MUSIC, RECENT PROGRESS OF. 



597 



na, and the Thomaner Chor in Leipsic. The 

 opera is cultivated pre-eminently at Berlin, 

 Carlsruhe, Cassel, Cologne, Darmstadt, Dres- 

 den, Frankfort, Hamburg, Hanover, Leipsic, 

 Mannheim, Munich, Schwerin, Stuttgart, and 

 Weimar, but can also boast of most creditable 

 representation in other cities, like Breslau, 

 Dantzic, Dessau, Gotha, Konigsberg, Magde- 

 burg, and Mentz. 



Austria's capital, Vienna, is also its musical 

 center. The most prominent institutions are 

 the Philharmonic concerts, the Gesellschafts 

 Concerte (by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde 

 ("Society of Music-Lovers"), the Singakad- 

 emie, the Chorverein, and the world-renowned 

 Manner Gesangverein. The Vienna Opera 

 ranks among the finest in the world. 



Although Paris has, for generations, been a 

 rendezvous of musical talents, and for more 

 than a century upheld a brilliant musical repu- 

 tation, music has rarely nourished in France 

 as it does to-day, and never boasted of such a 

 galaxy of famous names. Besides Gounod and 

 Ambroise Thomas, whose works supply the 

 repertories of opera-houses far beyond the con- 

 fines of their native country, we notice Reber, 

 Lacombe, Membr6e, Gouvy, Mass6, Reyer, Gas- 

 tinel, Lalo, Saint- Saens, Delibes, Dubois, Gui- 

 raiul, among the older, and Bizet (1838-'75), 

 Joncieres, Massenet, Paladilhe, Widor, and 

 Godard, in the younger generation. A cur- 

 rent in the modern sense, parallel to that in 

 Germany, is apparent in the increased culti- 

 vation of the works of Berlioz as its national 

 representative, in the performance of which 

 the "Concerts du Chatelet" under Colonne 

 vie with the " Concerts du Cirque " under Pas- 

 deloups. Among the composers that follow 

 more or less in Berlioz's footsteps, Saint-Saens 

 and Godard are the most noteworthy. The 

 Government institutions in France, for the cult- 

 ure of music, and musical talents, and the pro- 

 motion of musical science, surpass those of any 

 other country. 



Passing into Belgium, whose musical insti- 

 tutions are in many respects an imitation of 

 the French, we observe that Brussels has of 

 late been the scene of national concerts, given 

 at short intervals for the exclusive perform- 

 ance of works by Belgian composers. Among 

 these we meet with names little known out- 

 side their own country ; the most prominent 

 are : Peeter Benoit (born in 1834), since 1867 

 director of the Conservatory at Antwerp, De 

 Bnrbure (born in 1812), Busschop (born in 

 1810), Callaerts, Gevaert (born in 1828), since 

 1871 director of the Conservatory at Brussels, 

 and also a distinguished writer on the history 

 and theory of music, Hanssens, the younger 

 (1802-'7l), Huberti (born in 1843), Peter de 

 Mol (born in 1825), and his two nephews, 

 Fraus (born in 1844), and Willem (born in 

 1846), Tinel, Wambach (both born in 1854), 

 Waelput (born in 1845), and Wouters (born in 

 1841). The music festivals, held more fre- 

 quently within the past fifteen years (at Brus- 



sels in 1869, at Ghent in 1875, at Antwerp in 

 1876, at Liege in 1878, at Bruges in 1877, and 

 at Mons in 1879), also have in view more espe- 

 cially the performance of national works. 



In Holland a similar spirit is astir in promot- 

 ing music of a national character, making the 

 Flemish language the basis of vocal compo- 

 sitions. The Society of Flemish Musicians, 

 founded in 1875, arranges annually a great mu- 

 sic festival. The first, at Amsterdam in 1876, 

 was devoted to the works of native composers 

 exclusively. The foremost among the musical 

 institutions of Holland is the Maatschappij tot 

 bevordering van toonkunst (" Society for the 

 Promotion of Music "), represented in almost 

 every city of importance, notably Amsterdam, 

 Arnheim, Dordrecht, Groningen, Haarlem, Ley- 

 den, Nymwegen, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. The 

 most distinguished among the Dutch composers 

 are : Richard Hoi, Bekker, Boers, Brandts- 

 Buys, Coenen, Hagemann, Van der Linden, Mej- 

 roos, Nicolai, and Verhulst. 



Proceeding toward the north of Europe, we 

 are greeted with the sound of Norse melodies 

 from the Scandinavian Peninsula, where the 

 native composers endeavor to develop a na- 

 tional spirit in music, building upon the tradi- 

 tion of popular songs and dance-melodies still 

 alive among the hardy mountaineers of Nor- 

 way. Leaving out of the question the Nestor 

 of Danish composers, Gade, who stands high 

 as a musical writer, but has almost ceased to 

 discourse in national dialect, the Norsemen 

 look hopefully toward the younger champions; 

 the best are Grieg, the Norwegian ; Svendsen, 

 the representative of Sweden ; and Hamerik, 

 the Dane, who in 1872 took up his abode in 

 Baltimore as director of the musical depart- 

 ment of the Peabody Institute. Remaining in 

 Denmark are yet to be named Emil Hartmann 

 and G. Bohlmann. 



Music is cultivated most zealously in Russia, 

 where the orchestra concerts of the Imperial 

 Music Societies at St. Petersburg and Moscow, 

 established in 1861, are well calculated for the 

 elevation of taste. Until 1867 the St. Peters- 

 burg society was conducted by Anton Rubin- 

 stein, who, till then, was also at the head of the 

 Conservatory founded by him in 1862. Mily 

 Balakirev directed the concerts in 1867-'72, 

 and was succeeded by Eduard Napravnik, who, 

 although born and bred in Bohemia, is essen- 

 tially a Russian composer. His successor, since 

 1876, is Davidov, the famous violoncello vir- 

 tuoso and director of the Conservatory. The 

 Moscow Society and Conservatory were under 

 the direction of Nikolai Rubinstein, brother of 

 Anton, until his death in Paris, March 23, 1881. 

 In St. Petersburg, as well as in Moscow, a na- 

 tional Russian opera is sustained, besides an 

 excellent Italian opera, by the Imperial Gov- 

 ernment. Like the whole musical literature 

 of Russia, its opera is comparatively recent, 

 dating from Glinka (1804-'57), whose "Life 

 for the Czar" (first produced in 1836), and 

 "Ruszlan and Ludmilla" (1842) still retain 



