MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 960, 29 October 1910, Page 9

MUSIC.

(By Treble Clef.) Horac3 Hunt and Herbert Bloy. On Thursday next Mr. Horace Hunt, t-lio talented and scholarly pianist, and Mr. Herbert Bloy, the • best of • our violin soloists, are combining in a recital to bo held in the Concert Chamber.- Concert-lovers will remember how thoroughly enjoyable was tlio last recital given by these young men. The coming recital promises to be even more interesting. Mr. Hunt's items will include "Variations Serieuses," Schumann's "Fabel," and "In der'Nacht," a group of delightful little pieces from MacDowol's "Woodland Sketches," and Grieg's "March of the Dwarfs" and "Monvements," by Debussy. • Mr. Bloy will play "Ungarisclie Rhapsodic," by Hauser, "Melodic," by Ole Bull, an eighteenth ceiitury "Allegro," by Fiocco, "Romanze," by Max.-Bruch, ,the greatest living writer for the violin, and tho most popular of the nine Do Beriot concertos—No. 7. The first appearance of Miss Gertrude Hunt, soprano, will be interesting. The Story of a Famous Song. No song with English words is better known than ' 'The Last Rose of Summer." Many musicians will be surprised that this exquisite little melody, associated as it is with a very poetical idea, was first set to comic words and known as "Castlo Hyde." Later this song was parodied and tho melody came to be known as "The Groves of Blarney." This became popular in Ireland about 1788.' Tho Irish' origin of -the song seems to be undisputed. . In 1813 it was published in Moore's "Irish Melodies!' together with.' tho words with which the melody is now invariably sung. Flotow made it the motif of the • latter part of his opera "Martha." This somewhat; inconsequential opera ■ owes much of its popularity to ■ the beauty of this melody. The melody was particularly suited to tho rich, dulcet voice of .Adel.ma Patti, who used to sing it with a finish and taste which were a delight to musicians, professional and amateur alike.' As a consequenco the opera "Martha" was a favourite ; one-with her, and upon most of her tours she appeared in this work.

Beethoven arranged and harmonised this melody and employed it to the words, ."Sad and Luckless Was tho Season.". There is also a version of Beethoven's treatment sat to the words, "The kiss, dear maid," by Lord Byron. Mendelssohn wrote a fantasia upon the air which was published as his Opus 15. Dozens of transcriptions—or should they be called' transfigurations —of this simple and lovely tune liavo been made. . ' ' The Difficult Trumpet. . . Trumpet players who can play their instruments really well are few and far between. . Very likely, in the first place, this,has led to tho perpetration of some frauds which have recently been discovered on'the Continent. The officials who engage bands for some of tho Continental parks have dropped on to a nice little plant., • Bandmasters have been including a number of dummy performers'in their orchestras. 'These include other, "instrumentalists" besides trumpeters, who aro incapable of playing a note, and simply make a dumb show, Of course, - everyone knows tho Rossini story of the "trumpeter." Oiice upon a time Rossini was present at a performance'of "The' Barber." -He' beheld a' trumpeter, evidently.- blowing ' a huge trumpet-with remarkable force, but no trumpet tone was forthcoming; At tlie end of the performance Rossini, interviewed: the oonductor, arid-inquired' what was wrong ,'with the . trumpet works:-'!; Tho! ; -cohductor,',.: explained'' that there, was riot a: living soul : in> th<S to\vii :'who coiild play the trumpet. Therefore: he-.specially engaged an.''artist'-.' 'to hold : one .to 'his lips, binding •it-'by: 'iv. sdleiii'il' oath hilt to blow into it. " "For," as hosdid,. "it looks .well, to '-have a itrurapdt in tho orchestra!"

An Interesting Manuscript. ■ . The late Pauline Viardot - possessed the original manuscript -of . Mozart's "Don Giovanni." - . Some : years ago it. was .offered for salo to;nearly every public library in Europe, and the; autho-. .rities of the British-Museum only stood out for a rebate.of twenty-five 'guineas 1 on-the price. 1 The manuscript .had belonged to, Frau Streicher, the daughter of'Andre, the-music publisher of Offenbach,' and the wife of the Viennese piano manufacturer. The late Herr Pauer brought.it'to England for sale; not succeeding to sell.his '"goods" at the British' Museum, he offered "it'to: Pauline Viardot, _ who immediately bought ■ it. Mme. Viardot died a few months ago at the ripe age'of 89. It is said that she has willed, it to the Paris Conservatoire. Se'fmer and Crieg, Edvard Grieg was. not: the, oaly composer, who got a life stipend from the Norwegian Government. . Johann Selmer, who died a few. weeks ago in Venice, shared that distinction with him. It appears that Selmer was impressed by the silly charge of "excessive nationalism" so often made against Grieg, so _ lie tried to avoid local colour, and write in a "universal" style. He did not know that iiin£-tenths of* what ignorant- critics called nationalism in Grieg was sheer individualism—tho personal genius of that composerr "This individuality—which is another name for genius—Selmer lacked; hence his works proved ephemeral. The best known of thorn are: "The Carnival in Flanders," "The Turkish Invasion of Athens" (for baritono chorus and orchestra), "Finnish Festival Sounds,". In the Mountains," "Scene Funebro"' Ho also wrote a number of songs aiid piano pieces. In his orchestral works, Berlioz was his model.- Ho was born in 1844, a year after Grieg. Merkel wrote a book on him. ■

Notes. The death is announced in Paris of the widow of Ambroisc Thomas, at tlm age of eighty-fouv. She was a German by birth, but had lived so long in Paris that she had forgotten her native language; Though frail,-and "a" mere shadow of her .former self, she continued -to the last to attend gatherings where by so doing she could keep groen her husband's memory. During the many ycars that ho was director of tho Paris Conservatoire she assisted him assiduously in helping along promising students. Only a few weeks ago she was ablo to attend a soiree at the homo of her friend, Mine. Marchesi. Farewell, and do not quite forget mo after lam dead. 0 men, I have deserved that you should think of mo, for in my • lifetimo I have often thought of you to make you happv. May it ever bo so I—Beethoven—(From his Will). Mendelssohn is a man to whom I look up as to some lofty mountain. Ho is a true divinity and no day passes in which he does not utter two ideas worthy to bo graven 011 gold.—Schumann. "For what is genius else than a priestly power revealing God to the human soul."—Liszt. A panic was caused in the Xevsky Prospect, St. Petersburg's chief street, by tho appearance of a man driving a small cart to which two wolves and a fox were harnessed. and eventually the man whs ar- • Alexander Elphinstone admitted in the Bankruptcy Court: that between 1901, when he became of age. and lilll.i, he rewired under his fat her V will sume amounting to probably *Eo<)..QOQ,