Recitations * The Reader does not Sing but Recites the Piece in the Usual Way, while another Person Plays the Accompaniment on Piano or Organ, thus Lending the Power of Music to the Reader's Voice in Bringing Out the Effects of the Recitation. At a recent conference in New York, Musical Recitations were discussed and illustrated by eminent composers and reciters. poetry, good music and good reciting, musical recitations were most artistic and very effective. The following musical recitations have been published: Sandalphon. Words by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, America's favorite poet. Music by Harvey Worthington Loomis. As recited by Edwin Starr Belknap. A most exquisite recitation, suitable for any occasion, but specially recommends itself to religious schools and societies of all denominations, Catholic and Protestant. The story is of an angel standing at the gate of heaven listening to the prayers of sorrow-laden mortals, and changing these prayers into flowers, whose perfume is wafted through the Immortal City. Beautiful title page. Price, $1.00. Statue Scene from "The Winter's This is a collaboration of the greatest poet and the greatest composer-Shakespeare and Beethoven. The music has been specially arranged from Beethoven, by Edgar S. Kelley, among the foremost of American composers. This recitation is recited by Miss Stella King and other prominent reciters. The story is of Queen Hermione, supposed long since dead, who is restored to her family, during their visit to a gallery to see what they imagine is her statue. Price, 50 cents. The Uncle. Poem by H. G. Bell. Music by Sir Julius Benedict. Composed expressly for Sir Henry Irving. Most powerful and dramatic recitation for a man. It is full of passion. The story is of two brothers who love the same woman. The unsuccessful suitor murders his brother by locking him in a chest. Years afterward the murderer, in a fit of remorse, tells the story to his nephew and dies. Price, 60 cents. Aux Italiens. Poem by Owen Meredith. Music by G. Verdi. Here again is a collaboration of a great poet and a great composer. An exquisite recitation suitable for parlor or public presentation. The story is of a man who, while at the opera with his betrothed, imagines he sees his first love, and is so overpowered with the vision that he decides not to marry, but to remain true to his first love, "for beauty is easy enough to win, but one isn't loved every day.' Prof. Charles Roberts, the eminent reader, has kindly furnished us his arrangement for publication. Price, 60 cents. ་་ The Shadow of a Song. Poem by Campbell Rae-Brown. Music by Edgar S. Place. Story of a girl who sings to her dead, blind, twin brother whom she has tended with marvelous affection. Her lover overhearing her sing, accuses her of communing with a dead lover. She is so wounded by his suspicion that she leaves him forever, saying as she goes, that she will sing the song again just before she dies. A year afterward, the lover, who is alone and disconsolate, hears the song, and realizes that she (who is unseen) is dying. Introduces a song. Both the singer and the piano are invisible. This is a great recitation, and, with proper rendering, produces wonderful effect upon an audience. Price, 50 cents. The Benediction. Poem by François Coppée, the great French writer. Music by Edgar S. Place. Vivid description of the terrific siege of Saragossa, where the troops shoot down a lot of monks, finally shooting in cold blood an old priest at the altar, who is in the act of giving the Benediction. One of the chief pieces in the repertoire of Prof. J. W. Churchill and Prof. Charles Roberts. Price, 70 cents. The Fugitives. Poem by Shelley. Music by Schumann. Another recitation the result of the collaboration of a great poet and a great composer. A wierd story of runaway lovers, who are cursed by her father and are exposed to a storm. Price, 40 cents. I Dream. Poem by Rev. Dwight Williams. The happiness and beauty of the hereafter as foreshadowed in a dream. Suitable for all occasions, but specially so for Sunday-school and church entertainments. Teaches the moral, "No child of God's dear love shall be forgotten." Price, 50 cents. The Story of Some Bells. At Music by Edgar S. Place. An artisan, having cast a tuneful chime that is carried off in war, becomes disconsolate, and wanders for years through foreign lands in search of his bells. last he finds them as he draws near to Limerick, and, hearing them play, "Home, Sweet Home," he dies. A beautiful and pathetic recitation. Price, 50 cents. The Last Hymn. Poem by Marianne Farningham. Music by P. Giorza. A Sabbath service is broken up by the discovery of a shipwreck near the shore. A man is seen clinging on a spar without hope of rescue. He is heard to sing, Jesus, Lover of My Soul," his voice ceasing only when he disappears in the water. A most powerful and pathetic piece. Price, 50 cents. Very Dark. Music by G. M. Rosenberg. The pathetic death of a brave soldier whose last words are," The night is coming fast, mother, it is growing very dark." Price, 50 cents. The Red Fan. Poem by Grace Ada Brown. Music by Nettie Arthur Brown. Humorous account of how a lady, by fanning the cigar smoke back into his face, squelches a pompous man. Price, 60 cents. The Idyl of an Orchard. Poem by Grace Ada Brown. Music by Nettie Arthur Brown. A story interweaving apple-blos soms, love and war. "So he fought for his land in a hero's way, and she lived and died as a woman may." Pathetic and beautiful piece. Price, $1.00. That Waltz of Von Weber's. Poem by Nora Perry. Recitation lesson-helps by Ada Frances Thayer. This is a most charming musical recitation showing how a middle-aged man recalls dancing with the one he loved, but whom he did not get. Price, 20 cents. Music on the Rappahannock. A non-sectional piece suitable for North and South. Sure to stir the hearts of old soldiers and admirably adapted to all patriotic occasions and good for any time. Equally fitted for man or woman reciter. One of the most popular recitations of the day. Story of Northern and Southern armies encamped on the banks of a river so near that each can hear the other's band. When one army plays a war-tune the other army responds with its war-tune, until finally one side plays "Home, Sweet Home," which so touches the other side that it joins in. For the time being North and South are one. Price, 50 cents. *Any of the above sent post-paid on receipt of the price.' * EDGAR S. WERNER, Publisher, 108 East 16th St., New York. THE Parents the Real Voice-Teachers. BY ANNIE J. BRONSON. HE home is the studio in which singers and speakers learn their first lessons in tone-production and in voice-culture; their education, be it good or bad, begins in the cradle. The voices, but it is necessary that they should lull their babes to sleep with a soothing, sweet intonation instead of harsh, grating sounds which jar the infants' nerves. Singing that resembles the sawing of wood, or some equally unpleasant sound, sometimes quiets a child, either because the child is not sensitive or because repetition has dulled its sensibility; but the evil effects are not done away with, one of which is the setting of a bad tone-model, which, the chances are, the child will not only attempt to copy but succeed in reproducing. There are comparatively few professional artists who comprehend that the object of a lullaby is repose, and render it in the restful style which the true interpretation demands. Hence, it is not singular that parents, who have not had even the professional's advantages, should ofttimes fail to realize that its mission is to quiet rather than to stir up the magnetic current. In this age when there is so much wear and tear upon the nervous system, and children inherit such highly-strung nerves, parents must do their part to save the men and women of the future from nervous prostration, by making the environments of their babes as free as possible from harsh, discordant Copyright, 1897, by Edgar S. Werner. All rights reserved. Parents are the first vocal instructors, because the position they occupy in the household places the responsibility upon them. Years before the public school teachers or the voice-specialists have access to children's voices, parents and guardians have a golden opportunity to start them along the right lines. training of the voice should date from a child's first attempts to speak or to sing; but even before that time the singer's education should be commenced, by habituating the ear to musical sounds. The nursery is the concert-room in which the child absorbs its first impressions of melody, and because of the susceptibility of the child-nature, and the subtleness of the process of absorption, it is impossible to estimate how deeply these impressions sink into the mental and the emotional being of the child, or to what extent they help or handicap the adult singer. If mothers would but realize how much depends upon their children's lullabies! Parents and nurses need not possess great sounds. They have need to keep their own voices under subjection, and they should watch the nurses in their employ and discipline them in the modulation of their speakingtones. So long as children are placed in the care of ignorant nurses, whose pronunciation is defective and whose language and voices are coarse, so long must we expect to hear a race of inelegant conversationalists; and instructors of singing and of speaking must work doubly hard in order to overcome errors thus contracted. It is not that the English language is unmusical, but the early environment of the average American is such that not only does he grow up in ignorance of the beauty of cultured English, but his incorrect vowel-forms, articulation, pronunciation, and tone-production, continue the prejudice against a tongue which Jacob Grimm, "the greatest philologist of modern times," has said "possesses the power which never stood at the command of any other people." Begin from the cradle to train children to speak and to sing their native language correctly, if you wish to rear speakers, conversationalists, and singers, who can reveal the musical beauties of their mother tongue. It is a deplorable fact that the majority of parents and guardians do not realize the grand possibilities of the child-voice, and take no interest in its development. Watch a child's first attempts to speak, and you will find that there is a tendency to pitch the voice on a high key. It is at this starting-point that the child should be taught to keep its voice on a moderate pitch. The fact that, as a rule, children from babyhood are allowed to talk in such a high pitch. accounts for many thin-toned speaking-voices and weak throats, and is the ruin of some fine singing-voices. Nature can not stand the strain and must give way, yet intelligent people permit their children to scream their voices out of artistic existence. Voice-teachers and singers would be spared much of the time and the thought spent in training the adult how to breathe and how to sustain the breath, if correct position and action were taught in childhood, for the average child breathes correctly, and by drawing its attention to the modus operandi, it is saved the work of readjusting in after years. Children use their muscles with more flexibility than adults, therefore they learn more rapidly the freedom of position and action, which gives control of the breathing-muscles and enables them to sing with such ease and abandon. It would take up too much space here to give the views of reliable vocal scientists and artists, and the historical testimony in favor of an early development and training of the voice. Charles Lunn has summed up the subject completely in the following words: "The only position regarding the voice tenable by the musician as such, and compatible with honesty, is that of beginning training from the earliest years of life, for such position is based upon a principle of conservation instead of restoration." Conservation or adjusting is so much easier than restoration or readjusting, because teacher and pupil do not have to overcome the stubbornness of a warped adult brain. As parents are voice-teachers by creation, if not by education, they are responsible for discharging a duty which nature has placed upon them, by doing everything practicable to give the children who are to become the singers and speakers of the future a musical atmosphere in the home-life, and train and develop their voices from earliest years. While parents and guardians, however, are responsible for the earliest care of singers and speakers, vocal instructors are responsible for |