Central Park Band Concert

“The Department of Public Parks announce that, if the weather be fine, there will be music by the Central Park Band at Mount Morris-square on Monday, the 6th inst., from 6 to 8 o’clock P. M.” Lists program.

“The Park Commissioners did their best to offer an agreeable treat to the citizens of Harlem, on Monday evening. The band discoursed excellent music, from 6 to 8 o’clock, to a large and generally appreciative audience. The entertainment would have been much more enjoyable, but for two things, which we regard as defects in open-air music. One of these was the character of the selections played, which, with an exception or two, were better suited to the concert-room than to the Park. They were scarcely audible at a distance of a hundred feet. Very sweet they must have been to those who could get near enough to hear them; but that was not one-tenth of those who desired to hear. The other defect lay in the large number of graceless boys who were allowed to surround the music-stand. These were noisy and turbulent and rendered anything like pleasurable attention impossible. Still other bands of urchins darted in and out through the crowd of adults shouting; while on the outskirts a still more numerous force of boys and girls made the welkin ring with their outcry. In another place and connection such sights and sounds may have their charms and uses, but in this it simply neutralized the efforts of a skilled musical band. As the Commissioners propose to repeat the entertainment on other pleasant evenings through the Summer, something ought to be done to suppress the noise and confusion, or the good intentions of the Commissioners will be in a great measure frustrated.”