My Dear Bureau:

How is it with the lecturing and reading business you and I are interested in? The politicians are busy with the Presidential perplexities; the commercial men are wondering whether their customers will ever buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest again; the preachers are coming back to their freshly-dusted pulpit cushions, and the lawyers to their neverdusted courts; but all these things concern you and me very little, except, of course, the preaching. The coal my neighbor is purchasing will hardly warm me, for by the time it is burning I may be in Michigan or Texas. I have a friendly interest in my friend's shopping for her furs, but they will not warm me either; we people on the Bureau list are nothing if not professional, and what we want to know is whether we are to have a good season. For here, you see, is a point on which the Washington weather manufactory can give us no satisfaction, all prescient as it pretends to be. The committees and managers know about it, I suppose, and are busy balancing and weighing this popularity against the other-or deciding 'twixt twenty-five cents and half a dollar admission. I suppose that they think of us-they are obliged to do that, for there will be neither fun nor philosophy until we come.

But I wonder if they think of the work the lecturers and readers have been doing through this hottest of hot summersthis putting of our best thoughts and most precious acquirements-precious to us, if to nobody else-upon paper? Do they think how, solitary and alone, we have stood up in our chambers, and rehearsed our most beautiful passages to the walls? How we have rewritten this sentence and rejected that, and looked out words in the dictionary, and selected the nicest, if not the longest? Or do they think of us, when the days have grown shorter and the evenings longer, starting out for our long

miles of steam-car and steamboat journeyings, with our best dresses in the big trunk, and our bundle of MSS. in the little one? I suppose they are glad to see us coming, so that the select and intelligent audience shall not be disappointed, nor the dear, delightful money returned, but do they ever think how the jaded and half-frozen traveler managed to reach them? Well, we do have our little trials as well as our little triumphs; yet the last are so pleasant that even I, who, as you must tell everybody, am getting to be never so old-never mind the exact figures-even I think that the compensations are sufficient. One goes, after all, to the most intelligent towns, and sees the cleverest people; and after the third visit to a place, it seems quite like going among one's own relations.

Yes, I like to go back to the old friends; there are congregations in which one feels that she has an undivided tenth, or twentieth, part of an estate fee simple, which she would like to have and to hold forever. I own there are some pleasant places to which I should be sorry not to be recalled; and doubtless most readers and lecturers have the same feeling.

Well, I wish the committeemen and the managers good luck in making up their lists. It requires talent, if not genius, to arrange a single good dinner to be eaten in a couple of hours; but these good public servants have to settle a bill-of-fare which is to last all winter; and I, for one, have never supposed it was an easy business to balance the grave and the gay, the light with the solid, the useful with the merely entertaining. It demands tact for this, and a knowledge, intuitive or acquired, of those mysteries-the wants of the people. However, with Werner's Magazine Bureau to help them, they get along nicely, as nobody has more reason for acknowledging than

New York.

MINNIE SWAYZE.

VOICE-CULTURE AND MUSIC.

OLD FOGYISM IN VOICE-CULTURE." Under the above title Mr. M. L. Brown, in Musical Record, bewails the lack of progress in methods for cultivating the voice and protests against pinning one's vocal faith wholly to what Mr. Louis Arthur Russell calls "the Italian fetish." Mr. Brown, who qualifies himself as critic by telling of his ten years' instruction with six Italian method teachers, and having sung songs, arias and oratorio many years, descants:

"The work of the musician player as a rule is superior to that of the singer. Take, for instance, the piano and violin soloists, as well as orchestral work. These have a technical value and artistic finish rarely found in the vocalist. The really excellent singers may be counted off on one's fingers, and that, too, in New York, wherein congregate many of the singers of two conti

nents.

"We hear artists occupying highest places sing flat and deliver the voice with such bad method as to be pitiful. Conscientious artists, too, who have dramatic ability, and artists schooled in everything, apparently, but the use of the voice as an instrument. In piano-forte building, when an instrument has a scale with one tone strong, another weak, and a third a cross between the two, and also when one tone is muffled, another is brilliant, and a third a cross between the two, that piano is designated as having a bad action. So it is with the voice perfected as an instrument. When we hear a few tones well placed forward (it would seem almost by chance), mellow, full, and sonorous, accompanied by a vibrant quality grateful to the ear-followed by others made in a different way, perhaps by the mouth being held so wide open in the middle register, on all the vowels, as to almost betray the whereabouts of the diaphragm, thereby dispersing the vibrations, and producing that shallow, colorless tone termed 'white,' only to be followed in turn by others clutched at the throat, and if, as a result, some tones are open and clear, others choked, others thin, and so on, that voice is said to have a bad action or method.

"Voices built like those of Pol Plançon and Anton Van Rooy, every tone of which is placed well forward—not a hit or miss in the whole range-are a source of the deepest satisfaction to the listener, and have a reliability most gratifying. Mr. Plançon sang in New York for weeks, and I do not once recall his having been off duty because of a cold.' I suspect that half of the colds

are more the result of bad method than of bad weather.

66

Voice-building is in reality instrumentbuilding, for without first the perfected tone instrument upon which to develop a technic, no truly excellent work can be done, and the voice-culturist certainly rests under a disadvantage not to be met with in any All other department of musical study. musical instruments are of themselves lifeless. The violinist forms his own tone, as does the singer, but he does so on a quiescent and inanimate object. While, on the other hand, the voice-instrument-the human throat-is a very-much-alive piece of mechanism, and for this reason a knotty problem to handle, especially as it is subject to such influences as the health and temperament of its possessor, conditions quite outside the control of the voice-teacher.

Throat-action must become automatic and mechanical in response to the will of the singer, and free from any restraint imposed by temperamental consciousness of its owner, before artistic results can be obtained. It is safe to estimate that in each generation there are in two continents not more than thirty voice-instruments produced. Against this is an array of hundreds upon hundreds of voice-students, pursuing their studies with conscientious fervor, struggling for place and recognition, which but few obtain-the majority never being heard of, and all winding up voicewrecks at an early age.

Why is it that in all branches of music there has been more progress than in the voice? Have we not lived under the ministrations of the Italian school of voice-culture, lo, these many years? Has it not been heralded from the house-tops, quoted as all-sufficient, taught, and unsuccessfully attacked? Is it not heresy to doubt a tenet of its faith? Is it not a matter of jeopardizing musical standing to do so?

66

Now, what is the matter? Oh, we are told all these people have had poor teachers, and the traditions of the pure school are forgotten and ignored. Who would dare suggest that there might be something wrong in the traditions themselves-innately so-independent of any vitiation brought them by individual voice-teachers? Because it has been the best system known, does that absolutely prove there can be no fault in it? It is interesting in the connection to note that in all other branches of music there has been advance and development. Why do not people play the piano with the technic of a hundred years ago? Compare the orchestra of to-day with that of olden times! Compare composition with that antedating the day of Beethoven and Bach-and note especially the improvement

in the field of opera. Every once in a while a mighty, man has lifted up his voice proclaiming a new doctrine and advancing his art by his teachings. Were not Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, Liszt, and Chopin such? 'In truth, everything moves on but voiceculture. Who dares lift up his voice in the interest of anything new in it? Brave indeed is he! Is he not at once a charlatan, a fraud, a crank, a what-not? In all the active departments of life man may delve, investigate, invent, and expound, but in voice-culture he must still employ the methods of a couple of hundred years ago!'

MUSIC IN AMERICAN COLLEGES.

"One sees the folly of claiming too high a place for music among the arts. Music is unfortunate in having limitations which become more evident as we study it in comparison with an art like literature, for example. One of these, and not the least, is the impossibility of its sharing the nutriment which literature receives from ordinary social life. Conversation and letter-writing alone may keep the literary faculty in training, but music is denied a like help. Moreover, music, in its nature, is so abstract that it must be limited to the few. It cannot hope to fill so important a place as literature among the arts.

"One errs in claiming too much for music in the college curriculum. Scarcely any college could find use for more than two or three instructors in music; and the number of students taking the courses is bound to be small, even in the largest institutions. Yet aside from numbers, music has a significance that seems greater, in contrast with the paucity of students and of teachers. Its consequence in life, alone, entitles it to corresponding importance in the university. It deserves to be classed among what were once called the 'humanities,' and its right to be regarded an element of the broadest, most human culture, need not be defended. No college can boast of giving a liberal education, in the fullest and truest sense, and at the same time exclude music from its course.

The education given by many colleges in this country is more conservative than liberal. An inquiry addressed some time ago to a certain Western university of some repute brought back the interesting information that the only instruction in music given there was that received by the military band.' There are many colleges in the country in which music is not taught in any theoretic courses whatever. It may be interesting to note that in New England, Boston University, Colby University, Dartmouth, and Williams, with many others besides, fall within this class. There has never been any department at Johns Hopkins. And music is not taught in a large number of other well-known institutions, including the University of Chicago, Ohio State University, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt University, University of Missouri, University of California, and Leland

Stanford Junior University. At Cornell, no regular department has yet been established; and two courses in singing are all that are given. These, however, count as regular academic work. The University of Pennsylvania gives an extended course covering three years, but the latch is raised only to special students who wish to fit themselves for the degree of bachelor of music. Princeton has a school of music. Its courses are open freely to all members of the university; and one of them, on history and theory, is taken by about one hundred students. But none is permitted to count for the academic degree.

"There appears to be a great number of colleges in which music receives little attention. In some cases it has no standing whatever, and is altogether frozen out of the curriculum; in others it may be admitted, but often there seems to be only a vague understanding of the place that it should fill. Thus some institutions make no attempt to discriminate between practical music, such as pianoforte playing and singing, and theoretical music, such as history, composition, and criticism.

"It would be unjust to say that Eastern colleges are the only ones that recognize music as of equal standing with other subjects. The University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin both have wellorganized departments of music which rank equally with the other academic departments; and there are probably many other institutions in the West of a similar favorable attitude. In New England, Amherst, Brown, Tufts, and Yale are instances of colleges that agree that a bachelor of arts is a bachelor of something which may include music. Another instance is Columbia University, in New York. These institutions all recognize the claims of music to be considered an element of broad culture; but they meet the demands of music in different ways."-Arthur Spencer in Musical Record.

MELBA TELLS HOW SHE BECAME A SINGER.

"You know we lived in Melbourne only a part of each year, and in the wilderness in was not easy to get servants, so it became my duty to help with the housework. Before I was seven years old I could wash and dry dishes as well as any one, and I really enjoyed it. It was better than having nothing at all to do, which was usually our condition on the ranch. It was not easy for me to gratify my desire for music. I taught myself a great deal, and with the help of my Aunt Lizzie I was finally able to play very well. Then I took up the study of music in Melbourne, though I never thought seriously of making it my profession. It was a great delight to me, however, and I remember my great disappointment when the family once moved to a house where there was no piano. Of course, none was to be had in those backwoods; but my father pacified me by procuring a concertina. I played on that for months. On

Sundays, when the traveling minister came along, I played at services held in our parlor. I never thought much of singing, though at this time I was anxious to become a great pianist. I went along day by day studying as much as I could, and almost my only happiness was found in playing and singing. I mastered the pipe-organ and several other instruments, and in Melbourne I used to practice in one of the churches every afternoon. Then I suddenly arrived at a determination to do something with my voice. It seemed a shame to let it lie quiet, and I decided to make some use of it. I studied harder than ever, and, after appearing occasionally for two years in Australia, my friends urged me to go to Europe for study, and I followed their advice. I went at once to Paris, and placed myself under Mme. Marchesi.

So

"I will never forget the day I presented myself at her door. I was rather awkward then, and decidedly shy, and since I was by no means rich I feared that she would refuse me as a pupil. I was almost fainting when she entered the room, but I gradually recovered self-possession, and when asked to sing I was feeling as well as ever. It seemed that my voice was in poor condition, and I almost dreaded her verdict. My apprehensions were without reason, however, for she took both my hands in hers and told me that some day I would be her greatest pupil, if I would work and persevere. . . Two years passed-two years of work such as few women pass through when studying music. I was anxious to make my debut as soon as possible, for I needed money.

"A prima donna's working days are never over so long as she is before the public. I am constantly studying some new role, whether I expect to sing it or not. If one does not learn new parts her art is sure to stagnate, and progress is the surest way to success in music. I would rather not sing at all than always sing the same. Each time I try to do better than before, and in this way my work is made interesting. I shall always keep on working just as hard as ever, for I find that is the only happy way of living."

MAX HEINRICH ON THE TREMOLO.

"Although scarcely seeing reason for answering, some one who has written so laughable a question as 'Is a tremolo something to be admired?' I nevertheless will say that of all the objectionable and pernicious habits in singing one only can surpass the tremolo, and that is singing out of time.' It is true that some American students, especially women, go so far as intentionally to acquire the tremolo, going all the way to Europe to do so, imagining it to be beautiful, soulful. However this may be, I am inclined to doubt my correspondent's statement that in many New York churches the singers one and all sing with a tremolo. I have had considerable experience with New York churches, and I recall two or three cases only, and to my mind their

wobble' of voice was begotten by their 'wobble' of mind and imagination, the result of a cheap, sentimental ecstasy, presumed by the perpetrators of the nuisance and their foolsome friends to be an expression of genuine and healthy sentiment, when in fact such tremulous singers' are nothing but sentimental vocal degenerates. But why argue further in favor or against a habit which I am happy to say has been denounced by the good and healthy taste of our music lovers throughout the length and breadth of the land!"

THE JEW IN MUSIC.

The Rev. Madison C. Peters, author of "Justice to the Jews," writes as follows on what the Jews have done in music:

The art most cultivated among the Jews is music. Among their musical geniuses are first of all Felix Bartholdy Mendelssohn (1809-47), the wunderkind of modern music, Jacques François Fromental Halévy (1799-1862), Giacomo Meyerbeer (17941863), Jacques Offenbach (1819-1882), K. Goldmark (b. 1832), and Johann Strauss (1825-1899), the great waltz king. The musical leaders of England are J. Moscheles (1794-1870), F. H. Cowen (b. 1852), Sir Julius Benedict (1805-1885), Sir M. Costa (1810-1878), Sir A. Sullivan (b. 1844), and Charles K. Salaman (b. 1814). Of minor composers we may select, of Frenchmen, C. H. V. Alkan (b.1813), Jules Cohen (b. 1835), and Emilie Jonas (b. 1827). Among the Swedes, J. A. Josephson achieved fame. Among America's great leaders we may name Rudolph Aronson, Wilhelm Gericke, Carl Wolfsohn, Jacob Rosewald, and the Damroschs, the Blutkopfs of Germany, Damrosch being the literal translation into Hebrew of the Ger

man name.

The Jews have perhaps achieved as great triumphs as performers as they have as composers. The piano found its greatest master in Anton Rubinstein, while Moritz Rosenthal and Joseph Hoffmann bid fair to equal him. Joseph Joachim played the violin in a manner never equalled before his time nor since. Jules Levy stands first among cornetists, and Louis Blumenberg is the leading solo violoncellist in this country. Among great European singers may be named, John Braham (1774-1864), whose dramatic genius was equalled by his peerless voice, and that original genius, Pauline Lucca, the transcendentally human," and Caroline Gomperz Bettelheim, the famous Austrian court contralto.

Wagner wrote Das Judenthum in der Music" to show that the Aryan had originality, while the Jews were only adjusters and adapters. We leave the critics to determine this point. But this we know, that when Wagner produced an opera to show the Teutonic superiority over the Jews, he was dumbfounded when on the night of the performance all the first violins were in the hands of Jews.

ELOCUTION AND ORATORY.

PUBLIC SPEAKING IN COLLEGES.

According to the Yale Alumni Weekly, "President Schurman of Cornell has said of a department of oratory that it is one without which no American university can be considered complete.' Cornell has acted on this principle. Over 200 are now in the various courses, and the value of the training it gives is shown whenever there is general competition calling out the best public speaking of the university. The main courses are those of oratory and public speaking. These include studies of the masters and masterpieces of oratory. They are conducted on the principle that there ་ can be no right speaking without right thinking, and right thinking can best be promoted by increasing the powers of reasoning and observation.' Special stress is laid on originality in interpretation of thought and emotion. Imitation finds no place in the system, and elocutionary theories are but little followed. White Hall is the centre of the various departments of activity in public speaking. In this building the different debating societies have their meetings. One of the rooms is called the Hall of Oratory. Here are hung the portraits of great orators, as well as of students of the university who have distinguished themselves in Cornell public speaking.

"Yale must develop some more definite and comprehensive system soon, or in this almost prime essential for citizenship training it will fall behind many other institutions. Everyone knows that there is very little of such training, and that it makes no impression on any appreciable number of students. It is crowded into such a short time, and crowded on men who have had so little idea of the subject before, that when the public test comes, the effect of it appears in various stage motions, which seem to have been annexed to the speaker at certain passages in his oration, and concerning whose propriety or meaning he apparently has no idea. It is often urged that it is difficult to secure sufficient instruction of the highest kind in this line, as it verges so easily into the superficial and the declamatory. This is, of course, no sufficient reason for omitting something which is so indispensable. May Yale not be much longer without a broad, thorough course in public speaking. A good argument can be made for making some of it compulsory."

Comment by S. H. Clark.

To those interested in public speaking in colleges this article should be encouraging. There are a number of institutions of higher learning-law schools, theological seminaries, and colleges of arts and sciences -that thoroughly appreciate the value and necessity of courses in public speaking, but candidates for positions in these institutions should equally appreciate that there is no

room for any but well-trained teachers. These must be college graduates, possessing strength of character, teaching ability, and, particularly, a knowledge of orators, oratory, and forensics. College faculties are very suspicious, and rightly so, of elocutionary training; they are jealous of the university standard, and are unwilling that credit should be given for work in elocution unless such work is worthy.

Among elocutionists one often hears discussions in which the college and university are generously belabored for their shortsightedness, lack of appreciation, and all that; while the parties to the discussion seem to lose sight of the attitude the selfrespecting college is bound to assume in this matter of elocution. Our colleges do not want statue-posing, they do not want declamation, but good, honest, straightforward public speaking and debating. Voiceculture and training in gesture may and should justly form a part of the course, but show-work, prize-work, and all that silly nonsense, can find no place in the curriculum of a high-grade institution of learning. There are a dozen or more positions awaiting the right man in our colleges, but he must be a well-educated, thoroughly-trained and, in most cases, a college-bred man. It is well, then, for those who hope to obtain high-class positions, instead of superciliously scorning the bachelor's degree, to prepare themselves by taking a full college course, specializing not in physical culture, but in English literature, rhetoric, and forensics.

66 TO ACCENT OR NOT TO ACCENT."

The Asheville, N. C., Citizen takes Mr. E. P. Stephenson, Secretary of the Academy of the Dramatic Arts, New York, to task for his reference to what is termed "Southern accent," as follows:

The Citizen has received a copy of the June number of WERNER'S MAGAZINE. Its leading article, Expression in the South,' is a description of the present status of literature, elocution, vocal music and physical culture in the South, and is illustrated with numerous photographs of prominent teachers of singing, elocution and physical culture in the Southern States, and of some of the institutions in which these subjects are taught.

On the subject of the expressional talent found in the South, E. P. Stephenson is quoted as follows:

The Academy has but a small percentage of dramatic students from the South.