Fifty Years of Music

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FIFTY YEARS OF MUSIC by WILLIAM BOOSEY. First printed in 1931. Contents include: FOREWORD ...... 9 PART I The House of Boosey CHAP. I. BOOSEY COMPANY AND THEIR BALLAD CONCERTS 13 II. ROYALTIES TO COMPOSERS AND SINGERS 23 III. EARLY LAWSUITS .... 31 IV. GRAND OPERA AND SOME PRIMA DONNAS 39 V. OPERETTAS AND LIGHT OPERAS . . 46 VI. AMERICAN MEMORIES ... 54 VII. PARIS FIFTY YEARS AGO ... 59 VIII. GRAVE AND GAY IN THE MUSICAL WORLD 65 PART II The House of Chappell IX. CHAPPELL COMPANY AND THEIR POPULAR CONCERTS ... 77 X. WILLIAM AKERMAN . . . .83 XI. MY CONCERT EXPERIENCES . . 89 xn. QUEENS HALL . . . . . 102 XIII. MUSIC PIRACIES .... 112 KANSAS CITY MO. PUBLIC LIBRARY 6 CONTENTS XIV. GEORGE EDWARDES . . . .122 XV. COMPOSERS WHOM I HAVE KNOWN . 136 XVI. THE COPYRIGHT ACT OF 1911 . . 145 XVII. LIGHT OPERA THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH SCHOOLS . . . .158 XVIII. LIGHT OPERA THE VIENNESE AND AMERICAN SCHOOLS . . . 165 XIX. THE PERFORMING RIGHT SOCIETY AND BROADCASTING .... 174 XX. SOME PIANISTS .... 180 XXI. FURTHER PERSONAL MEMORIES . . 186 XXII. AMERICA REVISITED , , , 191 EPILOGUE MY GALLERY OF GHOSTS . . 194 INDEX 197 ILLUSTRATIONS THE AUTHOR Frontispiece FRIEDA HEMPEL, THE PRIM A DONNA, AND A LITTLE FRIEND OF HERS . . facing page 38 THE AUTHOR, EXCHANGING A WORD WITH MARY GARDEN ON THE FIELD OF WATERLOO 46 THOMAS PATEY CHAPPELL, WHO FOR MANY YEARS DIRECTED THE DESTINIES OF CHAPPELL CO. ..... 82 F. PAOLO TOSTI, THE COMPOSER OF GOOD BYE AND COUNTLESS BEAUTIFUL AND POPULAR SONGS 88 FRITZ KREISLER, THE EMINENT VIOLINIST . 102 FRANZ LEHAR, THE COMPOSER OF THE MERRY WIDOW AND OTHER FAMOUS LIGHT OPERAS 166 THE AUTHOR, WHO PUT UP AS A NATIONAL CANDIDATE, ADDRESSING A POLITICAL MEET ING AT THE BYE-ELECTION AT TEWKESBURY DURING THE WAR . . . . .190. FOREWORD: THIS year, next year, some time, never. These are the few little words that have recently been causing me considerable perplexity. To be as brief as possible, I have been asked to collect and publish my musical reminiscences, the which cover a period of fifty years, dating from January 1880 to the present year of grace. To make my task more difficult, I have kept no diary, and so cannot specialise in dates. Obviously, then, the sooner I take my task in hand the better. I think I can give a fairly full summary of the many musical facts and features with which I have been associated, firstly at Messrs. Booseys, and secondly at Messrs. ChappelPs, whose chairman I still am. I do not wish you to look upon these reminiscences as a history of fifty years of music. Treated from such a point of view, they would probably bore most of us to death. I want you to consider that you and I are going to have a chat about interesting things that have happened in the world of light music during the fifty years that I have been, naturally, a somewhat prominent figure. I am even prepared occasionally to digress if I find you nodding, till I have been able to assert my ability to keep you amused and awake. We shall discuss grand operas, light operas, concerts, serious and otherwise, publishing and performing rights in music, music piracies, and, more particularly, the desperate and costly lawsuits that have had to be embarked upon from time to time to teach the hardened Philistines - and their number is legion - that musical property is entitled to the same legal protection as other property. We have, further, to deal with the terrible inroads that have been made upon composers rights by the invention of mechanical music. This new form of music has made shocking havoc of the sale of the composers printed copy without any adequate monetary compensation to the owner of the same. One of the most potent factors in the future of music has been the introduction of broadcasting, which, so long as a reasonable sum is paid to the composer for the use of his work, does make him some amends...