March 7

Happy Birthday, Maurice Ravel! 
RIPM’s “Illustrations of the Week”


Musikalischer Kurier, vol. 2 no. 44 (29 October 1920): [405].

French composer, pianist, and conductor Maurice Ravel was born 143 years ago today, on 7 March 1875. The musical press published a number of interesting reviews throughout the early 20th century of his then recently premiered works. Today, we pay tribute to Ravel by sharing from our archives a few of these reviews.

The Baton, vol. 7 no. 6 (April 1928): 3.

Ravel completed his famous String Quartet in F Major at the age of 28. The New York premiere of this work was reviewed in the journal, The New Music Review and Church Music Review.

The New Music Review and Church Music Review, vol. 6 no. 63 (February 1907): 173.

 


A 1909 painting of Ravel by Achille Ouvré
Bulletin français de la Société Internationale de Musique (S.I.M), vol. 6 no. 8 (Aug.-Sept. 1910): xxvi.

 

In 1912, less than one year after the piece’s premiere, Ravel’s acerbic Huit valses nobles et sentimentales was reviewed evocatively in the Bulletin français de la Société Internationale de Musique.

Monsieur Ravel will forgive us if we confess to him that his Eight valses nobles et sentimentales make us irresistibly think of some exotic fruits: we grit our teeth when we bite into it for the first time: we return by curiosity, then by pleasure, and finally we end up loving them more than all the others: we are still in the period of mistrust.

Bulletin français de la Société Internationale de Musique (S.I.M), vol. 8 no. 2 (15 February 1912): 76.

Unsurprisingly, as with this 1910 review of his Rhapsodie Espagnole below, Ravel’s harmonic language and orchestration likened comparisons to the compositions of fellow Frenchman, Claude Debussy.

The New Music Review and Church Music Review, vol. 9 no. 98 (January 1910): 86-87.

 

Pro-Musica Quarterly, vol. 2 no. 1 (December 1923): 4. 

 

While some works by Ravel were received with mixed responses, others were hailed as immediate masterpieces. One such case was Boléro. Soon after its 1928 premiere, the piece was reviewed in the American journal Modern Music by Henry Prunières, a musicologist and founder of the French music journal, La Revue musicale. 

Modern Music, vol. 6 no. 2 (January-February 1929): 37. 

 


The Baton, vol. 7 no. 6 (April 1928): 1.  

Again, happy birthday, Maurice!

 

RIPM search tip: To access the over 8,000 records related to Maurice Ravel and his works, search “Ravel” as a keyword in both the RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text and Preservation Series: European and North American Music Periodicals!

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RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).

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RIPM’s “Illustrations of the Week”
February 28

Lesser-Known Composers in the 
Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung
RIPM’s “Illustrations of the Week”

The influential German music journal, Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung [AMZ], appeared weekly from 1798 to 1848, and again, from 1863 to 1882. Along with reviews and analyses of printed music, reports on musical life, announcements, news, and miscellaneous sections, many volumes contain at least one portrait of a musician. A number of the composers depicted in this periodical are lesser-known today, yet distinguished enough to be featured at the time of publication.

This week, we bring attention to a few of these lesser-known composers by presenting their featured portraits in the AMZ. Are you familiar with their music? Should we be?

A. B. Marx
Vol. L, Supplementary pages ([5 January – 27 December 1848]): [1] 920/921.

Friedrich Heinrich Adolf Bernhard Marx (1795-1866) was a German composer whose works include oratorios, sonatas, and an opera, yet is perhaps best known today for his contributions as a music critic and theorist. In 1825, he became the editor of the Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung and in 1830, upon the recommendation of longtime friend and colleague Felix Mendelssohn, was appointed professor of music at Berlin University. His publications include a seminal four-volume work, Die Lehre von der musikalischen Komposition, praktisch-theoretisch (The Theory and Practice of Musical Composition), and a biography of Beethoven.

G. W. Fink
Vol. XLVIII, Supplementary pages ([7 January – 30 December 1846]): [1] 944/1

German composer, music theorist, and poet Gottfried Wilhelm Fink (1783-1846) was a longtime contributor to the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitschrift, and in 1827, became the magazine’s editor-in-chief. His compositions consist mainly of songs, many of which appeared in collected editions.  He also edited the Musikalischer Hausschatz der Deutschen, a collection of around 1,000 German songs.

Niels W. Gade
Vol. XLVII, Supplementary pages ([1 January – 31 December 1845]): [1] 888/1

Niels Wilhelm Gade (1817-1890) was a Danish composer, conductor, violinist, organist and teacher. Born in Copenhagen, Gade moved to Germany in 1843 to teach at the Leipzig Conservatory, and in 1845, conducted the premiere of Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor. In 1848, the First Schleswig War forced Gade to return to Denmark, where he soon after founded the Copenhagen Conservatory. His oeuvre includes symphonies, a violin concerto, chamber music, keyboard works, and cantatas. A number of Gade’s most popular works may be sampled in this lengthy recording.

Ferdinand Hiller
Vol. II, Supplementary pages ([1864]): 1 S.

German composer, conductor, writer, and music-director Ferdinand Hiller (1811-1885) was a leading figure in the musical life of 19th-century Germany, having worked professionally in Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Dresden, and as twelve-time festival director of Das Niederrheinische Musikfest (Lower Rhenish Music Festival). The dedicatee and conductor of the premiere of Robert Schumann’s only piano concerto, Hiller’s own compositional output spans practically all genres. Below is an excerpt of his Opus 69 Piano Concerto.

 

Henri Herz
Vol. XLII, Supplementary pages ([1 January – 23 December 1940]): [1] 1060/1

Henri Herz (1803-1888) was known as both a celebrated pianist and composer. Born in Vienna, Herz settled in Paris as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, where he became a longstanding professor.  In 1839, Herz, like Sax and Pleyel, created a factory in Paris for the construction of instruments.  Often, instrument manufacturers also built performance venues to promote their specific brands.  Herz and his brother Jacques Simon Herz followed this model and constructed the Salle des Concerts Herz on the rue de la Victoire.  Works of many well-known composers, including Berlioz and Offenbach were performed there.

Herz’s published compositions include over 200 works, mostly for the piano; a sampling may be heard in the following clip below.

 

RIPM search tip: To view more portraits in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, access the RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, and fill in the following fields: Keyword = Porträt; Periodical = Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung [1798-1848]; Type = Illustration.

For more information on the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, read RIPM‘s introduction to the journal in English, or, German!

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RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).
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Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung
RIPM’s “Illustrations of the Week”
February 7

RIPM’s “Illustrations of the Week”
Sketches of Opera Characters in The Baton

The Baton (1922-32) was published by the Institute of Musical Art in New York City. In 1924, the Juilliard Graduate School opened, with its facilities directly adjacent to the Institute. By 1926 the two music schools merged although both continued to maintain their own administrations until 1946, when they officially unified as the Juilliard School of Music.

A charming feature of The Baton from 1923 to 1928 is a number of drawings by pianist, writer, and artist Leslie Fairchild. Particularly interested in depicting circus life, Fairchild’s sketches were displayed in several locations including the Ringling Museum of the American Circus in Sarasota, FL, the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, WI, and the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, CT. As a piano student, Fairchild incorporated musical symbols into a style of simple lines and shapes, adding a touch of whimsy to the journal’s written material. In 1928, he combined his drawing skills and musical training to write a children’s piano method book entitled, A Jolly Trip to Music Land  (Chicago: Forster Music Publisher Inc., 1928). 

This week, we present seven of Fairchild’s delightful little drawings of well-known opera characters published in The Baton.

Canio, from Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci
Vol. 3 No. 1 (October 1923): 13.

 

Cio-Cio-san, from Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly
Vol. 3 No. 2 (November 1923): 13.

 

Wotan, from Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen
Vol. 3 No. 4 (January 1924): 13.

 

Carmen, from Georges Bizet’s opera of the same title
Vol. 3 No. 5 (February 1924): 7.

 

Romeo and Juliet, from Charles Gounod’s opera of the same title
Vol. 3 No. 7 (April 1924): 11.

 

The Chief of Police, Baron Scarpia, and his men (below) from Puccini’s Tosca
Vol. 3 No. 8 (May 1924): 12-13.

 

 

RIPM search tip: To view more of Leslie Fairchild’s drawings, access RIPM’s Retrospective Index and Online Archive, and fill in the following fields: Keyword = Leslie Fairchild; Periodical = The Baton [1922-1932]; Type = Illustration.  For more information on The Baton, click here!

Click here to subscribe to RIPM’s Curios, News, and Chronicles! 

When is our next posting? To find out, follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

 

***

RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).
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Sketches of Opera Characters in The Baton
January 31

RIPM’s “Illustrations of the Week”
Émigré Composers in America, 1933-1945

From 1933 to 1945, the period of Nazi Germany, a number of prominent European composers fled their homelands and sought refuge in the United States. Many were subjects of interest in the American journal Modern Music (New York, 1924-1946).  Sketches by Viennese artist Benedikt Fred Dolbin (a pen name for Fred Pollack), a composition student of Arnold Schoenberg, include some of the most well-known composers of the period. After establishing a successful career drawing for a number of Austrian and German publications–including Der Wiener Tag, Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung, and Berliner Tageblatt–Dolbin, of Jewish descent, received a Berufsverbot order, which prohibited his artwork from appearing in the German press.  Soon after, Dolbin, like the composers he sketched below, emigrated to America.

 

    

   

Modern Music, Vol. XVIII No. 2 (January-February 1941): [104-105].

RIPM search tip: To view more illustrations in Modern Music, access RIPM’s Retrospective Index and Online Archive, and fill in the following fields: Periodical = Modern Music [1924-1946]; Type = Illustration.  For more information on Modern Music, click here.

Click here to subscribe to RIPM’s Curios, News, and Chronicles! 

When is our next posting? To find out, follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

***

RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).
WWW.RIPM.ORG
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Émigré Composers in America, 1933-1945
January 24

RIPM’s “Illustrations of the Week”
French Colonial Musical Life
as Depicted in L’Illustration

The Parisian journal L’Illustration was the first illustrated newsweekly in France. Between 1843 and 1899, the journal published over 3,350 engravings of musical interest, offering an expansive visual account of contemporary musical life. The journal’s focus on French culture included that of musical life in the French colonies. We bring the following images to your attention not only because of their historical importance, but also because the illustrated press is an excellent, though neglected source for the study of (post)colonialism, race, diaspora, and ethnomusicology.

A Buddhist ceremony, first published in Charles Lemire’s L’Indochine (1884)
L’Illustration, Vol. LXXXIV (25 October 1884): 276.

 

Trumpeters of the King of Boussa, in Niger
L’Illustration, Vol. CIX (9 January 1897): 17.

 

Chinese musicians
L’Illustration, Vol. LXII (20 September 1873): 197.

 

A trio of musicians from Madagascar
L’Illustration, Vol. CVI (9 November 1895): 379.

 

Musicians in performance from Tétouan, Morocco
L’Illustration, Vol. VII (18 April 1846): 104.

 

Guinean King Dinah-Salifou, his Queen, and their retinue, including musicians
L’Illustration, Vol. XCIV (6 July 1889): 12.

 

RIPM search tip: To access more on non-Western musics, search the name of a country as a keyword.  For example, a search for “Madagascar” as a keyword in RIPM’s Retrospective Index and Preservation Series: European and North American Music Periodicals reveals 180 records in German, English, French, and Italian journals.

Click here to subscribe to RIPM’s Curios, News, and Chronicles! 

When is our next posting? To find out, follow us on Twitter and Facebook

***

RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (also Preservation Series, forthcoming).  
WWW.RIPM.ORG
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French Colonial Musical Life
as Depicted in L’Illustration
January 17

RIPM’s “Illustrations of the Week”
Horse Racing on the Opera Stage
How Did They Do It?

One of the scenes in Monréal and Blondeau’s Paris port de mer, which played at the Parisian Théâtre des Variétés in 1891, involves a horse race.

L’Illustration, Vol. XCVII (14 March 1891): 236.

An engraving published in L’Illustration beautifully depicts this realistic and motion-filled horse race from the perspective of the audience. From this view, however, it is difficult to discern exactly how this event was produced. Are the horses mechanical? Are they real, but restrained in some way? How did they do it? The next image reveals the technology used to create the illusion. When you think you have it all figured out, scroll down!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ibid.

Astoundingly, the stage of the Théâtre des Variétés was rigged with three separate treadmills, upon which three living, breathing horses, ridden by three likely-professional jockeys, galloped unrestrained. To create the illusion of the horses running on a track, the pickets of the fence in the foreground were attached to a belt, which moved concurrently to the 95 yards of scenery canvas being unwound in the background. So, as the horses seemingly move in one direction, the sliding fence pickets and scenery canvas moved in the opposite direction, giving the feeling of motion . Et voilà, a horse race on stage!

Did you figure it out? Let us know on our Twitter or Facebook!

 

RIPM search tip: A combined search for “horse race” as a keyword in RIPM Retrospective Index and Preservation Series: European and North American Music Periodicals generates a list of 109 results, including a four-verse song published in an 1824 issue of the London journal The Harmonicon entitled, “The Race-Horse”.

Click here to subscribe to RIPM’s Curios, News, and Chronicles! 

***

RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (forthcoming).  
WWW.RIPM.ORG
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Horse Racing on the Opera Stage
How Did They Do It?
December 20

RIPM’s “Illustrations of the Week”
Holiday Ice Skating to the Strains of an Orchestra

RIPM’s “Illustrations of the Week” gets into the festive spirit by featuring two picturesque scenes of ice skating rinks in 19th-century Paris. Look carefully, for each contains an orchestra!

The skating rink at the Closerie des Lilas.
L’Illustration, Vol. LXVII (15 April 1876): 253.

The skating rink of the Saint-Honoré suburb
L’Illustration, Vol. LXVIII (5 August 1876): 96.

Happy holidays from all of us at the RIPM Center!

RIPM search tip: Want to know how some celebrated 19th-century composers and performers spent the holiday season? Read our curio from December 2015 here!

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Holiday Ice Skating to the Strains of an Orchestra
December 6

RIPM’s “Illustrations of the Week”
The Covers of Ars et labor

Today, we feature five sumptuous covers from the Italian journal, Ars et labor: Musica e musicisti (1906-1912), issued by the famed Milan publishing house, Ricordi.

Vol. 63 No. 12 (15 December 1908)

 

Vol. 61 No. 3 (15 March 1906)

 


Vol. 61 No. 7 (15 July 1906)

 


Vol. 67 No. 12 (15 November 1912)

 


Vol. 63 No. 6 (15 June 1908)

 

RIPM search tip: Ars et labor: Musica e musicisti (Milan, 1906-1912) can be found in full text in RIPM’s e-Library of Music Periodicals. To view this journal specifically, select the periodical in Browse Mode!

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The Covers of Ars et labor
November 29

RIPM’s “Illustration of the Week”
Making Waves at the Opera

This week’s illustrations feature three 19th-century images offering a unique operatic vision from the depths of the ocean and from above its surface. For an 1843 production of the now obscure three-act opera, Le naufrage héroïque du vaisseau, Le Vengeur (The Heroic Sinking of the Ship, The Avenger), this is how extras at the Cirque-Olympique created the illusion of a calm sea …

The calm of the sea
L’Illustration, Vol. II (23 December 1843): 261.

… and one turned violent.

The rough sea
Ibid.

Though there were many technological advances on the stage during the 19th-century, by 1866, charting the seas was not one of them.

L’Illustration, Vol. XLVIII (29 September 1866): 205.

 

RIPM search tip: To browse numerous images of opera scenes in RIPM’s Retrospective Index and Online Archive, fill in the following fields: Keyword = Opera; Type = Illustration. Those records labeled “ROA” are available in full-text.

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Making Waves at the Opera
November 22

RIPM’s “Illustrations of the Week”
Arthur Sullivan in The Musical World

An amusing feature of the London journal The Musical World is a series of illustrations by the English tenor Charles Lyall.  One of his many subjects was English composer Sir Arthur Sullivan.  Though he also composed serious choral, ballet, and orchestral works, Sullivan is best known for his fourteen “comic operas” created with librettist W.S. Gilbert.  They are often referred to as “Savoy operas,” named after the Savoy Theatre, a London venue built specifically to showcase Gilbert and Sullivan operas.  Many of these works, like the Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado, continue to have broad international success.
On the 117th anniversary of his passing, we present these four illustrations.

This depicts Arthur Sullivan after receiving an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University in 1876.

The Musical World, Vol. 54 No. 28 (8 July 1876): 467.

After traveling to Egypt in 1882, there was much speculation that Sullivan was composing a symphony on Egyptian themes.  The symphony never materialized, but Lyall fueled the rumor with this illustration.

The Musical World, Vol. 60 No. 14 (8 April 1882): 212.

Sullivan’s conducting was often criticized as being unenergetic and restrained.

The Musical World, Vol. 56 No. 39 (28 September 1878): 626.

He invariably sat in the usual high chair and seemed to keep his eyes always on the score in front of him.  His beat was restrained and rather cramped, his baton moving across the top or up and down the sides of the score.

David Bispham, A Quaker Singer’s Recollections (New York, 1920): 174-175.

An illustration entitled, “In Purgatory,” depicts Sullivan tormented by Anton Rubinstein at the piano (left), Richard Wagner (upper right), and a variety of devilish gremlins.

The Musical World, Vol. 56 No. 33 (17 August 1878): 530.

A common, humorous trademark of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operas is the patter song, featuring a rapid paced, tongue-twisting text sung by a comic bass or baritone.  Here is a famous example: “I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General,” from Act I of the Pirates of Penzance.

Remarkably, Arthur Sullivan’s voice was captured on a very early recording by George Gouraud, Thomas Edison’s representative in England. At a dinner party on 5 October 1888, Sullivan remarks on the newly invented phonogram.

 

RIPM search tip: To view Charles Lyall’s illustrations, select the Advanced Search option of the Retrospective Index and fill in the following fields: Keyword = Charles Lyall; Periodical = Musical World, The [1836-1891]; Type = Illustration.

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Arthur Sullivan in The Musical World