I can do no better than to quote from Royal Cortissoz: "At night and
illuminated, it might be a scene from Rome or from Egypt, a gigantic
ruin of some masterpiece left by Emperor or Pharaoh. The lagoon is
bordered by more of those heavenly hedges that I have described. There
are trees and thickets to add to the bewilderment of the place, to make
it veritably the silenzio verde of the poet. And with the ineffable tact
which marks the lighting of the Fair, this serene spot is left almost,
but not quite, to the dim loveliness of night. The glow that is given
its full value elsewhere is here at its faintest. The pageant ends in a
hush that is as much of the spirit as of the senses."
XIV.
Music at the Exposition
Early neglect of music by the Exposition management remedied by the
appointment of George W. Stewart, of Boston, as manager--Engagements of
Camille Saint-Saens and the Boston Symphony Orchestra the musical events
of the summer--Original compositions by the French master--Sousa and
his great band--Other notable bands--Lemare's organ concerts- Splendid
choral performances by famous organizations--A half-million for music.
Music cannot be omitted from any scheme of mundane celebration. In an
exposition of the character of this one, where all art has been given so
high a place, this gift of the gods must assume an unusual importance.
It is important here, not only as a means of entertainment, but as a
means of cultural development, and as an intellectual factor in the
evolution of the race. This Exposition justifies itself by its
storehouses of knowledge. Its reason for existence is, the permanent
advancement of the people of the world in all that art, science, and
industry, can bring to its palaces for pleasurable study.
With the agreement that a great pipe organ was to be installed in
Festival Hall, and that orchestras and bands were to be engaged, the
early speculative musical labors of the directorate ended. Casual indeed
was the attention paid to music during all of the early part of the
pre-Exposition period. Material interests--and there were millions of
them--cried for consideration, while the still, small voice of music
was drowned in the clangor of construction. Just as music is the last of
the arts to receive recognition at our universities, so it was neglected
here until so much time had elapsed that only the most fortunate of
accidents could give song and symphony their proper places among the
wonders that were ultimately to find a home in the Jewel City.
Fortunately, accident for once proved kind; vigorous direction emerged
fortuitously from apathy.
In the early building period, President C. C. Moore turned aside from
his other cares long enough to appoint J. B. Levison Chief of the Music
Department. A better choice could hardly have been made. For more than
two decades Mr. Levison, an able amateur in music, and a business man of
high standing, had been identified with all of San Francisco's larger
efforts in its musical life. But Mr. Levison's grasp of the importance
of such a post was more comprehensive than President Moore's, for he
refused the position. Fortunately, however, he had his attention
directed to George W. Stewart, of Boston, a former artist of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra, a man technically equipped, who had made a great
success of the music at the St. Louis Exposition. Stewart was engaged,
and to him is due the credit for the remarkable record music has already
made at the Panama-Pacific Exposition.
Aside from the construction of the $50,000 pipe organ, which, after the
Exposition, will be placed permanently in the Civic Auditorium, the two
most important musical items found on the schedule of Exposition
enterprises are the engagements of Camille Saint-Saens and the Boston
Symphony Orchestra. The former, who maintained that "Beethoven is the
greatest, the only real, artist, because he upheld the idea of universal
brotherhood," is perhaps better fitted than any living composer to write
special music for the Exposition. This he has done,--writing two
compositions in fact; and their presentation has been an outstanding
feature. "Hail, California," was dedicated to the Exposition. Scored for
an orchestra of eighty, a military band of sixty, a chorus of 300
voices, pipe organ and piano, its first presentation was an event. The
Saint-Saens Symphony in C minor (No. 3) Opus 78, composed many years
ago, has become a classic during the life-time of its creator. It was
one of the wonders of the Boston Symphony programmes played in Festival
Hall. Its yield of immediate pleasure and its reassurance for the works
of Saint-Saens to be heard later, grew from the fact that it was scored
for orchestra and pipe organ, and in this massive tonal web the genius
of the composer to write in magnificent size was overwhelmingly evident,
thus forecasting the splendors of "Hail, California."
The other work written by this visitor from Paris is in oratorio form
and titled, appropriately, "The Promised Land." A huge choir of 400
voices, directed by Wallace Sabin and named in honor of the visitor, the
"Saint-Saens Choir," rendered a good account of the ensemble sections of
the choral composition, while the Exposition orchestra of 80
instrumentalists and the Exposition organ added effectiveness to the
accompaniment. Sabin presided at the organ. In addition to these
appearances, the composer conducted three recitals during the latter
part of June, when all of the compositions offered were his work.
The visit of Dr. Karl Muck with his Boston Symphony Orchestra has become
a luminous memory. The trip is utterly new in the history of music
anywhere, nothing like it ever before having been attempted. It is said
that the transportation bills alone amounted to $15,000, and there were
no stop-overs en route for concert performances to help in defraying
this bulky first cost. It is proper to record here the financial success
of the venture. While the season of twelve concerts was yet young, more
than $40,000 had been taken in at the box office, and the estimated
expenses of $60,000 were liquidated, with a margin of profit. This was
enhanced by an extra concert, the thirteenth. Tickets for the season
were sold in Chicago, New York, Boston, Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, St.
Louis, Portland, Maine, and Portland, Oregon, while San Francisco and
the bay communities in general sent their thousands to the glorious
recitals. The result will be seen in a stimulation of music in the West.
But the engagements of Saint-Saens and Dr. Muck with his orchestra do
not sum up the important activities of the Exposition's music. There are
other features which challenge even these in popular estimation.
John Philip Sousa has spent a long season at the Exposition. A blunder
was somewhere made in dating the arrival of the March King and his
splendid instrumentalists, who came while yet the Boston Symphonists
were playing in Festival Hall. As a result the finest of bands was
placed in competition with the finest of orchestras. But nothing
disastrous happened. Those who desired, to the number of fifteen
thousand, heard Sousa at his opening concert in the Court of the
Universe; those who desired heard Dr. Muck's instrumentalists, to the
seating capacity of Festival Hall.
Featured concerts have been and are being given by massed bands composed
of Sousa's, Cassasa's, Conway's and other military or concert
organizations.
Briefly, and regardless of the importance of each item, here are some of
the attractions which make this Exposition vocal and harmonious: Edwin
Henry Lemare, of London, by general critical agreement declared the
greatest living organist, is expected here early in September, when he
will begin his series of one hundred organ recitals, to continue till
the Exposition closes in December. A unique episode of the Exposition
music must not be overlooked in the recital by Madame Schumann-Heink,
whose graciousness found another expression in her concert given
exclusively and gratuitously to the children. More than three thousand
of the little folk were in Festival Hall when the grandest of singers
sang for them alone. The visit already accomplished of Gabriel Pares and
his famous Republican Guard band of Paris; the engagement already begun
of the Ogden Tabernacle Choir of 300 voices; the Eisteddfod competitive
concerts; the long stay of the Philippine Constabulary band under the
leadership of Captain W. H. Loving; Emil Mollenhauer's big Boston band;
the concerts of the United Swedish Singers; the Apollo Music Club's
premised visit from Chicago--the organization is coming intact with all
of its 250 vocalists and its distinguished composer-conductor, Harrison
M. Wild; La Loie Fuller's spectacles, and the engagement of forty noted
organists to appear in Festival Hall in addition to Lemare and Clarence
Eddy, are a few of the accomplished or promised attractions. To this
list must be added the daily concerts given gratis at different periods
by various bands other than those named--the official Exposition band
of 45 players under the seasoned direction of Charles H. Cassasa;
Thaviu's splendid band of 50; Conway's military and concert band of 50,
and others yet to be had in the world of music will be spread for their
delecta-concerts are booked. As proof of the worth of these, let the
achievements of the recent past speak. We have heard the Alameda County
1915 Chorus of 250 voices under Alexander Stewart in a majestic
performance of Handel's "Messiah;" the Exposition Chorus under Wallace
Sabin in a repetition of the music sung as part of the opening day's
celebration--"The Heavens are Telling," from Haydn's "Creation," and
the official hymn--"A Noble Work"--by Mrs. H. H. A. Beach; the Berkeley
Oratorio Society under the inspiring direction of Paul Steindorff in two
splendid concerts, the first given to Rossini's "Stabat Mater" and the
second to Brahms' "German Requiem;" and the Pacific Choral Society's
performance of Haydn's "Creation" under the musicianly leadership of
Warren B. Allen. More music may confidently be looked for from these
rich sources.
The Exposition authorities declare that half a million dollars will have
been expended on music before the end of the life of the great
enterprise. Thus visitors to the Exposition may come at any period of
the Jewel City's existence, knowing that the best to be had in the world
of music will be spread for their delectation, and that they will be
afforded a comprehensive view of the art of tone as it exists today. In
this respect the Exposition's musical "exhibit" is similar in its scope
to the revealments in all its other departments; for the Exposition is
avowedly devoted to contemporaneous rather than historic achievements.
Nothing that extends contemplation over a wider period than the last
five years is admitted for competitive exhibition. The modern composer,
no less than the modern inventor, is having his day at the Exposition.
This is as it should be. We are hearing, have heard, or will hear, the
last utterances of present-day musical creators. Indeed, in the case of
one--Saint-Saens--we heard, as I have recounted, two massive
compositions written expressly for the Panama-Pacific International
Exposition, and John Philip Sousa has bent his most martial mood to the
composition of an inspiring march which is called "Panama." But music
also enjoys a privilege not accorded equally to any other department of
Exposition display. The works of the past, as well as the present, are
given. A history of music at the Exposition properly written--as one
surely should be--would be an epitome of the evolution of the art from
Cherubini, Haydn and Bach to Richard Strauss, Saint-Saens and Debussy.
It would involve in its telling the stories of music in Italy, Germany,
Austria, England, France, Russia, Scandinavia, yes, and America, too! It
would include an account of the genealogy of the modern orchestra as
exemplified in the Boston Symphony or the Official Symphony, and of
military bands up to the perfected concert organizations headed by a
Sousa or a Gabriel Pares. It would embrace with like inclusiveness the
history of the pipe organ through its stages of evolution from the
ponderous instruments with men straddling unwieldy bellows to the marvel
installed in Festival Hall, and it would embrace the history of the art
of organ music up to such exemplars as our own Clarence Eddy, John &.
McClellan, Edwin Lemare, and Camille Saint-Saens. What a chapter would
be set aside for the record of Exposition choral music! Already there
has gone abroad from the Festival Hall an impetus towards better chorus
music that will, I feel sure, firmly establish this somewhat neglected
department of musical art in the far West.
XV.
Inside the Exhibit Palaces
All competitive exhibits strictly contemporaneous, showing the arts of
to-day--Revolution worked by the motion-picture theater in exhibition
methods--The lessons of Machinery Palace--Coal and steam fast yielding
to liquid fuels and waterpower and electricity--Life-saving devices,
accident prevention and employees' welfare made prominent in Palaces of
Machinery and Mines--A contrast in locomotives--Building a motor car
every ten minutes--Co-operative exhibits in Food-Products Palace--Many
great displays by the United States Government--Educational exhibits
not duplicated, each state or city showing its specialty.
In its industrial displays, as well as its art, the Exposition keeps
steadily in view the fact that it commemorates a contemporary event; it
is contemporaneous, not historical. Hence it was decreed from the first
that the exhibits must be the products of the last decade, a rule
strictly observed save in rare cases where older forms have been
admitted for comparison. The result is two-fold. The exhibits are
condensed to the essential, giving room for a greater number of
exhibitors; and the progress of the world is shown as of today.
Eleven palaces house the exhibits, exclusive of live stock. Officially,
the things shown in the state and foreign buildings are not "exhibits,"
but "displays," and are not eligible for award. In general, the names of
the palaces indicate the classes of exhibits to be found in them. No
sharp line, however, can be drawn between the Palaces of Manufactures
and Varied Industries, or between Agriculture and Food Products. In
other cases there is some overlapping of classes. One section of the
Liberal Arts exhibit is in the Palace of Machinery.
A striking feature of almost all the palaces, and one that
differentiates this Exposition from its great predecessors of a decade
or more ago, is the common use of the moving-picture machine as the
fastest and most vivid method of displaying human activities and
scenery. Everywhere it is showing industrial processes. Former
expositions, for want of this device, have been mainly exhibitions of
products. These have hitherto been shown in such bulk as to fill vast
floor spaces and become a weariness to the flesh, while it was
impossible, from the nature of things, to exhibit the great primary
industries of field, forest, sea and mine in actual operation. The
motion-picture machine has not only lessened the areas of products
shown, thus making this Exposition more compact than former ones; but it
has increased the effectiveness of exhibition methods by carrying the
spectator, figuratively, into the midst of operations, and showing him
men at work in all the important processes of agriculture, in the
logging camps, in mines and fisheries, as well as in the mills and
factories where the raw materials of these basic industries are worked
into finished products. Its value for showing scenery, too, is fully
utilized here. Many of the states and foreign countries employ it. Even
faraway Siam uses it to instruct the Occident concerning her resources
and people. Counting those in the state and foreign buildings,
seventy-seven free moving-picture halls are to be found within the
Exposition. Their efficiency is indicated by the crowds that throng them
daily.
The Palace of Machinery holds three lessons for the observer. It shows
not only the state of man's invention at the present moment, the
increasing displacement of coal by hydroelectric plants and liquid
fuels, but what is perhaps more significant, the changing direction of
invention toward devices for human betterment. The Diesel oil engine and
multitudes of electrical machines stand for the latest word in
mechanical invention. The Diesel again, with a host of other internal
combustion engines, the electric motors and waterpower plants, and the
absence of steam machines, bear witness to the downfall of steam. But
the great space given to safety devices, to labor-saving machines, to
road-making machinery, and to mechanical devices for increasing the
comfort of country life, are evidence of the part machinery is coming to
play in the task of making life more livable. As an exhibition of modern
mechanical invention, Machinery Hall is unique, as all this Exposition
is unique. There is almost nothing in it that is not the product of the
last ten years; it actually represents construction of the last two
years. Indeed, the wholly contemporary nature of the exhibits leaves the
visitor without visible means of comparison.
As at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876, a prime mover is the central
figure in the building. There it was the immense Corliss steam engine.
Here it is a Diesel, started by President Wilson by wireless on the
opening day, and generating all the direct current used in the palace.
Another commanding exhibit is a 20,000 horsepower hydro-electric
generator, significant of the modern use of water-power. The United
States Government is the largest exhibitor in the building, with
numerous fine models of warships, docks, dams and submarine mines;
torpedoes, artillery, armorplate and shells, army equipment,
ammunition-making machinery in operation, light-houses and aids to
navigation, and a splendid set of models illustrating road-making
methods. Crowded out of its proper place in the Palace of Liberal Arts,
the exhibit of the printing trades occupies a section here, including a
huge color press turning out illustrated Sunday supplements.
The Palace of Mines and Metallurgy offers ample evidence of the great
figure which steel now makes in the world, and of the vast extent of the
petroleum industry. Here, too, as in Machinery Hall, accident prevention
is emphasized. From this point of view insurance exhibits are not out of
place here. The United States Steel Corporation, with its subsidiary
companies, shows in this palace the largest single exhibit seen in the
Exposition, save those of the United States Government. Noteworthy are
its excellent models of iron and coal-mining plants, coke ovens.
furnaces, rolling mills, docks, ships, and barges, and an extensive
section devoted to the welfare of employees, with model playgrounds.
Many states and nations, and many world-famous mining companies are
represented by exhibits of ores and metals, of mine models, and mining
and metallurgical processes in operation. California shows a gold
dredger and a hydraulic mine in operation. The great copper mines of
California, Montana, Utah, and Japan, have installed significant
exhibits. The United States Government operates in this palace a model
mint, a model post office, and features a daily "mine explosion," with a
demonstration of rescue work.
The Palace of Transportation places its emphasis on automobiles and
roads, electric locomotives and cars, and the mammoth types of modern
steam locomotives. All of these exhibits represent construction of the
last year, with one exception. The first Central Pacific locomotive
stands beside a Mallet Articulated engine,--an enormous contrast. One
third of the floor space is filled with steam and electric locomotives
and modern cars. Some are sectioned, and operated by electric motors,
vividly illustrating the latest mechanical devices. Another third of the
palace is devoted to motor cars. The Ford Motor Car Company maintains a
factory exhibit in which a continuous stream of Fords is assembled and
driven away, one every ten minutes.
Plans for a great exhibit of aeroplanes were destroyed by the war. The
Exposition, however, maintains a constant exhibit of the spectacular
side of aeronautics in remarkable flights by famous aviators. After
Lincoln Beachey was killed in one of these performances, his place was
taken by Arthur Smith, who was instantly crowned as a far more dazzling
birdman. Two aeroplanes are the only representation in the palace.
Steamship companies have erected here sections of their vessels.
Railroads make interesting exhibits of scenery along their routes, of
safety devices and of railroad accessories. The Canadian Pacific, Grand
Trunk Pacific, Great Northern, Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, and
Santa Fe systems maintain buildings of their own, exhibiting the
scenery, agriculture and other resources of the country through which
they pass.
The Palace of Varied Industries illustrates the enormous complexity of
modern material needs. Packed with severely selected manufactures, it is
made especially interesting by the many processes shown in operation.
Cotton and woolen mills, linen looms, knitting machines, machines for
weaving fire hose, a shoe-making factory, a broom factory, and many
others, are particularly attractive because they are engaged in making
familiar articles. The machines in use demonstrate the refinements of
present-day manufacturing processes. The factories of many nations are
represented in this palace. Germany makes here her largest exhibit,
notably of cutlery and pottery.
The Palace of Manufactures differs from the Palace of Varied Industries
as a bolt of silk differs from a bale of leather. Yet this general
distinction between the finer and the coarser classes of factory
products is not rigidly adhered to. The Palace of Manufactures is
distinguished by a remarkable exhibit of fine wares by the Japanese, and
another of commercial art from Italy. Fortunately this Japanese display
is of goods in the ancient style, infinitely more interesting, though
less significant, than the extensive exhibits in other palaces of
Japanese wares manufactured in competition with Western nations. Most
beautiful are the ceramics, the lacquered ware, and the silks. Great
Britain is an extensive exhibitor of cutlery, pottery, and textiles.
Manufacturing processes are shown in operation in this palace, though
less than in the Palace of Varied Industries.
The Palace of Liberal Arts found its six acres of floor space
insufficient. The exhibits, forming a remarkable demonstration of the
breadth of applied science, embrace electrical means of communication,
including wireless telegraphy and telephony, musical instruments,
chemistry, photography, instruments of precision and of surgery,
theatrical appliances, engineering, architecture, map-making,
typography, printing, book-binding, paper manufacture, scientific
apparatus, typewriters, coins and medals, and innumerable other
articles. A great space is occupied by talking machines "demonstrated"
in musical theatres, and by cameras. The American Telegraph and
Telephone Company maintains transcontinental telephone connection
between its theatre and New York, and gives daily demonstrations. The
United States Government has installed a great variety of displays. Most
striking, perhaps, is the section from the National Museum, where the
most modern methods of exhibition are exemplified in cases containing
human groups that are almost real life. The great pipe organ in Festival
Hall is classed as one of the exhibits of this palace. Germany, Japan,
China, the Netherlands, Uruguay, Cuba, and New Zealand are heavy
exhibitors here. Of special interest is the German exhibit of radium and
its allied metals.