10 Comments from The World of Music Etude Magazine 1928

The Etude Magazine, August 1928 Issue

Blog Post by Mary Katherine May
Source Material: The Etude Magazine, August 1928

A great look through a window into history can be found in old magazines, periodicals and journal publications. The Etude, a music magazine is no exception.

The following are seven comments from the section called The World of Music: Interesting and Important Items Gleaned in a Constant Watch on Happenings and Activities Pertaining to Things Musical Everywhere, August 1928 edition.

This copy, by the way, has a fabulous signed illustration of Franz Schubert by Charles O. Golden.

1. Charles Wakefield Cadman, our notable American composer-pianist, is taking to himself the honor of a pioneer in the Alaskan concert field, being the first musician of note to undertake a tour of that territory. Assisted by Margaret Messer Morris, soprano, he began this month a series of concerts in Juneau and neighboring cities.

2. Henry F. Gilbert, one of the most original American composers, died at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in May 19th. Born September 26, 1868, of musical parents, his advanced education was pursued at the New England Conservatory and under MacDowell, and by residence and self-study in Paris. His Comedy Overture on Negro Themes, written in 1906, has been on the programs of leading orchestras of America and Russia.

His Negro Rhapsody had its premiere, under the composer's baton, at the Norfolk Festival, June 5, 1913; and the Symphonic Prelude Riders to the Sea was first heard at the MacDowell Festival, Peterborough, New Hampshire, August 20, 1914, the composer again leading. He won widest attention by the Symphonic-Ballet Dance in the Place Congo, which had its premier as a ballet, at the Metropolitan Opera House of New York on March 23, 1918.

3. Charles Adams White, eminent vocal teacher of Boston, died there suddenly on April twenty-seventh. He trained the first boys' choir in the famous Trinity Church, was the author of several exhaustive treatises on the voice and tone productions, and was for twenty-seven years a member of the faculty of the New England Conservatory.

4. The Chicago Woman's Symphony Orchestra, of which Elena Moneak is founder and conductor, furnished afternoon and evening programs at the Woman's World Fair in the Chicago Coliseum from May nineteenth to twenty-seventh. Works by women composers were especially featured.

5. Handel's Messiah had a rare performance by Negro talent when it was given at the Auditorium of Chicago, on May 11th, by the Greater Bethel Choristers, with James A. Mundy as conductor. The soloists were Mrs. Odell Stone, soprano; Mrs. Inez McAlister Edmonson, contralto; Rev. George I. Holt, tenor; and Lewis W. White, basso; with the Little Symphony Orchestra as instrumental support.

6. Voodoo, the first grand opera on a Negro plot, by a Negro librettist and composer, H. Lawrence Freeman, recently had its first hearing over the radio from New York.

7. Paderewski's fiftieth anniversary of musical activities is to be celebrated in Poland by a series of concerts devoted to the master's works. After having finished his studies at the Conservatory of Warsaw, it was in 1878 that he took over the direction of the class in piano playing there and started on a career filled with greater and more varied honors than probably have fallen to any other musician in all history.