The Lighter Classics in Music by David Ewen

Franko and Nahan Franko, both prominent in New York as conductors, violinists, and pioneers in the presentation of free concerts. Goldman attended the National Conservatory in New York, specializing in the cornet. After completing his training with Jules Levey, he served for ten years as solo cornetist of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra. In 1911 he organized his first band. Seven years later he founded the famous Goldman Band which from then on gave free concerts in New York and Brooklyn public parks, and elsewhere on tour. Under his direction it became one of the outstanding musical organizations of its kind in the country, presenting a remarkable repertory of popular music, light classics, and band transcriptions of symphonic and operatic compositions. Goldman conducted his band until his death, which took place in New York on February 21, 1956. He was succeeded by his son, Richard Franko Goldman, who for many years had served as his father’s assistant. For his concerts Goldman wrote over a hundred marches which have won him recognition as John Philip Sousa’s successor. The best of the Goldman marches won immediate success for their robust tunes and vigorous beat. These include: “Central Park,” “Children’s March,” “On the Campus,” “On the Farm,” and “On the Mall.” The “Children’s March,” is actually an adaptation for band of several children’s tunes including “Three Blind Mice,” “Jingle Bells,” and “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush,” presented in march time. Karl Goldmark Karl Goldmark was born in Keszthely, Hungary, on May 18, 1830, the son of a cantor. Demonstrating unusual talent on the violin, he was sent to Vienna in 1844. There he studied with Leopold Jansa, then attended the Vienna Conservatory. His musical education was brought to an abrupt halt by the revolution of 1848. For many years after that, Goldmark earned his living by teaching music, playing in theater orchestras, and writing criticisms. He first came to the fore as a composer with a concert of his works in Vienna on March 20, 1857. Success followed eight years later with the première of his concert overture, _Sakuntala_. From then on, Goldmark occupied an esteemed position in Viennese music by virtue of many distinguished works that included the opera _The Queen of Sheba_, the _Rustic Wedding Symphony_, and various shorter works for orchestra, as well as numerous compositions for chorus, the piano, and chamber-music groups. He died in Vienna on January 2, 1915. Throughout his life he remained true to the Germanic-Romantic tradition on which he was nurtured. His writing was always vital with emotion, at times to the point of being sensual; it overflowed with luxurious melody and harmony. Most of the works by which he is remembered, while of the serious concert-hall variety, are light classics because of their charm and grace and pleasing melodic content. The _Bacchanale_ for orchestra is in Goldmark’s identifiable sensual style. This is an episode from his most famous opera, _The Queen of Sheba_ (_Die Koenigin von Saba_), libretto by Solomon Herman Mosenthal based on the Old Testament story of the love of the Queen of Sheba for Assad. The opera was successfully introduced in Vienna on March 10,