Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
REMLW
THE
JfUSIC TIRADE
VOL. L. N o . 4.
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 1 Madison Ave., New York, January 22, 1910
SING
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il
Have Made Nations
S
ONG writers who without doubt have had a tremendous influence in shaping the destinies of nations have never been
recognized as have been poets and military chieftains.
The great nations of earth do not hesitate to pour out their treasure in erecting costly tributes to the achieve-
ments of military heroes.
In Trafalgar Square, London, the heart of the British Empire, a great naval hero is glorified.
Under the golden dome of the Tnvalides in Paris, the great art of the French nation, is shown in a beautiful tribute to the
man who made a new map of Europe.
In the Unter den Linden in Berlin the great Frederick is deified.
In the Capital City of this country a tall, gleaming shaft shows our tribute to the Father of His Country.
And on the lordly banks of the Hudson the magnificent tomb of Grant shows how the people revere our greatest military
leader of modern times, and yet, if we look the world over where do we find a monument to the men who have written songs
which have helped to create nations?
Where is the monument to Rouget de Lisle, who gave to France the Marseillaise—that ringing melody which inspired
the French people on the field so that they swept into battle inspired by this marvelous creation ?
Where is the monument in Germany to Max Scheneckburger, who wrote the poem beginning:
"A voice resounds like thunder-peal,
'Mid dashing wave and clang of steel.
The Rhine! The Rhine! The German Rhine!
Who guards to-day my stream divine?"
Where is the monument" to Carl Wilhelm, who set the five stanzas to music?
This song, to my mind; has influenced a great nation more than any other single song ever written.
It was at once and by common consent adopted as the German watch and war cry, and it was sung from the Baltic on the
North to Bavaria on the. South and to Alsace and Lorraine on the W T est.
It was in 1854 that this song was written and the young men of Germany, forbidden by the police to meet for political dis-
cussion took refuge in their saengerbunds and maennerchors where unmolested they sang the old songs of the Fatherland and such
revolutionary pieces as the Marseillaise, since you"cannot very well arrest a man foi\ singing.
When'the memorable struggle came in 1870 every soldier in the German legions knew "The Watch On the Rhine" by
heart and it literally became the marching song and the battle cry of the armies in the field. Whole battalions and divisions went
into battle stirred by its stately "measures and 'Bismarck voiced it as his personal opinion that the singing of this song did as much
to win victories as did-the .-German bayonets.
Musically it is all that a great and inspiring national lyric should be—broad—stately—melodious, with a moderate vocal
compass that fits it for all voices.
/
In this country our composers have never been honored by the people and yet it has been said by eminent men that no gen-
erals on the field did more during the dark days of the Civil War to stir the soldiers than did the songs of George F. Root.
His "Battle Cry of Freedom" and his "Tram]), Tramp, The Boys Are Marching" did more to inspire the Boys in Blue than
all the urging of commanders.
It was the songs—the sentiment—the encouragement—that peculiar humanness which appealed to the heart and stirred
the fighting blood of men so that victories were won, and yet, where is the monument to Root?
There is none, save the one which he, himself, erected in the hearts of the American people.
Of bronze—of marble creations, which should point to future generations our'appreciation of the great war poet there are
none.
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. . .
.
Is this right?
Is it
fitting?
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