MUSIC NOTES

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8349, 8 February 1913, Page 11

MUSIC NOTES

ERNEST VAN DYCK. Antwerp has just concluded its celebrations in honour of the artistic jubilee of the great tenor. Ernest Van Dyck, one of the finest exponents of Wagner roles on tho operatic stage. The ceremonies, which lasted four days, naturally included operatic performances by the great tenor himself, who repeated his triumphs as Lohengrin in the second act of the opera, and as Tannhauser in the third act of that work. At a reception held at the Hotel de Ville, and attended by a distinguished gathering, speeches were made felicitating M. Van Dyck on his jubilee. He made a fitting acknowledgment of the congratulations. Another interesting ceremony was the inauguration—also at the Hotel de Ville —of the Van Dyck prize, which he has founded for the assistance of young Belgian singers who are studying at the Brussels and Antwerp Conservatoires. M. Van Dyck is to be associated with M. Astruc in the direction of the new theatre in the Champs Elysees. THE EMOTION OF MUSIC. The question if music, after all, j® an emotional art is being discussed in Musical America.” The subject arose from the ideas expressed in a lecture on the "Experimental Study of Musical Enjoyment.” The author made a number ot introspective experiments, with the result that they revealed the fact that the music consciousuess is “made up of a mass of kinaesthetic and organic sensations, motor, vocal-motor, auditory, and visual —numerous associations many of which are irrelevant —affective and emotional processes,- and various phenomena which have to do with intellectual enjoyment." After this plain and lucid description we all know now the power and influence of music, and why a Wagner music drama, a Strauss tone poem, a Chopin nocturne, or the latest "ragtime" melody appeals to us. Another writer, in speaking on this subject, asks the question, "Shall we crucify musict" for iu his view "we ought to rid ourselves of the outworn, cramping, and egregious falsehood that music is fundamentally restricted to an. emotional peal."MUSIC AND “THE INKY WAY." Something new in. programme music. It is called "luno der Giornalisti" (Hymn of the Journalists), and is the work of a Neapolitan composer, Hafiaele Caravaglios, who wrote it for the opening of a new press club in Naples. The music is described as “realistic” in its reflections of the daily work, and the fire, fervour, and enthusiasm of the active and able journalist." It really seems a theme worthy tho dignity of a tone-poem. ' TWO POPULAR SINGERS. The farewell concert of Madame Clara Butt and Mr Kennerly Bumford in London before starting on their big tour of America and Australia was a great success. A musical critic wrote on December 16th: "There are few" occasions in any musical season when the seating capacity of the Albert Hall is barely sufficient to hold those provided with tickets of admission. One of these rare occasions occurred on. Saturday afternoon, when Madame Clara Butt and .her husband, Mr Kennerly Bumford, gave a farewell concert. Both singers are departing on a wide-world tour of eighteen months or so; hence the enormous audience. And of enthusiasm and bouquets there was no lack; the ’ bouquets, indeed, required a little army of attendants to manipulate, and when the great contralto’s first group of songs was over the platform had undergone a transformation.”