by felix beaumont.
"now, my friends," said mrs. martin, as she gathered a knot of young people about her on the breezy veranda of her pleasant country house, one moonlight evening in september, "we have had picnics, and drives, and walks, and rows upon the lake in the daytime, and dances almost every night since you have been visiting me, and i believe that you may be getting sufficiently tired of these sports, as the weather grows cooler, to wish to change about and settle down to something at once more instructive and more artistic. you are, all of you, students of music—ethel reads it very well at sight, kenneth plays the 'cello, patty plays the violin, beatrice sings charmingly and plays accompaniments, besides being a general helper and strong inducer of merriment, while the rest of you have good voices, very pretty taste, and some knowledge of music. so i am going to organize a musical club, which shall meet here regularly once a week after you leave me, having finished your visits. and i am going now to attempt to explain to you so thoroughly the best methods of getting up a 'musical' that other boys and girls who wish to amuse themselves in the same way may learn from your example. a great deal of fun may be had from the preliminary practice and rehearsals. i should advise you to form, in the first place, three quartets: one of mixed voices—that is, you know, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass—besides one of male voices, first tenor, second tenor, first bass (or barytone), and second bass. then a quartet of female voices—two sopranos and two altos, and this last can sometimes do trios as well as quartets. for all of these different sets of voices the most beautiful and pleasing music has been made. mendelssohn's collection for mixed voices, called 'open-air music,' is intended to be done without accompaniment, which, as you see, fits it to be sung independently in any place—in the woods, or on the lake, or while driving. it is as full of inspiration and of the true sweet mendelssohnian melody as anything that ever dropped from the pen of that sociable and amiable composer; the harmonies are delicious, and the words are full of the poetry of land and sea and love. for male voices there is a large literature; but perhaps the heaviest mass of writing is found in compositions for women's voices, either in the form of duets—as, for instance, those of abt, mendelssohn, rubinstein, or dvorák—in trios, and in quartets.
"in this connection let me tell you," said mrs. martin,[pg 91] who now saw that her young audience was thoroughly attentive and interested, "that schubert has written a most lovely 'serenade' for alto solo and women's chorus. for all three kinds of quartet, as i have said, there is a large choice of music. the old scotch, english, and irish songs and ballads have been arranged to be sung by male, female, or mixed voices, so that 'robin adair,' 'the bluebells of scotland,' 'annie laurie,' 'tom bowling,' 'hearts of oak,' 'the bay of biscay,' 'kathleen mavourneen,' 'the last rose of summer,' and 'the harp that once through tara's halls' take on new beauties from their harmonizations. then there are humorous things, such as homer bartlett's 'the frogs' singing-school,' or caldicott's 'spider and the fly,' and all ingraham's nine 'nonsense songs,' set to lear's words, from 'the owl and the pussy-cat' to 'the duck and the kangaroo.' italian folk-songs, too, have been transformed into harmonized versions, and there are hosts of waltzes so pretty and inspiriting that you will hardly be able to keep from whirling about while you sing them. 'cradle songs' and 'slumber songs' may be selected when for variety you need a bit of reposeful quiet in your programme; and you know enough of franz abt's pure, sweet, pleasing melody to be able to choose judiciously on the occasions when he would be useful to you.
"of course," added mrs. martin, "these musical attempts presuppose some knowledge of sight-reading on the part of you young people; and as nothing is accomplished without application and effort, you must be willing to take a little trouble in the practice and perfection of whatever you undertake to perform. each of you must carry his part home and study it separately, until you are perfectly familiar with it, then you must rehearse together until the whole thing goes smoothly. do any of you understand," said mrs. martin, giving a comprehensive glance along the semicircle of sun-browned smiling faces in front of her, "what you must do to make ensemble singing sound sweetly to the listener? in the first place, never sing too loud. there is a great temptation for each member of a chorus or quartet to use all the power of his voice as soon as he feels other voices pushing against him; but whether in solo or other work, one of the cardinal rules is to avoid singing as loudly as the vocal chords will permit. one must think continually of the sound he is producing, must listen carefully to himself, by which method one can modify and improve the quality of tone to a remarkable degree. some people undoubtedly make a much more successful effort than others in managing their voices before they are cultivated. the best general advice to be given for the help of a novice is, sing freely and naturally, with relaxed muscles. you should try to open the throat by a movement which at once forces the tonsils apart and depresses the roots of the tongue, somewhat as in the commencement of a yawn. let the column of air which carries the tone come straight through the middle of the open throat, and focus or strike in the roof of the mouth just behind and above the upper teeth. try to enunciate distinctly without disturbing the continuity of tone emission."
"do you think any of us can do solos, aunt martha?" asked little patty, timidly.
"oh yes, indeed," replied mrs. martin, drawing patty close to her. "we must have some, of course; they are so good for making boys and girls conquer shyness and nervousness and consciousness. at first you should select simple songs of limited range, with attractive flowing melodies. you will find plenty of just this kind among the works of gounod, abt, ries, cowen, sullivan, curschman, kücken, fesca, tosti, and bohm. brahms's 'lullaby' is a charming and easy bit of singing; so is ries's 'cradle song.' those by adalbert goldschmidt and gerrit smith are pretty also. indeed, slumber songs lend themselves admirably to early efforts in solo work. other song writers to whom you may look for furnishing the best material are jensen, eckert, lachner, taubert, bemberg, gumbert, goring-thomas, bizet, lassen, delibes, widor, arditi, mattei, godard, saint-sa?ns, massenet, and so on, up to the classic heights of rubinstein, mendelssohn, liszt, schubert, schumann, grieg, and brahms. of extreme modern writers who make pleasing music you can rely on chaminade, nevin, neidlinger, bartlett, johns, and pizzi. of course among these names you will not find many opera-composers, for i have only cared to mention the makers of songs. i will tell you something else, a little foreign to our immediate subject of ensemble or solo singing, which, however, will, i am sure, afford you much enjoyment and merriment. there are compositions called in german 'kinder symphonien,' or 'children's symphonies.' dear old father haydn made one of the best of these, and they have been followed by others, by romberg, chwatal, grenzebach, meyer, and schulz. they are played by about ten or twelve persons. there will be a piano score for either two or four hands, one for violin, and for a number of toy instruments. one of the instruments is somewhat like a pair of bellows in construction. when it is pressed together the most illusive sound of 'cuckoo, cuckoo,' comes from it, so natural as almost to deceive the bird himself if he were listening.
"another instrument is a china mug with a spout like a teapot. the mug must be half filled with water, and on blowing into the spout a melodious gurgling arises. this is supposed to be an exact imitation of the ravishing song of the sad poetic nightingale. then there is a drum, a trumpet, a triangle, and many other things conducive to noise and music. each performer has a separate sheet to read his notes from, and the effort to count properly, to wait for rests, and to make the right entrances, gives much serious employment. but when at last everything goes well together the effect is very merry and pleasing. one of chwatal's symphonies is called 'the sleigh-ride.' the jingling of a set of small sleigh-bells is a feature in this. i should think," added mrs. martin, "that some of these symphonies would be a great addition to your musicals, and give lots of fun. the trumpeter of the occasion must take pains, however, not to fall into the error of the man who blew a tremendous blast upon his horn in the middle of a piece of music, producing a horrid discord. when the leader asked him, angrily, 'what in the world did you play that dreadful wrong note for?' the man meekly replied, 'ach himmel, there was a fly on the fourth line of the staff, and i played him!' nor must you," went on mrs. martin, smiling at her reminiscences, "copy the negligent daring of a friend of mine who sang in a well-known german verein. things had been going badly, and finally the conductor in despair cried out, as he stamped his foot and gesticulated wildly, 'tenors, tenors, you are a measure behind!' whereupon my friend called back lustily to him, 'ach! muss man denn so genau sein?'—must one then be so very particular?" the children laughed heartily at their dear hostess's jokes, as they tried always to do when it was at all possible.
"and now," said tall ethel, "won't you please tell us all about the evening of the musical, and what we shall wear, and how to write the invitations?"
"wear?" said mrs. martin. "why, of course you would wear your very best evening gowns, you girls, and of course, to my mind, those who were dressed in white would look the prettiest. and the boys would wear their tuxedo suits, or whatever they looked smartest in. as to the invitations, do not send out so many as to crowd your parlor uncomfortably. the rule which i have found safe to believe is that one-third of all the people invited will decline. this gives a hostess the liberty of paying a compliment to many more of her friends than her house will actually hold. the form of the invitation may be thus:
"mrs. dudley requests the pleasure of mr. and mrs. allison's company on thursday evening, november 12, at half past eight.
"music at nine o'clock.
"160 saint bernard street.
"or your mother's ordinary visiting-card will do, if she writes in one corner, 'music at nine o'clock.' invitations should be sent at least a week or ten days beforehand. if it is possible for you to have a grand-piano, never use a square or an upright one. if you must use either of the latter kinds, turn it away from the wall, and drape the back of the upright with some pretty soft drapery, which can be[pg 92] held in place by books, vases, and a lamp on the top of the piano. all the portières or other curtains that can be taken down should be removed, and all the rugs and heavy furniture carried out of the room. music sounds so much better in a place free from soft thick hangings.
"it is good to have programmes, for people enjoy listening to pieces much more if they know their names. should expense deter you from having them printed, they may be nicely written off on a sheet of note-paper. for printed programmes, a card ten inches by three and a half, folded once in the middle of its length, makes an extremely good form.
"would you like me to give you some idea of the programme, musically and spiritually considered, as well as from its purely material stand-point?" said mrs. martin, after a few moments' silence, "for i believe, with that exception, that i have told you all i can. get out your note-book, bertram, and put down what i tell you."
programme.
1. mixed quartet { 'farewell to the forest' mendelssohn
{ 'o, hush thee, my baby' sullivan
2. piano solo, 'spring' grieg
3. female chorus, { lullaby brahms
{ 'my flaxen-haired lassie' koschat
4. tenor solo, 'máppari,' from 'martha' flotow
(or song by chadwick, 'du bist wie eine blume.')
5. male quartet, { 'verlassen bin ich' ——
{ 'the owl and the pussy-cat' ingraham
6. violin solo, 'simple aven' thorne
7. piano, four hands, ballet music from feramors rubinstein
programme no. 2.
1. piano, four hands, 'hochzeitsmusik' jensen
2. female chorus, 'rest thee on this mossy pillow' smart
3. violoncello solo, 'love scene' victor herbert
4. soprano song, 'parting' rogers
5. violin solo, 'romance' mrs. beach
6. male quartet, 'it was not so to be' nessler-vognih
"and then," said mrs. martin, "you could finish with the kinder symphony as a merry ending, or add one or two numbers to those i have suggested, and keep the kinder symphony for a separate evening's entertainment. at all events, i hope you will find that i have inspired and helped you a little, and that you will carry out the plans i have laid down."
"yes, we will!" cried all the young people, in a breath; and bertram, putting his note-book in his inside coat pocket, said, dreamily, "it's awfully late; suppose we go in and take the gift of sleep!"
