MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1895, 1 November 1913, Page 9

MUSIC.

IBx Tejlbm Cur.? Paul Dufault. Mr. Paul Dufault, the brilliant tenor who has toured with'.Cisneros and Nordica—and . many will believe, eclipsed them both as an artist—has. been secured for a tour of New Zealand by Mr. Frederic Shipman. Mr. Dufault will be supported by a strong concert company, 'the tour is to comnienco in Auckland on December 2 and this arrangement should bring tho tenor to Wellington about Christmas time. Death of Stephen Adams, ''Stephen Adams," tho song composer, on August W "at Buxton (England). "Stephen Adams" in private life was Mr. Michael Maybrick, five times Mayor of Ryde, Isle of Wight, whero he had long beon a resident. Born at Liverpool in 1844, ho Btudied music in Italy and Germany, and afterwards appeared as a baritone singer at leading London and provincial concerts, and also in English opera for many years. ho became extremely popular as a writer of songs. Indeed, he created some thirty years ago a particular form of ballad, now practically extinct, which in its timo enjoyed an immense vogue and in which the composer had hundreds of imitators. Among his most famous songs were: "Nancy -lice," "The Holy City," "A Warrior Bold," "Tho Star of Bethlehem," and '".Ihora." Ho wrote Mb first song, "A Warrior Bold," "and also "Nancy Leo," while ill in bed. He sold tho former for five shillings, but the royalty brought his receipts beyond four figures. ' Ho offered "Nancy Lee" to a firm of publishers for £21, but after his successful singing of rt at St. James's Hall, London, ho was offered £105- The publishers' first refusal cost them several thousands of pounds which had been produced by tho royalty on the song. The death in 1889 of his brother, Mr. James Maybrick, led to a famous trial at Liverpool, as a result of which tho brother's widow was sentenced to death on a charge of poisoning her husband by arsenic. Hie sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life, and in 1901 Mrs. Maybrick was liberated. Dvorak Stories. Among those who tried in vain to persuade Dr, Anton Dvorak to'accept, them as pupils was "one man of many compositions." Ho persisted, though Dvorak told him bluntly he did not care for his pieces. At last, with some asperity, the applicant said: "We'll, it is a matter of taste. I like my musio and you do not." About thirty seconds of soul piercing by Dvorak's bull-like •eyes, and then: "So you are the musician, and I am tho ass? " One day Dvorak showed Mr. Shelly a letter from Brahms in which that master said that he wished he might write with tho same sunshine in his musio that Dvorak did.. It is well known that it was Brahms who discovered Dvorak. Interesting details regarding this important discovery—important because Dvorak was not only Bohemia's greatest composer, but one of the.most spontaneous melodists of all time—are given in the " Musical Courier," which prints translations of some of tho letters written by Brahms to his publisher, urging him to take up this talented young Bohemiin composer. In one of these letters, written in 1877, when Dvorak was unknown und living ill a garret at Prague, Brahms told Simrook about some songs which Dvorak had had printccf at his own expense— ten duets for two sopranos with piano-' forte —which Brahms found " really beautiful and practical for a publisher. . . . If you will look them over you will take pleasure in them. . . He certainly is a very talented fellow, and ,ho is poor! . . Now, you must remember that I do not easily recommend any one."

Simrosk was so impressed by this iccommendatiou from a composer so hard to please as Brahms that he immediately took tho train for Prague, saw Dr*rak, and brought home for his press some of his compositions, among them the " Klango aus Mahren " and the " Slavic Rhapsodies," which laid tho foundation of Dvorak's world fame. He was still, however, far from being a wealthy man when Mrs. Thurber offored bim tho directorship of the National Conservatory at 15,000 dollars a year. After three years in Now York he returned to Prap-.ue and was elected a member of tho Bohemian House of Parliament. Had it not been for tiro American episode in his life, the world would have never had his masterwork —the "New World" symphony—which, though in a way American, was inspired, at least as to its slow movement, by no stalgia—longing for his beloved Bohemia. Notes. The many friends of M. Henri Kowalski, one of the musical pioneers of Sydney, who returned to Fiance about 15 years ago, will be glad to hear news of tho genial artist. Writing from Dinan, Brittany, M.- Kowalski says that lie is desirous of revisiting Australia. Ke'proposes to open an Australasian tour in Sydney about May next. Ho also mentions that ho has a busy time giving recitals in Franco. Since he left Sydney several attempts have boon made by art enthusiasts to induce M. Kowalski to revisit Australia as a recit'alist, but these overtures have hitherto been unsuccessful. Tho news that he now contemplates an Australasian tour will bo raoeivid with interost.