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Show called to this "some fifteen years ago while studying cello and teaching guitar in the German capital. My own instructors, Anton An-ton Hekking and Jacques Van Lier, both being Hollanders, were attracted to Berlin by the opportunity of getting students. "Upon inquiry I found that the experience of others was the same as mine. Not one of Professor J. J. McClellan's five instructors in-structors at the time he was studying in Berlin were Prussians. Scharwenka being Polish, Jedliczka was Russian, Jonas of Spanish Span-ish descent, while Platte and Schmail were Saxons and Bavarians. Bavari-ans. The whole coterie of instructors, conductors and composers was foreign to Prussia, both as to birth and development of their art, coming to the Prussian capital to exploit their talents and 'ind remunerative work. The great Joachim string quartet was noticeable for its lack of Prussians from the time of its inception in 1869, and after the death of the noted artist, Joachim, his place was filled by that splendid violinist, Henri Marten who was born in Rheims, France. Hydn, Mozart, Schirberth, Schumann, Bach, even the modern Wagner and Strauss, had none of the Prussian blood coursing through their veins, and while Beethoven Beethov-en was born in Bonn on the Rhine,, his people were originally from a vilage near Louvain, in stricken Bejgium, and when we come down through the magnificent list of violin virtuosi, headed by Paganini, Bull, De Beriot, Vieutemps, Ernst, Wieniawski, Joachim, Jo-achim, Sarasate, Isaye, and the long list of artists in piano playing, play-ing, such as Rubinstein, Liszt, D'Albert, Josef fy, Scharwenka, Carreno and Paderewski, we wonder where the Prussians can lay claim to their greatness as musicians. . ', ' "It seems as though Prussia was not made up of the finer instincts. The leading artists in Berlin were practically all from outside of the Prussian kingdom. The great artist, Joachim, head of the Royal high school, was a Hungarian, as also Were Halir and Wirck, while Barnors, head instructor of the Stern conservatory, con-servatory, was a Russian. The Scharwenkas, Philip and Laver, head of the conservatory bearing their name, were Poles, while Busoni was Italian, and Arthur Nickish, the incomparible conductor, conduc-tor, was Hungarian. ; So on through the whole line of celebrities one might go and find an absolute dearth of Prussians. The, , United States can make more real claim to musical-genius' than Prussia." , HOW GERMANY LAYS CLAIM, TO ALL , , . MUSICAL ARTISTS i 6ermany will never be the music center of the world again, and in the past she has gained her glory from the great artists of other nations. It will be found that we can study from the best teachers here in our own United States without having to cross the pond. It seems that Germany has stolen her honors from other nations na-tions in the line of musical art on reading an article written by our own C. D. Schettler an artist of several stringed Instruments and one who has given study to what he has to say, which is as follows: . "It has been extremely interesting to me, in studying the lives of great musicians, both composers and performers, to find how little claim, if any, Prussia has on these artists. The great propaganda propa-ganda sent out from Berlin as to tho greatness of her musicians becomes a mockery on investigation, and one wonders how they could have the nerve to claim as theirs that to which they have no right, either by birth or cultivation. My attention was first |
