MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1740, 3 May 1913, Page 11

MUSIC.

fßy Treble Clef.l Unending Work. Do Pachmaim, the greatest'..living exponent of Chopin, speaking on. perfecting detail in pianoforte playing, says:— "Each note in a composition should be polished until it is as perfect as a jewelas perfect as an Indian diamond—those wonderful scintillating ever-changing orbs of light. In a really igreat masterpiece eacih note has its place just as .the.stars, the jewels of heaven, have their places in their constellations. . When a star .moves it moves'in an orbit that was created by nature. . "Great musical masterpieces .owe their existence to mental forces quite as mir-oculous-os those which put .the,.heavens into being. The notes in compositions of kind aro not there by s any rule oi mail'. They como through tho. ever mystifying source which wo. call inspiration, liach note must bean a distinct relation to tho whole. ■ . "Let me play tho D flat Chopin Nooturne for yon. Pica so notice how tho notes all bear a relation to each other, how everything is in right proportion.- Do you think'that came in e day ? Ah, my friend, the .'polishing of those jewels took iar longer than the polishing of tho Kohmoor. Yet I have heard young girls attempt to play this piece for me-'-cxpecting approbation, of course, and I oni certain that they could not have practised upon it more than a year or so. They evidently think that musical masterpieces can bo brought into being like tho cobwebs which rase during the night, to be torn down by tho weight of .the,dew of. tho following morning. Imbecillita! p 'Mv life secret is work—unending work I have no other .secrets. I have devoloped myself along tho lines Tevcaled to me m mv inner voice. -I have studied mysclt as" well as my art." _. „ , .

Charpentier's "Julien." With the coming of tho Quinlan Opera Company Australian opera-goers will soon hear the English version of Charpcnticr s "Louise." Tho most popular modern French opera is on the list of "new works," which are to bo introduced by the Quinlan Company. "Julion," the sequal to "Louise," is sot down for.performance at Covent garden and the Opera Comique, Paris. Early in March. Clinrpentier was putting the finishing touches on tho new opera. ■ .According to a Paris paper .the etory of "Julien" is that of a poet's life, and it is at the same timei full of actual life with tho atmosphere <sf. fairyland. Apostle of universal love, Julien goes out to preach hi 9 dream to the peoplo of tho street. Then, discouraged, ho seeks quiet nnd forgetfulncss in Nature, among tho workers of the &oil, who cannot understand him. Mora and more discouraged, unable to find forgetfulnejjs-elscwhero than in drink, his ideal dream is shattered. His inspiration is Louise, illusion of Lovo, and then in turn the illusion of Beauty; of Work, of Nature's-consoling power, of Religion's consoling power, and of Revelry. — Debussy at the Pianoforte. Patrons of tho Quinlan Opera Company last year were agreeably surprised when ' Claude Do Bussy's short opera, "Tho Prodigal Son," was performed. Tlicro was nothing eccentric in the, music—no departure from what are willed the "classic rules" of composition. Sinco lie had his first success as a young man with "The Prodigal Son," tho leader of'the New French School has written a great deal for the pianoforte. Sorno of theso compositions have been described as "formless and unplayable." This view is not shared by Miss Fanny Davies, tho distinguished English pianist, who went to Paris last month so that she might hear the composer-pianist play a new set of Preludes. Tho day after the concert Miss Davies described De Bussy at the pianoforte. "Tho Debussy group," 6ho wroto, "came second in tho programme, ami 1 think it worthy of note that tho composer ordered the lid of tho piano to bo half closed. Then ho arrived, quite simply, with his music in his hand, and played three nf his new Preludes deliriously, nil perfectly simply, in strict but never stiff rhythm, always flowing, but never forced. His touch is beautiful,' very sonorous in pp. passages—it creates un atmosphere of calm serenity, and absence of all fuss—his tempi are most moderate; in fact, he strictly followed his own directions in each case. He has that lightness in tho soft chords (hat Madam® Clara Schumann always wanted, which carl'ies tho'chords into the air." Notes, Max Brucli has recently celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday. The veteran German composer,, whoso violin'.—concertos, particularly tho 0110 in G Minor, and choral -works havo won such wido popularity, is now living in retirement in Friedenait after maur busy years of teaching at the Koyiil High School of Music in Berlin. A thousand''congratulations, Ilorr Bruchl ( An unpublishod work by Mendelssohn will shortly bo produced in Vienna. It is ■a concerto for two pianofortes,- written in his younger days. Carl Zelter, the teacher of Mendelssohn, in a lcttor to Goethe dated December 22, 1824, mention's a 'performance to bo given that very day of tho concerto composed by "my Felix.' Hammerstem'e Loudon Opera Houso lias been turned into a glorified moyingpicture palace. _ _ . \ Teresa Carre no's fiftieth anniversary of her debut as a pianist was recently celebrated at a bauquet ill Berlin, The entire operatic works of Wagner, commencing with "Jlicnai," have recently been presented in Hamburg. This "Wagner cyclo" lasted about six weeks. Leoncavallo's opera, "Zaza," has been withdrawn from tho .repertoire of the Montreal Opera Company as tho Roman Catholic arcliibshop of that city objects to the opera jis immoral.

Bombs ill let tors addressed to tho editors of "Tho Englishman," "Tho Capital," and "The Empire" respectively exploded in tlio General Post Olfioe at Calcutta, killing one sorter aud injuring others. A similar letter iwas discovered addressed to tho editor of "The Statesman/ 1 I