Pontifical formed The Use of Bangor,' and reference is made thereto in the Preface to the Book of Common Prayer. An antiphon from this old manuscript has been adapted for use at organ-opening services by Mr. J. T. Field.

THE BRIDGES OVER THE MENAI STRAITS: THE SNOWDON RANGE IN THE DISTANCE.