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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
RAGTIME AND REFINEMENT.
C R E D E R I C STEVENSON, of the Los
Angeles Herald, is responsible for
this:
" A high school bud writes me thus: (i)
' Why are you always railing at rag-time ?
(2) What is the matter with it? (3) Isn't
it good in its place? (4) Isn't it better than
fugues ? (5) Isn't it just as difficult to
write? (6) Don't some people make lots of
money by it? (7) Wouldn't you like to
make lots of money? (8) Can you write
rag-time? (9) If so, why don't you? (10)
If not, why do you rail at other people do-
ing that which is beyond you ? (11) What
is rag-time, anyway? Our leading class
composer says it is syncopation, and that
syncopation is classical; and he ought to
know, because he has had some music pub-
lished.'
"To answer these questions at their de-
served length would take too much time
and too much space. But, as queries of
this kind are perfectly legitimate, I am
most pleased to give at least concise re-
plies.
"(1) Because it is at once the most catch-
ing and the most demoralizing enemy of
music and musical progress. (2) Every-
thing. It has not a single good feature to
recommend it. (3) It has no place except
in vaudeville. (4) No. (5) No. (6)
Undoubtedly. Other people make lots of
money in gambling and betting, in re-
sorts, in swindling, in spurious ad-
vertising, in bogus goods, and in var-
ious other illegitimate ways. (7) Hon-
estly, yes. (8) Possibly. (9) Purely a mat-
ter of pride, of conscience, if you will.
(10) The critic is not necessarily a doer.
He judges from the standard of high
ideals, not from the measure of low
achievement, (n) Rag-time is syncopa-
tion in a fit, the St. Vitus dance of synco-
pation. It is to syncopation what a chro-
mo is to a Rembrandt, what the phono-
graph is to the human voice, what Dresser
is to Dvorak."
That Stevenson is perfectly justified in
the stand he takes can not be questioned,
at the same time there is no reason to be-
lieve that rag-time is more pernicious than
the cheap sentimental ballad. Everything
has its time and its place and there is time
and place for everything except the vulgar
obscene stuff that is issued in darkey dia-
lect, and the sentimental song the words
of which are usually taken from happen-
ings recorded in the Police Gazette.
Rag-time seems to have emanated from
the "coon-song" and if Fay Temple-
ton's quaint little songs, " I Want You
My Honey" and "My Onliest One"
are fair types of these, the most mu-
sicianly cannot take exception to them
for they are dainty and pretty, and they fit
into the particular place for which they
were created.
One need not look so far as rag-time to
find music which is detrimental to the ad-
vance of the art. Teachers are careless
with what they give children and thereby
create a depraved taste, leaning either
towards the loud, flashy, coarse stuff, or
the sickly, sentimental trash, neither of
which could possibly be called music. But
there is no use in railing at the publisher
for publishing, nor at the composer for
writing; the blame rests wholly with
the teachers and those who have the
moulding of the young, and here one
cannot be too severe, for more lies at
the door of the teacher than is at first ap-
parent. The carelessness in this direction
is more dangerous and more menacing to
the advance of music than all the rag-time
that ever has been or ever will be pub-
lished. Dime novels have no attraction for
college bred men and women, nor for
young boys and girls of culture and refine-
ment; they do not even know of the pub-
lication of such matter; it forms no part of
their lives. So it would be with the lower
order of music, if the instruction of the
young were in the proper hands. There
is nothing to be accomplished with the
masses after they are men and women; in
child-life only is the open sesame to suc-
cess, to a higher musical atmosphere, to a
broader plane, and serious thought should
be given to this subject by all who desire
to see music come into its own.
riUSiC AND PATRIOTISM.
T H E Philharmonic Society of New York,
seems to have incensed Riter Fitz-
gerald of the Philadelphia Item very much,
because it is not patriotic. It is not gen-
erally understood that patriotism is one of
the requirements of an orchestra. In fact,
just how far patriotism would be advan-
tageous is in itself a question. Art is the
first consideration, and it is well that it is
so, for that gives additional importance to
the appearance of an American artist or
composer upon the programs of this body
of musicians.
Nobody doubts that there are some
meritorious artists and compositions that
are never heard from, and this class is not
exclusively American, indeed all nationali-
ties belong to it. Attribute the cause to
fate, to personality, to anything that you
will, for some inexplicable reason some of
minor ability are on top, and some that are
truly artistic are down, and never will be
any where else. MacDowell has been pre-
sented on Philharmonic programs, and
Huss has been presented before now.
country would be in a more receptive con"
dition, and there would also be a greater
quantity of good healthy compositions
which by their merit would compel atten-
tion.
How far the remedy for these conditions
lies in the hands of the musicians them-
selves might be estimated from a knowl-
edge that the number is very large, and
if they joined forces in such a manner as
to compel attention they might become a
political force and thereby gain the ear of
the government. When a man has a vote
he has something which makes him at
least worthy of consideration and until
such a time as this is used to its best ad-
vantage music in the schools and in the
country will simply be a matter of happen.
jt
THE HALL OF FAHE !
A ND so we are to have a hall dedicated
to the Immortals of America. So
far thirty names have been selected to
grace the tablets and these names repre-
sent statesmen, scientists, soldiers, jurists,
educators, philanthropists, inventors, theo-
logians, poets and painters. Is it possible
that not one American has done enough
for music to earn recognition? To be
sure America has no Bach or Beethoven,
no Wagner. Germany has, but other coun-
tries have not, and in proportion to the
age of America there has been work
beyond estimate in the cause of musi-
cal art. America has no clearly de-
Lned individual school, but music is,
as the country is, a great composite
of every country, of every nationality.
Those men who sat in judgment may be
very well informed upon America and its
history in the broadest sense, but of the
growth and struggles of music they prob-
ably know nothing.
It would be no easy matter to trace fac-
tors that have done everything for music
in this country, for there has been much
work done and by many whose very names
are already forgotten, ungrateful as that
may seem. Much has been accomplished
in a quiet way. Who can think of music
in America without giving a thought to
Lowell Mason, or to Theodore Thomas, or
Evidently there must be merit beyond to Leopold Damrosch? And what a tre-
and far beyond the average for the fact mendous factor artistic piano making has
that they are Americans would absolutely been in the development of the art, to say
nothing of those whose talents have been
not figure in the matter at all.
Why should art pay a tribute to the nurtured and fostered by those at the head
country when the country pays no tribute of these concerns. To what and to whom
to art? Yes, if America contributed sup- music in America owes its being would
port to national conservatories, if opera make a long and interesting history, and it
and orchestra were maintained by govern- would seem as though in the name of jus-
ment or state as they should be, then natu- tice these names should be perpetuated.
rally enough it might be expected of the ** DROF. SKILTON'S rendition of
I
'Hark, Hark, the Lark,'and 'The
orchestra to bring out American., works Erl King,'by Schubert and Liszt, was pre-
because they were American, but then the ceded by a brief explanation of how the
whole aspect would be different, and the pieces came to be written. He said that