DIVISION XXXVIII MUSIC AND DRAMA MUSIC BY FREDERICK H. MARTENS CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "THE ART OF MUSIC" evitably suffers in acoustic effect, the music in such pageants as the "Lexington Pageant" (Charles Repper) linking the battle with the present in historic tableaux; and "La Favorita ' de los Gatos" (Arthur Farwell), a In life of Spanish California, may be instanced as typical of the quality of the American pageant score. connection with pageants Roland Holt's List of Music for Plays and Pageants, tentative rather than comprehensive, is a useful publication. General Survey.-What seems to be a catalogue of music essential for a definite post-war stabilization and cinematic situations, deserves menprosperity during the year past has tion. Numerous new pageants were been reflected in music. Material presented in the United States during gains include building of new audi- 1925; and though al fresco music intoriums, concert halls and opera houses in various cities (New York, Albany, St. Louis, Salina and Kansas City, Omaha, San José), notably Mrs. F. S. Coolidge's new chamber-music auditorium at Washington, D. C., to which the Berkshire Festivals have pageant idealization of the rancheria been transferred. Increased prosperity has been felt in our music publishing business and the export trade in musical instruments. Greater general interest in music is shown in the foundation of many new choral societies, civic orchestras, municipal and other opera enterprises; and an In the field of mechanical musical increase in the number of music reproduction the outstanding achievefestivals and "music weeks" cele- ment of the past year is the Panabrated throughout the United States. trope, recording and reproducing Among bequests and foundations are: sound received from a telephone transThe John Simon Guggenheim Me- mitter generating electric currents. morial Foundation; Bearns' Trust Music is thus produced with a perFund (Columbia University); Caruso fection of individual tone quality and Foundation; Stony Point Opera shading exceeding that of radio transFoundation; Juillard Foundation mission and other existing processes. (fifty-one scholarship awards in A direct stimulus to American 1925); the Pulitzer awards; numer- composition in general during 1925 ous festival prizes and new scholar- has been the activity of the National ships; all endowments for pecuniary Federation of Music Clubs which a aid given American musical ideals its biennial convention (Portland, and American musicians individually. Ore.) gave first performance to symIn moving picture music the origi-phonies and operas by American comnal musical scores written by Deems posers. Taylor to accompany "Janice Mere- Radio and Music.- Improvements dith," and by Mortimer Wilson for in radio broadcasting during the year "Don Q" are outstanding individual past have confirmed radio's position contributions; while Erno Rapee's as one of the most powerful agencies Encyclopædia of Music for Pictures, for popularizing music in the United States. Other contacts are immedi- all concerned. The Society, without ate and personal, usually presenting consultation with Mr. Solberg, and the good, bad and indifferent with confident he would prepare a bill cheerful unconcern; but radio's ad- equitable from the standpoint of all vantages greatly outweigh its de- concerned, pledged itself in advance fects. Standard and new orchestral, to underwrite unconditionally (and choral and other music transferred did underwrite) any bill Mr. Solberg directly to the average home by radio might prepare. is a cultural and educational influ- Meanwhile a radio corporation bill, ence making radio's rôle of carrier of the Dill bill, after much lobbying, hotel and roof-garden jazz negligible. had been drafted in Washington. Mr. The "instantaneous" character of Gene Buck, president of the Society, radio transmission is supported by with а committee including John the universal nature of an appeal Philip Sousa, some of the best-known which acquaints the radio owner with American composers and a group of the news of the moment, and lets the country's leading authors (for the him participate in lectures, sermons, Authors' League of America and political and other conventions, et other organizations had associated al, without leaving the room. themselves with the American So Radio and the American Composer.ciety for the protection of the com-In connection with the American mon property rights attacked) went composer, the most important radio to Washington. There Mr. Buck development of 1925 has been the proved the justice of the Society's drafting of a new copyright bill to claims so completely that the bill protect the composer's creative prop- sponsored by the radio interests was erty. Phonograph and other me-killed in committee. chanical reproduction companies at Misleading propaganda to discredit an earlier date had influenced the the Society (and by implication the passing of laws compelling copyright Authors' League of America) as owners to accept-in contravention to greedy opportunists, eager to rob the the general law of royalty equity-American people of a source of legiti a negligibly small compulsory fee on mate enjoyment, has thus far failed. each disk, roll, etc., manufactured by The composers and text-writers of the the exploiter, a fee far below a rea- United States asked only what every sonable proportion to the latter's "producer" in every other field reprofits. The present effort to protect ceives, a fee or royalty on the profits the American composer is due to the made by those who exploit their prod attempts of certain members of the duct. Manufactures pay royalty to tremendously wealthy group of radio the inventor on his inventions. The corporations to ignore the common music and words invented by comequity rights of the musical creator posers and text-writers are, probably, by evading payment of fee or license the most valuable "raw material" for their gainful exploitation of the used by the radio corporations. products of the composers' brains. Air waves cost nothing and radio sets The American Society of Com- are sold at a high percentage of posers, Authors and Publishers took profit. To expect the American comthe initiative in protecting the poser to turn over his musical ideas, rights of the American composer and his only source of income free to text-writer by calling public atten- radio corporations whose exploitation tion to the injustice done them. In- brought them many millions of dol dependently of the Society Mr. lars was as unreasonable as to ex Thorvald Solberg, Register of Copy-pect the Radio Corporation of Amer rights at Washington since 1897, the ica to distribute free radio sets or leading copyright authority in the the American Telephone Company to United States, undertook the drafting supply service gratis. of a bill for a new copyright law The Perkins bill, a which would deal justly with com- drafted by Mr. Solberg in 1925, aims poser, text-writer, corporate interests to reform existing copyright law in and general public: in a word, with such wise that all owners of copy. new form right and the "small" composer, interesting Sardinian folk-color, will particular, will be protected in their hardly find a permanent place in the common equity rights. Its passage repertoire. Flis (The Raftsman) a at the next session of Congress genre opera by the Pole Moniuszko, would be a notable ethical victory, sung in Philadelphia, was a pleasing would allow the United States to folk-music score in the old style. join in the Berne Convention, and The first of the novelties announced would stimulate original creative ef- for 1925-26 at the Metropolitan was fort throughout the country. At the Spontini's La Vestale, well staged and Fourth National Radio Conference well sung, Rosa Ponselle creating the (November, 1925), the important title-rôle. Though theatrically effecequity principle "that owners of copy-tive and musically noble it is too oldright were entitled to reasonable fashioned to appeal greatly to the compensation for the use of their general opera-going public. Cornecopyright" was agreed to by all in- lius' Barber of Bagdad, an Arabian terests; and the representatives of Nights' tale to a tuneful, romantic the radio broadcasting interests in- score in Weber's style, is too undicated their willingness to pay a dramatic for present day demands. reasonable charge for copyrighted Ravel's L'Heure Espagnole was numbers used by them. a masterpiece of delicate, subtle orchestral tonal beauty and irony. It sets forth a realist tale of life in the eighteenth-century Toledo. whose heroine Concepción (Lucrezia Bori) in the absence of an elderly clock-making husband prefers the "native worth" of a muscular muleteer to the tender sighs of two physically lesser lovers. American Opera. The year 1925, like those preceding, has produced no great opera by an American composer. Frank Patterson's The Echo (Portland, Ore.) was a worthy symbolic prize opera; Charles Wakefield Cadman's The Garden of Mystery (New York) after a Hawthorne tale, interestingly scored, was given under "Jazz Opera."-Interesting is a circumstances which did not show it group of 1925 scores which try to at its best; while Cadman's The Witch give the rhythmic and tonal effects of Salem, announced for performance popularly known as "jazz" artistic (Chicago, 1925), uses folk-tunes, In- values as a valid expression of condian airs and a Madagassee pirate temporory human emotion, social melody in telling a tale of witch- trends, etc. Isaac van Groove's opera hunting days in New England. The Music Robber (St. Louis) proFrancesco B. De Leone's Alglala (Chi-jects jazz backward, orchestrally and cago) makes vivid, colorful use of vocally ragged, into Mozart's life; Indian thematic material in a trag- Emerson Whithorne's futuristic baledy of the Arizona Mesaland; while let Sooner or Later (New York) uses Ralph Lynford's Castle Agrazant "jazz" in a brilliant musical carica(Chicago) is a genial musical ture of the "geometricized" life of the handling of a Crusading tale. Both future; while John Alden Carpenter's the last-named scores have been given Skyscrapers (ann. New York, 1925) locally: last year saw their first represents "a musical-choreographic metropolitan première. At the New abstraction of contemporary AmeriYork Metropolitan, in the earlier part can work and play 'noises,' using of the year, the Czech Janaček's jazz as a play noise. W. FrankJenufa, a modern verist score pre- Harling's A Light from St. Agnes ferring dramatic declamation to mel- (ann. Chicago, 1925) employs Louisiody, was produced. Though a per- ana folk-songs and "blue" rhythms in sonal success for Maria Jeritza, who a tragic verist presentment of modsang the title-rôle, it was not found ern jazz life in a Louisiana lumber musically compelling. A revival of village; and Lazare Saminsky's GagliVerdi's "Falstaff" called forth a sen-arda of a Merry Plague (New York) sational demonstration on behalf of compresses two hours into twenty the new American baritone, Lawrence minutes in a clever modernist exTibbett; but Montemezzi's youthful periment in "chamber opera," with opera, Giovanni Callurese, despite in- melody a secondary consideration, telling the tale of Poe's The Red Pendulum; Gustav Strube's Lanier Death with iron chains, strings of Symphony; Howard Hanson's Nordic oyster shells and buckshot-filled tom- Symphony and Leo Sowerby's suite toms among its percussives. From the Northland; and the impor General Considerations.—Increas- tant symphonic poem Jurgen by ing countrywide interest in opera dur- Deems Taylor, a subtle and highly ing 1925 has been reflected by seasons individual interpretation of Cabell's in cities where opera had been un- famous (or, if one prefer, infamous) known, and the activities of new novel; and Henry Hadley's colorful opera companies on the Pacific Coast, tone-poem Ocean. in the South and in the Middle West. Specific art-jazz developments in Native talent has produced notable symphonic form have included George work, but the value of extravagant Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue; S. propaganda for American opera along Gardner's Broadway, jazz rhapsody; jingoistic national lines is question- L. Gruenberg's Daniel Jazz for small able. In music, as in every other orchestra (Stravinsky's Ragtime in art, to use a homely apothegm, its orchestral version, new to this "Every tub must stand on its own country, might here be mentioned); bottom"; the flag painted on the tub's while the orientally exotic was repside is not material. American resented by Henry Eichheim's orches operas which musically measure up tral Nocturnal Impressions of Peking to those of Wagner, Verdi and Mo- and Korean Sketch (chamber orcheszart or-aside from absolute musical tra) and Malay Music. Among new values-voice the kind of theatric and chamber-music compositions Waldo popular appeal presented by Puccini, Warner's Fairy Suite for strings; Massenet and Mascagni's one out- Carl Ruggles' Angels, for six trumpstanding score, will come into their ets; Domenico Brescia's American own without forcing. The past year Quintet, strings and piano, develop has confirmed the world leadership ing South American and negro of the Metropolitan Opera of New York with regard to the artistic luxury of its opera presentation, and the high individual quality of the singers of its company; and the year's most encouraging sign is the trend on the part of individual cities to set up their own opera, promising the American composer opportunities of performance which, should his works justify it, will compel later metropolitan production. themes, call for mention. Serge Prokofieff's cerebrally interesting Vio lin Concerto Op. 19; Edward Collins' Piano Concerto and Leo Ornstein's Tartar-flavored Concerto for piano and orchestra also may be adduced. Orchestral novelties by foreign composers heard include: Edgar Varèse's mathematic, ultra-modern and noisily percussive Intégrales; Arthur Bliss' fine Color Symphony (Purple, Red, Blue, Green); Béla Bartók's ultraSymphonic, Choral and Other modern First Orchestral Suite; Novelties. The United States is the Dohnanyi's beautifully written Festi world's musical leader considering val Overture and Ruralia Hungaria the number of great solo artists, con- suite (Hung. folk themes); Stravin ductors, etc., appearing before the sky's Renaud ballet suite; Caplet's public. The multiplicity of concerts Epiphanie (a Magi king fresco for of every kind allows for mention of 'cello and orchestra) and Borchard's only a few more important novelties Elan, a symphonic piece expressing produced during the year. In the "the intoxication of movement." symphonic field have been heard: Arthur Honegger's tonal idealization Henry Coswell's ultra Ensemble, in of a railroad mogul, Pacific 231; L. which the Indian "thunderstick," a Aubert's poem La Dryade; the symwhirring slab of wood, was used for phonic Overture to Roland-Manuel's wind effects as a background for Isabelle et Pantalon; Manuel De string tone; Hendrick's Suite Esthé- Falla's brilliant, colorfully Spanish El tique; Aaron Copland's Cortège Maca- Amor Brujo suite, and the clever bre; Edgar Stillman Kelley's noble modernist orchestral "Dances" from symphonic poem, The Pit and the Paul Hindemith's opera Das Nush Nushi, a German succès de scandale, also should be cited. New choral works include H. J. Stewart's oratorio The Hound of Heaven; Howard Hanson's The Lament of Beowulf; Carl Venth's notably fine choral score Pan in America; Hermann Hans Wetzler's Legend of St. Francis, also a major work; Hugo Kaun's ambitious Mutter Erde; Cadman's operacantata, The Sunset Trail (Denver), a development of Western Indian themes to accompany a tale of the shifting of a tribe to a U. S. reservation; and a "biblical" opera, The Song of David, by Ira B. Arnstein, employing Hebraic melodies with jazz inflections in the ballet. Select References. Important American books published during the past year include: DE BEKKER.-Music and Musicians. SCARBOROUGH.-On the Trail of the -- French Music, an excellent and SPAETH, Sigmund.-Commonsense in M. Fitch.-Behind the Scenes at the Opera. Intimate revelations of backstage music life and work. HAUK, Minnie.-The Memories of a HULL, Dr. Eaglefield.-Dictionary of NEWMANN, Ernest.-Musical Motley HIGHT, G. A.-Richard Wagner. Valuable critical biography, discounts the sex angle in dealing with its subject. NIECKS, Dr. F.-Robert Schumann. GRATTAN-FLOOD, H. W.-Early Tudor BUCK, P. C.-The Scope of Music. tailed study of subject. DYSON, G.-The New Music. An interesting harmony grammar of the modernist musical idiom. THE THEATRE BY MAURINE WATKINS DRAMATIC CRITIC Play Types.-A year that inherited | The Show-Off; that led off quickly Abie's Irish Rose, White Cargo, and with Processional, Desire Under the |