Sixty Years of California Song Part 26

8. Hymn, Abide With Me.

There were thirty-five voices in all from the societies with which he had affiliated, and the sixteen female voices were the soloists of the different choirs in which he had sung so many years. They were grouped about his casket and with superhuman effort performed the last tribute of affection for one of G.o.d's most beautiful singers whom all loved.

Rest, sweet spirit, rest.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STEPHEN W. LEACH

Musical Director, Buffo Singer and beloved Bohemian--Member of the famous old California Theatre Company in the 70's and 80's]

MR. AND MRS. STEPHEN W. LEACH

Among our first singers were Stephen W. Leach and his wife, Georgiana Leach. He was an English buffo singer. His wife was a beautiful soprano singer and was soloist in the Unitarian Church in the days of the sixties when the church was on Stockton. When the new Starr King church was built on Geary street, this old church was bought by the colored Methodist people. Mr. Leach formed a madrigal society in that year, and we had weekly rehearsals, perfecting ourselves for concert and other public demonstrations when required. I shall here give one of our noted programs, given by the most prominent musicians, both men and women, of our time. The numbers are worthy of historical notice for the sake of the music and the musicians who took part in this memorable concert, the first of the series.

Program of _S.W. LEACH CONCERT_ At Platt's Hall Monday Evening, Dec. 9th, 1878

1. Part Song. Strike the Lyre Cooke Mr. Gee and Madrigal Society

2. Song. I Fear No Foe Pinsuti Walter Campbell

3. Quartette for piano and stringed instruments. Sostenuto a.s.sai, Allegro ma non troppo. Schumann Miss Alice Schmidt, piano; Mr. Clifford Schmidt, first violin; Mr. Louis Schmidt, Jr., viola; Mr. Ernest Schmidt, cello.

4. My Queen Blumenthal Alfred Kelleher

5. Duet. Quanto Amore Donizetti Mrs. J.E. Tippett and S.W. Leach

6. Let All Obey S.W. Leach C.W. Dugan

7. Valse Chantee--Rajon de Bonhure Mattiozzi [Transcriber's Note: Possibly a misspelling of "Raison de Bonheur"]

Mrs. Marriner-Campbell

8. Reading Daniel O'Connell

9. Part Song. Introduction and Valse S.W. Leach _Madrigal Society_

10. French Horn Solo Ernest Schlott

11. Solo Mrs. J.E. Tippett

12. Violin Concerto. Andante and Finale Mendelssohn Clifford Schmidt

13. Duet and Chorus. In the Days of Old Lang Syne Neidermeyer Mrs. Marriner-Campbell and Ben Clark

14. Trio. This Magic Wove Scarf Mrs. J.M. Pierce, J.E. Tippett, S.W. Leach

15. Madrigal. O by Rivers (words by Shakespeare. Composed A.D. 1600) Accompanists, Geo. J. Gee and H.O. Hunt; conductor, S.W. Leach.

Concert to commence punctually at 8 p.m.

MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY

_Conductor_--S.W. Leach.

_Sopranos_--Mrs. Marriner-Campbell, Mrs. J.E. Tippett, Mrs.

J.M. Pierce, Mrs. Sarah Little.

_Altos_--Mrs. M.R. Blake, Miss E. Beutler, Miss Ida Beutler, Mrs. Chisolm.

_Tenors_--J.E. Tippett, Ben Clark, J. Webber.

_Ba.s.sos_--Walter C. Campbell, C.W. Dugan, Will B. Edwards.

_Pianist_--Geo. J. Gee.

For years we served the public, winning fresh laurels yearly and adding to our repertoire of madrigals and songs worthy the aspirations of any competent and conscientious singers. Every number was a gem of the music writer's art. Good music never grows old, and songs like these should claim the student's attention in place of the common everyday songs that cater to a lower taste or create a laugh. They lower the standard of the singer. There are many comic songs that will bring the wholesome laugh and be welcomed by an appreciative audience.

The singer makes the song as she builds her own character. It is the understanding of the writer's meaning, of the sentiment he has tried to embody, which shows the intelligent and artistic singer. Happy indeed is the singer if his success follows the rendering of his songs. This is the way our reputations are made. Is it not a great happiness to the singer and the listener that the tones come pure and limpid from the long-cherished instrument that still answers to the beautiful strains of the Last Rose of Summer or Safe in the Arms of Jesus? Can any one conceive the devotion with which a singer nurses the beautiful gift which is above rubies--a priceless gem--only to be made more beautiful when it returns to the G.o.d who gave it, and made more beautiful by the knowledge that he has done what is possible with the talent entrusted to him, and unconsciously made the gift more suitable to join the Everlasting Choir, Eternal in the Heavens, to join in the congregation of saints who had found the harmony of the Lost Chord, and to make the heavens ring with the melody of the last strain, Only in heaven I shall hear that grand Amen?

It is a fact that in writing my memoirs I felt a little reluctant at first to write all about myself and my work, but I have come to the conclusion that it is not vanity on my part to report history, and certainly I have left no stone unturned to hunt out real facts and occurrences from my letters, programs, diaries and other papers. As I have been first in many things, perhaps it may be interesting to know who sang the Lost Chord the first time in California, a song so widely known and sung by so many singers. In the year 1878, while Mrs.

Louisa Marriner was in London on one of her yearly visits, in her generous kindness she sent me the Lost Chord and also Sullivan's Let Me Dream Again, two new compositions which, she said, were just written for me. During this year Calvary Literary society gave an evening of song for the Ladies' Relief society, and among the numbers of the programme was the Lost Chord, with piano and organ accompaniment. Mrs. Henry Norton was soprano; Mrs. M.R. Blake, contralto; C.L. Gage, ba.s.s; J. de S. Bettincourt, tenor; C. Howland, second tenor; E. McD. Johnston, ba.s.s; Miss F.A. Dillaye, organist; H.M. Bosworth, organ and piano, and Prof. Theo. Herzog, violin. It was on this occasion that I sang the song of the Lost Chord, with organ and piano.

Sometimes in recounting incidents in our lives we often wonder how they began, as, in this instance, "I wonder who sang the Lost Chord first on this coast?" In this article you have the answer.

PROF. FREDERICK KATZENBACH

Prof. Katzenbach was born in the city of Freimersheim, Germany, 1834.

He came to America at the age of sixteen. He again returned to Germany when twenty years old and studied in Mainz, under Prof. E. Paner and Thopelus Syfert. His first position as organist was in the city of Schwabsburgh, Germany, at the age of twelve years, a position he held until he came to America, four years later. In the seventies he was in San Francisco. His first position as organist was at the Howard Street Methodist Church. Later he went to the First Presbyterian Church in Van Ness avenue, and in 1874 he was organist for St. John's Church in Post street, Dr. Scott, pastor. The choir was composed of Mrs. Robert Moore, soprano; Mrs. M.R. Blake, contralto; Joseph Maguire, tenor, and Cornelius Makin, ba.s.s. From 1870 to 1873 he taught piano at Mills seminary. During this time his wife pa.s.sed out of life and he was left with one daughter and three sons. He grieved so much at his loss that he gave up his position and went East, but his love for California was too strong and he returned in 1875. He took up his musical profession once more and for a while was organist at Calvary Presbyterian Church, Rev. John Hemphill, pastor. The choir consisted of Mrs. Van Brunt, soprano; Mrs. M. Blake, contralto; Cornelius Makin, ba.s.s, and John Trehane, tenor. Later he moved to Oakland and played in the First Unitarian Church in Castro street. Some years after that he had an organ at St. Paul's Church in Harrison street. For thirty-five years he was engaged in the churches and teaching piano, and taught many fine players in San Francisco, Oakland and other places. He never had gotten over the loss of his dear wife, and it unfortunately saddened his life, for she was indeed a perfect mother in her family. His daughter, Miss Elizabeth, was the image of her mother and was his constant thought, and his ambition was to have her life guided into the same channel of perfect womanhood. He began early with her education in music and taught her until she had grown to womanhood, and for a number of years before his death she taught with him in his studio in Tenth street in West Oakland. Some time in the eighties he desired his daughter to have a little instruction in the old-world music centers. In 1903 she journeyed to Munich, Germany, and studied for three years with Heinrich Schwartz. In 1906 she returned to California and expected to meet her father at the station, but he was taken suddenly ill and died shortly after from a nervous breakdown.

His daughter returned just two days after he died, doubly bereaved, as he had been father and mother to her and her brothers since she was a child of three years. After many months she took up her music once more, where she had necessarily laid it down during her days of mourning. She is busy always and is now one of our foremost teachers of piano, and faithfully and successfully follows in the footsteps of her honored father.

RICHARD THOMAS YARNDLEY

Mr. Yarndley was born December 5, 1840, in Manchester, England. His parents were both musicians of a high order. His father was an organist of the first rank and a viola player of exceptional ability.

He was first viola in the celebrated band of Sir Charles Halle and was complimented at one time by Mendelssohn, the great composer. The Earl of Ellsmere was his patron, who bought his pipe organ when he left for America. Mr. Yarndley's mother was a concert singer, possessing a pure soprano voice of rare sweetness and power. She sang repeatedly under Mendelssohn's directing with such artists as Madame Anna and Sir Henry Bishop, Sir George Smart, Simms Reeves, Parepa Rosa, Jenny Lind and other great singers of her day, going to Dublin at one time with the "Swedish Nightingale" as a.s.sistant at her concert.

The little Richard from the tender age of five years accompanied his mother regularly at these concerts as her small chevalier. He was thus from infancy reared in an atmosphere of the best music. His training was princ.i.p.ally under his father, although he received instruction from the best teachers of the city. At the age of seventeen years he was sent to this country to hold an organ position at Detroit, Mich., for his father who was to come with the family the following year. He was playing at that time in the largest church in Manchester. He created quite a sensation the first Sunday, dressed as all English boys were, in a roundabout jacket, broad turned-down collar, and Scotch cap with long ribbons behind. During his ten years'

residence in the "City of the Streets" he acquired a reputation as piano teacher, organist and conductor of the Handel and Haydn society.

In 1870 he removed to San Francisco and was at once invited to take charge of the Harmonic society of Oakland and the organ of the Congregational church of that city, which position he filled until his departure for Portland, Ore., some three years later. Afterwards, returning to California, he held positions in Grace Church and St.

Luke's Church, San Francisco, and in the Presbyterian church of Oakland. He was an all-round musician of no mean order and might have accomplished much, had he not been handicapped by ill health. Probably his most marked success was in Albany, N.Y., where he was intimately a.s.sociated with Miss Emma La Jeunesse, afterwards Albani, who was his lifelong friend. He was given many brilliant testimonials from the musical a.s.sociation and citizens of Albany. Music was with him a holy pa.s.sion as well as vocation. He was a man of high moral princ.i.p.als, singularly guileless and of a deep religious fervor. He died at Livermore, Cal., September 7, 1895, aged fifty-four years, and was laid to rest in the Masonic cemetery there.

WILLIAM M'FARLAND GREER

Mr. Greer was born in St. Louis, Mo., September 22, 1850. He began his musical education early in life, first on the violin. When he had played for some years he sang in the boys' choir before his voice was placed. After he had it trained he sang in the choirs of the churches in Baltimore, Atlanta, New Orleans, St. Louis and San Francisco. He was a member of the May Festival singers. He also sang in Temple Emanuel, Sutter street, Louis Schmidt, organist; in the Mason street synagogue and in the First Methodist Church on Mission street. In Oakland, twenty years ago, he was one of the members of the early choir of the Brooklyn Presbyterian Church, East Oakland. He has pa.s.sed out of life to join the Invisible Choir. He left a wife, daughter and sons to mourn his loss. While in Trinity choir I had the pleasure of singing with him often at high days and funeral services. He had a beautiful tenor-baritone voice which was melody itself, and he knew how to sing. It was evident to all, for he was always in demand as a church singer and occupied these positions during his life. His daughter is also the possessor of a voice of fine quality, and by accident I found her and it gave me the same great pleasure to teach the daughter as it gave me to sing with the father long ago. She occupies the position of sewing teacher in the Girl's High School, San Francisco, and is a most efficient teacher.

MARY CHENEY-CLARK

Mrs. Clark, daughter of Rev. D.B. Cheney, was a resident of San Francisco for years as a singer and teacher. Her voice was contralto and she occupied that position in her father's choirs. She studied voice with Mrs. Georgiana Leach, one of California's rare sopranos and wife of Stephen W. Leach, the well-known baritone. Her instructors in instrumental music were Rudolph Herold and Professor Beutler. Later she went to Boston and studied at the New England Conservatory and her teachers were Fannie Fraser Foster, Carlyle Petersilea and Zerrahn.

She is still among us, but takes no active part in music outside of her home circle in Berkeley.

CHAS. H. SCHULTZ

Mr. Schultz was born in Herzheim by Landan, Rheinplatz, Baiern, Germany, in 1830. His father, an organist of note in Herxheim, superintended his musical education under Herr Geiger until his gymnasium years, when he continued his studies under Professor Lutz of Spire until he entered Heidelberg University. Coming to America in 1854, he accepted the position of musical instructor of Minerva college, Nashville, Tenn. He married, in 1858, a cousin of "Fighting Joe" Wheeler, the famous Southern general. After the death of his wife, in 1871, he came to California, locating in Visalia, where he gave private instruction and was organist of St. Mary's Church. In 1876 he married Mrs. Catherine Griffith and to this union four children were born. In 1880 he moved with his family to San Jose and, continuing his private instruction, he became one of the best known of the musical instructors of Santa Clara county. In his seventieth year he retired and a few years ago decided to make Alameda his home where, at the fine old age of eighty-two, he is still enjoying a happy and contented life.