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Rolls and Discs

By LAWRENCE JACOB ABBOTT

Phonograph Records

SYMPHONY NO. 7, in A Major, Opus 92 (Beethoven). Played by the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leopold StoIn ten parts, on five records, with kowski. Victor. spoken analysis on sixth record. Although electrically made records of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony are already available in this country-conducted by Weingartner, issued by Columbia-ardent gramophiles will welcome a performance of this work by another distinguished conductor, with its resulting opportunity for choice as Stokowski to interpretation. presents a characteristically brilliant reading of what Wagner has called the "apotheosis of the dance." From first to last, Stokowski's virtuosity finds a happy hunting-ground for thrilling orchestral presentation in the sweeping, pulsating rhythms of this symphony. Nowhere is this more in evidence than in the last movement. The stride, both of the composition and of its performance, is magnificent. Also strongly characteristic of this great musical showman is his treatment of the counter-melody to the first theme of the slow movement, which is romanticized by violas and 'cellos.

Throughout the symphony the brilliance of the violins is amazing. Not always are the Philadelphia's wind instruments under as perfect control as the strings; in one or two places they lean towards sloppiness. The recording is startlingly good for its combination of stirring volume with accurate tone, balance, and acoustics. This symphony, and especially the second movement, contains the best double-bass recording to date. As with the Brahms symphony, Stokowski's explanations are a valuable addition; it is a pity he does not devote the whole record to discussion of the specific musical material-or, better still, make a double-faced instead of singlefaced record.

SYMPHONY NO. 41, in C Major, Opus 551

"Jupiter" (Mozart). Played by symphony orchestra conducted by Sir Dan Godfrey. In eight parts, on four records. Columbia.

A welcome addition to the library of discs is the "Jupiter." This symphony, perhaps more than any other of Mozart's, contains all the elements of greatness. Parts of it strongly foreshadow the epic qualities of the Beethoven symphonies which were to follow a score or so years later. (Even in specific details: the eighthnote theme in the finale, if inverted, becomes, note for note, the end of the theme of the finale of Beethoven's Fifth.) In all too many symphonies the later movements never quite equal the first; in the "Jupiter," as in the C Minor Symphony of Brahms, the finale is truly the climax. This particular recording of the symphony I approached with some hesitancy as to the quality of the performance I was to hear. The cryptic labeling, like that on the Coates records, gives no hint as to the identity of the orchestra. Is it a combination of the personnels of two orchestras? Is it a "scratch" orchestra? Is it a wellknown orchestra whose identity is concealed to ayoid a violation of contract? Fortunately, my doubts were quickly dispelled. The performance is an excellent one. The recording, too, is good-although much of the interesting contrapuntal work in the last movement becomes lost in the shuffle. The fullness of tone when the entire orchestra is playing and the precision of the wood-winds are pleasantly in evidence.

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QUARTET IN B FLAT MAJOR, Opus 130 (Beethoven). Played by the Lener String Quartet of Budapest. In ten parts, on five records. Columbia.

How flexible these later quartets of Beethoven are! This one is independent both in form and harmony. Witness the changes in tempo and mood: the interruption in the presto movement and the carrying of the opening adagio through all the appearances of the allegro subject. It is a temptation to call the performance a scholarly one-but that adjective hardly does justice to the warmth of the Lener's playing. Out of the cavatina movement the quartet creates a highly emotional piece of music. It is Beethoven's nearest approach to Wagner's "Tristan." There is an unusual softness in the tone quality of the Lener ensemble.

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM-Overture, Scherzo, Nocturne, Wedding March (Mendelssohn). Played by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Alfred Hertz. In seven parts, on four records, the eighth part being Schubert's Rosamunde Entr' Acte. Victor.

Musical literature has something precious in this "Midsummer-Night's Dream" music, even though it comes under the heading of "pretty," rather than great music. The performance of the San Franciscans displays it to good advantage. Their playing is polished in detail; Hertz has done a fine piece of conducting. Even to one who has become familiar with Toscanini's recordings (Brunswick) of the Scherzo and Nocturne, with their indescribable delicacy and perfection of outline, Hertz's readings seem admirable. The recording is not of the "knock 'em cold" variety, but the illusion of the orchestra's presence is as real as with any other. One can hear details in the instrumentation which are lost at nine concert performances out of ten. Schubert's flowingly melodic "Rosamunde" music is a good choice to fill the last half-record-and well played, too.

CONCERTO FOR BASSOON AND ORCHESTRA, in B Flat Major, Opus 191 (Mozart). Played by Archie Camden and orchestra conducted by Sir Hamilton Harty. In five parts, on three records, the sixth part being Senaille's ALLEGRO SPIRITOSO. Columbia.

Very few readers of this page, the chances are, have heard a bassoon concerto.

Yet it is something that nobody should miss. When playing with other instruments of the orchestra, the bassoon cannot easily show its "color" possibilities. But when playing alone, this instrumenta strange mixture of beauty, bluntness, and baboonery-is unforgetable. The music itself is pleasing enough, with characteristic Mozartian freshness. There is variety in the soloist's part, including cadenzas which should be listened to with joy by every student of orchestration. The orchestra does not measure up to symphonic standards; by its tone, it appears to be lacking a full quota of stringed instruments.

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a few bars of "Dixie" or "Old Folks at Home." Not until the fourth part does it start to resemble Beethoven's real symphonic writing. It is of value chiefly as a musical curiosity. Dr. Weissmann, I suppose, does the best he can with it.

DON QUICHOTTE-Finale (Massenet). Sung by Feodor Chaliapin. In two parts, on one record. Victor.

LOHENGRIN-Elsa's Dream (Wagner); TANNPrayer (Wagner).

HAUSER-Elizabeth's

Sung by Maria Jeritza. Victor. CARMEN-Love Is Like a Wood Bird; Near the Walls of Seville (Bizet). Sung by Sigrid Onegin. Brunswick.

DON CARLOS-Dormiro Sol Nel Manto (Verdi); VESPRI SICILIANI-O Tu Palermo! (Verdi). Sung by Ezio Pinza. Victor.

Three of these records contain the traditional operatic excerpts, sung well, but crying for larger-sized orchestras to make them as effective as they deserve to be. The remaining record gives us about ten minutes of the final scene of the opera of "Don Quixote." The tone quality of Chaliapin's voice plus his natural aptitude as an actor make of this an interesting recording. The lady who sings, supposedly off stage, is Olive Kline.

I'M GOIN' TO TELL GOD ALL O' MY TROUBLES (Arr. Brown); DEEP RIVER (Burleigh). Sung by Paul Robeson. Victor. QUIEREME MUCHO (Roig); A LA ORILLA DE UN PALMAR (Ponce). Sung by Tito Schipa. Victor.

Think of the voice as purely a musical instrument-and is not Paul Robeson the "Swan" Stradivarius among baritones and Tito Schipa the same among tenors? Here are two good examples of these superb voices. "I'm Goin' to Tell God" is among the finest of Robeson's repertory of spirituals. Schipa's two songs are simple and pleasant-no more.

Piano Rolls

ORGAN FANTASIE AND FUGUE IN G MINOR (Bach-Liszt). Played by Percy Grainger. Duo-Art.

Percy Grainger usually treats his audience to interesting programs, in his recordings as well as in his concert appearances. His choice of the great Bach G Minor Organ Fantasie is no exception. It is music which thunders forth in noble majesty, and at times takes on an almost Scandinavian melancholy and eloquence. Grainger gives it a stirringly virile performance. The roll is, unfortunately, incorrectly labeled, since the fugue is not included.

SCHERZO IN C SHARP MINOR, Opus 39 (Chopin). Played by Ignace Jan Paderewski. Duo-Art.

This scherzo Paderewski is willing to let stand on its own feet. Instead of bolstering it up by theatrical changes of tempo, he plays it at an unwaveringly brisk pace. The result is satisfying.

ETUDES-Opus 10, No. 11; Opus 25, No. 9, "Butterfly" (Chopin). Played by Josef Lhévinne. Ampico. ETUDE IN D FLAT-"Un Sospiro" (Liszt). Played by Mischa Levitzki. Ampico.

In the first of the études listed above is a delicacy combined with harmonic splurge which makes it one of the most delightful of the Chopin études-especially when played, as this is, with befitting restlessness. Lhévinne plays the familiar "Butterfly" with technical perfection. But he is mechanical: he fails to depict the fragility and ethereality of the butterfly. The Liszt étude is mostly pyrotechnics, with an occasional trace of beauty for its own sake, and is chiefly interesting for its skillfully wrought accompaniment.

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Published weekly by The Outlook Company, 120 East 16th Street, New York. Copyright, 1927, by The Outlook Company. By subscription $5.00 a year for the United States and Canada. Single copies 15 cents each. Foreign subscription to countries in the postal Union, $6.56.

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N

of a political party acquires some National significance, usually in connection with the candidacy of a particular man. It may be that in this

way the recently held New York State

Conventions of Democrats and Republicans will be reflected in National politics.

The Democratic Convention was held

on Friday, September 30, the Republican on Saturday, October 1. Governor Alfred E. Smith and Colonel Theodore Roosevelt were the "keynoters."

Governor Smith confined his address to a consideration of State affairs, largely to the achievements of his administration. Everything of the nature of a Presidential boom was rigorously excluded, not alone from the Governor's speech, but from all the proceedings of the Convention. Governor Smith anticipated with fair accuracy what Colonel Roosevelt would say with regard to the proposed State Constitutional Amendment providing for a four-year gubernatorial term with election at the same time as the Presidential election. He replied in advance to the Colonel's argument and stated the case for a consideration of State policies unconfused by National questions.

Governor Smith's candidacy for the Presidency, never mentioned in the Democratic Convention, found large place in the Republican Convention. Colonel Roosevelt declared that the shadow of Tammany Hall lay athwart the White House, that under Democratic rule vice was rampant in Albany, and that it was the duty of New York Republicans to end Governor Smith's aspirations by defeating his policies in his own State. From the politician's point of view this declaration was hardly expedient, and the Republican reaction toward it does not appear to have been, on the whole, favorable. Whether Governor Smith's candidacy has been hindered or helped remains to be seen. No one can doubt Colonel Roosevelt's courage.

In discussing the proposed Amendment affecting the gubernatorial term,

ure, the view that State policies are organically connected with National policies and argued that the people should have the opportunity of considering them together, at the same election. Zoning in New Jersey

Α

A

Ta special election in New Jersey relating to five proposed amendments to the State Constitution the only amendment approved at the polls was that relating to zoning. By a large and non-partisan majority the voters accepted the amendment enabling the State Legislature to pass a zoning law which will allow municipalities to enact ordinances regulating building so as to protect residential sections from injury or ruin by the incursion of factories or business. Such a law already exists, but New Jersey courts have refused to make it effective and have held that in passing it the Legislature exceeded its Constitutional powers. Now undoubtedly another and better law will be passed.

In view of the facts that over five hundred cities and towns in the United States have zoning ordinances, that almost all States have passed enabling laws, and that the highest courts of New York and other States and the United States Supreme Court have indorsed the constitutionality of zoning provisions as a proper part of the police power, New Jersey, whose large suburban population makes reasonable restriction of building especially necessary, has been slow to act. But the fact that this is only the second Amendment ever adopted in the State indicates an inborn aversion to changing the Constitution even for the

better.

A Posthumous Experiment
THE death of Governor Austin Peay,

of Tennessee, removes the originator of an important experiment in extending State police power while the validity of the law is still in contest before the courts.

Upon the insistence of Governor Peay, the Legislature of Tennessee recently enacted a law declaring that "the sale and marketing of gasoline in this State is impressed with public use" and setting up machinery for fixing the prices at which dealers may sell gasoline.

The necessity for such a law came, in Governor Peay's opinion, from the violent and inexplicable fluctuations in the prices at which gasoline was sold to the

consumer.

The question now is that of the right of a State to exercise this kind of regulation. A long line of decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States has upheld the public's right of regulation of industries distinctly "impressed with public use." This is the right under which, for instance, railroads and public utilities are regulated. But no previous law has undertaken just this kind of regulation, and the courts have never ruled on the extent of the police powers of a State in the regulation of articles of commerce such as gasoline is.

If the new statute withstands the test of the courts—the final decision will be by the Supreme Court of the United States-Tennessee will have pioneered in a tremendous extension of regulation over the daily necessities of the average

man.

Governor Peay, while he lived, was largely known outside of his own State as the Governor who signed the Antievolution Law-a law in which he was not personally interested. He may be known after his death as the author of a law which blazed the way for regulation of common necessities.

The Roosevelt Awards

A

MERICA has no official honors comparable to those prevailing in European countries. In that respect the Roosevelt Medals for distinguished service differ fundamentally from the French Legion of Honor and from the titles that are granted in England on the King's birthday. Yet there is a distinction in them which perhaps there is not in a purely governmental award.

They are in a sense, as government awards could not be, the voice of democracy. The selection is made by a voluntary committee of an Association organized to perpetuate the ideals of Theodore Roosevelt, and therefore consequently have a very specific meaning. Universally, we believe, there will be approval of the selection made this year. The award of the Roosevelt Medals this year, it is announced, will be to General

164

Wide World

Rear-Admiral Magruder, who turned a searchlight on the Navy

John J. Pershing, Herbert Hoover, and John Bassett Moore.

Of these men, two need no introduction whatever. As Commander of the American forces abroad during the war, General Pershing performed a service which is seen to be greater as the years go by. As food administrator before the war in Belgium and during the war in this country, and as administrator of relief in the Mississippi flood, Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Commerce, has won a popular acclaim that is wholly deserved.

Judge Moore is less widely known only because his service has been of a less conspicuous nature. As the Roosevelt Memorial Association says, "he is deeply versed in the principles and traditions of diplomatic intercourse, and for a quarter of a century his mind has been ranging beyond the confines of traditional diplomacy and laying with others the foundations for an international tribunal of justice." His "Digest of

International Law" is a monumental work. His service on the Hague Court of Arbitration since 1913 and on the Permanent Court of International Justice since 1921 has made him one of the most distinguished jurists of this or any age.

A Disappointing Response

W

HEN Admiral Magruder called attention to the topheaviness of the Navy and the Navy Department and the red tape that has wound itself about naval affairs, he of course aroused the opposition of all those who profit by bureaucracy and politics. In particular, he aroused opposition from the politicians by pointing out the wastefulness and bad balance of the arrangement of our navy yards. There was an opportunity for the President to welcome criticism, even if it were not altogether well founded, and to point out that public service, whether in the Navy or anywhere else, profits by that scrutiny to

The Outlook for

which it is and should be subjected in a democracy. Instead of that, the President has given the impression that he is fairly well satisfied with the situation in the Navy as it is, and the Secretary of the Navy has even gone so far as to attempt to answer the Admiral specifically. The President has admitted, it is reported, that Admiral Magruder's views are worthy of careful consideration.

We wish there were somewhere in high office the leadership that would demand a thorough consideration of the conditions that Admiral Magruder has described and those remedies which he has incidentally suggested. Those who believe in an effective Navy for this country are those who should be most concerned to see that every defect in it is discovered and remedied.

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"Even a Mule Knows"

IT

T takes considerable prodding to stir the railroads out of the set ruts that they, in common with most old institutions, are too inclined to follow. For the past two years Professor Arthur L. Foley, head of the Department of Phys ics at Indiana University, has been prodding the railroads about locomotive whistles, and now a few concrete results are beginning to show for his efforts.

What Professor Foley has been endeavoring to show the railroads is not that there should be no whistlingalthough this would indeed be a boon for those who live near railroad lines-but that the whistling that is done should not be done in the wrong direction. And he has proved by experiment that the average locomotive whistle, which is intended primarily to be heard down the tracks ahead of the engine and within. less than one mile in the rear, is actually heard nearly three times as intensely at points far out at the sides. This is due to the inherited practice of placing the whistle directly behind the stack, the steam dome, and the sandbox of the locomotive instead of at its very front. It is as if a man who wanted to be heard at a long distance down the street should place his hand, his hat, and an umbrella directly in front of his mouth.

Professor Foley's proposal, which is now being tried out by one or two venturesome railroads, is to set the whistle on the front of the locomotive and place behind it a sort of concave bowl to act as a megaphone. This would reflect the sound directly ahead and incidentally away from those who happen to live near railroads and are driven to desperation by shrieking whistles. "Even a mule knows that sound can be reflected," says Professor Foley, "for the mule turns his

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