Alice Hackett: American pianist

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ALICE HACKETT

American Pianist



1510 THIRD AVENUE NORTH FORT DODGE, IOWA




MESSENGER PTG. CO., FT. DODGE, IA.





Musical Interpretations for Children



ALICE HACKETT is an American pianist and teacher.  To her native ability she has added as thorough a musical education as this country affords.  Among her teachers have been Jeannie Ringland Smeltzer, Ernest Hutcheson, Rossetter G. Cole, E. Robert Schmitz, Franz Proschowsky, John Seaman Garns, and Clara Williams.




In her musical interpretations for Children, Mrs. Hackett's aim is, first of all, to give her young audience a pleasant half hour.  But in this pleasant half hour, the children will have come into contact with the leading composers of the last half century, such as, Debussy, MacDowell, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Palmgren, Ibert, Milhaud, Copland, Goosens, etc., and the children's minds will have been stimulated by talks and musical pictures of both near and far away lands:  our own North and South, Brazil, France, Russia, Egypt, China.




Unconsciously to the child, the half hour will also have been a lesson in listening.  Lessons in performance we have in plenty.  But what training in listening is the American public receiving today?  More and more do we have to guard against a training that leaves the brain passive and the emotions active—a dangerous combination.  In the motion picture houses, captions so simple as to be readily grasped by the moron, explain the screen thrills, while music, carefully selected, amplifies the emotional reactions.  Dreamily, too, we sit at home, tuning in our radio sets to the station that makes the readiest emotional appeal.  Then suddenly some day, we are seated before a great orchestra or a great soloist, and are expected to follow and enjoy the strange and unknown language.  What wonder that most of it passes over our heads?




It happens that never in the history of music, have the best composers—the composers that take into account mind as well as emotion—dealt more directly or more convincingly with the child world than today.  Never have they dealt with such a range of experience.




It is into this world of experience, of action, of imagination, that Mrs. Hackett tries to lead her audience.  It is to do her part toward creating a musical public who feels, but who thinks as well as feels, that Mrs. Hackett is giving her present programs.




Through these programs runs a connected story to cement together the natural groups.  The groups themselves represent various phases of life in various settings.  We are led into the fields with the birds and the sheep; into streets of foreign lands.  We enter into the joy of the peasant's dance, or by the sea, think on some stirring deed of long ago.  Sometimes the fitting atmosphere is created before the composition is played, so that the playing becomes a picture.  Sometimes a sentence interpolatd [sicinterpolated]here and there between phrases, so that the listener seems himself to be living in the picture.






Musical Pictures



In this swiftly moving world, with its wealth of material and events, we are sometimes baffled in trying to select, for our education and our recreation, something that shall really count:  a pleasurable thing, yet one of substance.




Alice Hackett, in her program of Musical Pictures, presents an hour that contains just such a combination of qualities.




America is proud and happy over the increase of solid musical fare that is being offered by its great organizations and its gifted soloists.  Music in lighter vein greets us at club, theatre and restaurant, and at the turn of a switch it all comes to us at our very firesides—the good, the bad, and the indifferent.  Yet to the general public, in spite of music, music everywhere, there is often not a note that sinks in with any particular meaning.  The nonprofessional adult still lacks frequent opportunity to hear vivid, intimate presentations and explanations of well defined musical thoughts.  An understanding of direct musical messages is a joy in itself and leads toward sympathy with the spirit of music, whether projected in the simple forms or in those that are longer and more intricate.




Mrs. Hackett endeavors to create one such opportunity.  In her gallery of Musical Pictures, one finds a bit of nature as isolated and interpreted by the restrained hand of a composer of long ago, and next to it, more daring, more completely realistic, another bit by a composer of the present time.  The folk dance of today treads on the toes of one of yesterday.  Fogs and breezes envelop another group, and in still another America speaks.




Mrs. Hackett's talk that accompanies her playing serves to clear the pictures to the vision of her audience and her own colorful playing re-creates the scene that was at some distant or some recent date, the inspiration of the composer.





Press Comment—Concert



A keen sensibility to tonal coloring was exhibited.  This was particularly evident in 
La Cathedrale Engloutie
 by Debussy, which, as played by her become emotionally and poetically significant.—


Des Moines Register and Leader.




Uunusually [sicUnusually]skillful technique and intelligent interpretation.  Debussy's 
La Cathedrale Engloutie
 demands more than the average ability.—


Des Moines Capital.




Alice Hackett showed finished artistry in her performance.
—


Musical Courier, New York.



Press Comment -- Concert

The large audience at the First Presbyterian church Tuesday evening had the privilege of hearing a concert by an artist in the beautifully balanced program given by Alice Hackett.  So varied were the numbers that no matter what style of musical composition the auditors favored there was something for everyone.  The Grand Polonaise Brilliant, by Chopin was executed with a brilliancy and dash made possible only by technique of the highest order.  The group by Liszt was truly remarkable in that it revealed such a wide range of talent.  The Gnomenreigen was played with a delicacy and daintiness of touch while a depth of feeling and power of sympathetic interpretation characterized 
On the Wings of Music.
 Mrs. Hackett is an ardent student of MacDowell and the two numbers by him, 
In Mid-Ocean
 and 
March Wind
 were faithfully interpreted.—


Fort Dodge Messenger and Chronicle, Fort Dodge, Iowa.




Alice Hackett's playing of Debussy proved most interesting.—


Musical Leader, Chicago.




Exceptional ability and training.—


Marshalltown Times-Republican, Marshalltown, Iowa.



Mrs. Hackett is a woman of delightful personality, as well as a talented and accomplished musician.  Her skillful execution and pleasing interpretation of masterpieces by Chopin, Liszt and other celebrated composers proclaimed her an artist of genuine ability.—


Webster City Freeman-Journal, Webster City, Iowa.



The program given by Alice Hackett on Musical Interpretations for Children was something new in that she gave the children training in listening.  She would tell a story or describe a dance of the South Americans and then interpret it on the piano.  Mrs. Hackett is a pianist of ability, and played selections from some of the masters.—


Kirksville Daily Express, Kirksville, Mo.



Alice Hackett is becoming increasingly popular with the children as well as with the older folks in her musical interpretations.  She is a pianist of great ability and held her audience attentively.—


Mount Pleasant Daily News, Mount Pleasant, Iowa.



Alice Hackett entertained the children with piano selections in which she attempted to rain them to interpret the music she played, having told them the story beforehand.  Her pleasing personality gives her a winning way with children.—


Eldora Herald, Eldora, Iowa.



Alice Hackett charmed the youngsters on Thursday afternoon.—


Sac Sun, Sac City, Iowa.



Alice Hackett is a pianist of great ability.  Her selections on the piano showed her splendid technique and skill and yet were so varied and so charming withal that the program was all too short.  It was a rare musical treat.—


Newell Mirror, Newell, Iowa.