The Toronto Music Scene During World War I
by John E. Rutherford
At
one
of
our
meetings
a
couple
of years
ago,
I
bought
a
bundle
of
old
"Globe"
newspaper
pages.
All
of
them
were
in
excellent
condition
and
most
related to music in Toronto during
World
War
I.
They
were
grim
reminders
that
war
affects
every
aspect
of
human
endeavour,
even
music and its performance.
The
"Globe"
of
September
25,
1915
reported
that
the
"Magic
Flute",
an opera
by Mozart,
could
not
be
performed
because
"so
many
of the stage
hands
employed in the
scenic
department
had
gone to the
front".
Wagner's "Tannhauser"
was
cancelled,
not
because it
was
German,
but
because
of
the
large
chorus
of
monks
needed
in
the
finale
and
men were not available.
Some
operas
could
get
by
with
"beauty"
choruses
composed
mostly
of
women but that was thought to be
unacceptable
in
the
"Tannhauser"
case.
In the early days of the war,
Belgium refused to give in to the
Kaiser's
threats
and
chose
the
promise
of
"complete
destruction"
rather than surrender.
Because of
this, everything
Belgian
was given
a
special
place in the hearts
of
the
Allies.
Eugene
Ysaye,
the
Belgian
violinist,
was
given
a
hero's
welcome
at
Massey
Hall
on
March 19,
1917 - (three of his one-
sided
Columbia
records
went
for
a
song
at
a
recent
meeting
of
CAPS).
And
Alice Verlet
was
billed
by
Edison
as
the
"Belgian
soprano",
which
probably
increased
her sales.
Of
course,
there
were
those
who
capitalized
on
the
wave
of
Belgian
popularity.
Wilfred
Douthitt,
an English
baritone
who
was
singing in
New
York
when the
war
broke
out,
grew
a
beard,
changed his
name to Louis Graveure
and claimed to be
a Belgian
Count.
He
was
the
possessor
of
a
very
ordinary voice but
he
became
very
popular
and
made dozens of records
for
Columbia.
The
"Globe"
of
September
29,
1917,
presumably
swept
away by "Belgiumania",
called
him
the
"John
McCormack
of
baritones".
Another country in favour
was
Russia.
General
Linevitch,
in
charge of
a visiting Russian choir
had this to say about the powers of
music for the Russian soldier:
"Music
is
one
of
the
most
vital
ammunitions
of
the
Russian
army.
Without
music
a
Russian
soldier
would
be
dull,
cowardly,
brutal and inefficient.
From music
he
absorbs
a
magic
power
of
endurance
and
forgets
the
sufferings
and mortality.
It is
a
divine dynamite!"
On
September
8,1917,
Loew's
Theatre
in
Toronto
advertised
a
stage
show
headlined
by
the
"Shrapnel
Dodgers",
a
group
of
returned,
maimed
Canadian
heroes,
while
the
"Winter
Garden",
(now
being
refurbished),
presented
an
act
of
nine juveniles
called
"The
Birthday
Party".
The
"Globe"
reported that "the scene opens on a
girl
giving
a
party,
when
the
guests take part
by
impersonating
Eva
Tanguay,
Bert
Williams,
Weber
and
Fields,
Mr.
and
Mrs.
Castle,
Caruso
and others."
I
hope
they
were talented juveniles!
The
same
week
Shea's
was
offering
the
celebrated
American
tenor,
Orville
Harrold.
Without
explanation the article adds:
'"Mr.
Harrold is
one of the artists
whom
the war has caused to forsake the
concert
tours
and
to
enter
vaudeville."
Canada's
own
Geoffrey
O'Hara
(who
wrote
"K-K-K-Katy"),
wrote
many patriotic
songs
among
which
was
a ghastly fighting
song called
"Highlanders,
Fix
Bayonets"!
(recorded
by Albert Wiederhold,
who
changed his
name to Herbert Stuart, Columbia
A1766).
Instead
of
stressing
O'Hara's
musical
accomplishments,
the
reporter
to
the
"Globe"
of
May
29,
1915,
took
another tack:
"Geoffrey
O!'Hara,
the
composer,
is
of
a
family
whose
outstanding
profession
for
many
years
was war.
He is descended on
his mother's side from John
Dobbs,
an
officer
in
Queen
Elizabeth's
army,
who
married
a
granddaughter
of Hugh O'Neill, the "fighting Earl
of Tyrone". etc. etc.
John
McCormack sang at
Massey
Hall
on October
14,
1915,
and the
papers
were full of comments.
One
reporter
had
heard that
McCormack
had
said
that
Ireland
would
be
better off under the
Germans,
but
this
was
emphatically
denied
by
McCormack,
who
had
donated
a
quarter of
a million cigarettes to
the Allied troops at the front.
On April
28,
1917,
there
was
an article
about
a
young
composer
called
Ivor
Novello,
who
had
written
a
popular
war
song called
"Keep
The
Home
Fires
Burning".
"His
song",
wrote
the
reporter,
rivals
the
world
famous
"Tipperary".
It
has
also
been
recorded
by the leading English and
one
American
talking
machine
companies."
Before the war's end,
many
more would record it.
On
May
22,
1915,
the
"Globe"
reported that
"Mr. Ernest J. Seitz,
the young Canadian pianist,
who
won
such praise at his debut in Massey
Hall
in
January
...
will
from
September 1 accept a limited number
of
pupils".
Four years later
he
would
write
one
of
Canada's
most
beautiful
songs,
"The
World
Is
Waiting for the Sunrise".
Some of the
news
items appear
to us today as either
humourous or
down-right
insulting.
On
January
6,
1917, the
"Globe"
reported that
Mr.
Asa
Huyke
"has just published
his march,
'Irresistible',
which is
selling
well
in his
home
town
of
Peterboro."
(There is no
indication
as to
how
irresistible
it
was in the rest of
Canada.)
On
February
3,
1917,
Mrs.
MacKelcan,
described
as
a
mezzo-contralto,
gave
a recital
which
"delighted
a
select circle of listeners with her
old
charm".
And in May,
1917, the
"Globe"
advised
Torontonians
to
hear the great Galli-Curci
"before
her
voice has
become to
a certain
extent worn."
Oratorio
was
very
popular
in
Toronto
during
the
war
years.
However,
one
performance
of
Handel's
"Messiah"
did not fare too
well.
The
"Globe"
of April
10,
1915, reported that:
"The Oratorio Society Thursday
night,
at
Massey
Hall,
repeated
their
production
of
Handel's
"Messiah"
for
the benefit
of
the
soldiers of the second contingent,
to
whom
admission
was free.
Owing
to
an order for
a night
march to
the Exhibition
Camp, the attendance
of the soldiers was not as large as was anticipated ...."
And another article mentioned
that James
Dodington would sing the
tenor solos in an oratorio.
Two of
his
sons,
John
and
Paul,
both
singers,
are
well-known
members
of
the
Gramophone Society.
There can be little doubt that
World
War I
had
a profound effect
on the musical life of Toronto and
that
music,
serious
and
comic,
helped
many to live
through those
sad years.
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