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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
THE PRESENT POTENT INFLUENCE OF NEGRO MELODIES
Not Only Are Most of the Folk-Songs of America Based on Music of Negro Origin, but the
Present-day Syncopations Show to a Remarkable Extent the Influence of Negro Harmonies
Negro music is a topic of special interest just
now because of the concert engagement of the
American Syncopated Orchestra, which is ap-
pearing throughout the country. In this con-
nection J. Rosamond Johnson recently com-
mented as follows:
Through the negro this country is endowed
with folk music that is intimate, complete in it-
self and beautiful. It is not our only music of
folk lore origin, for the folk song of the Ameri-
can Indian is a unique contribution to the music
of the world, the importance of which Mac-
Dowell, for one, fully grasped. Also our pro-
genitors of Anglo-Saxon origin brought with
them songs and ballads of the British Isles that
still are held in purity in the mountain fast-
nesses of the Southern States. Strange versions
of these British ballads have cropped up in
the cowboy songs of the frontier.
Natalie Curtis-Burlin is a champion with a
voice of authority for negro music. This author
of "Negro Folk Songs" has to the current num-
ber of The Musical Quarterly contributed a quite
remarkable article upon "Black Singers and
Players."
It is negro music with its by-product of syn-
copation or "rag time" that to-day most widely
influences the popular song life of America.
Negro rhythms have captivated the world at
large. Some have denied that our popular
American music owes its stimulus to the negro.
A most interesting and conclusive account of
the evolution of ragtime is contained in the
"Autobiography of an ex-Colored Man," by
James Weldon Johnson.
In going further than Mrs. Burlin or Mr.
Johnson the influence of the syncopation in
popular music should be traced back to the
"ALABAMA
MOON"
By GEORGE HAMILTON GREEN
That Dreamy, Crooning, Moonlight
Melody. Records and Rolls
now on sale.
Published Vocal and Instrumental
STOP IT
MEL KAUFMAN'S LATEST
Words by HARRY D. KERR
"AMORITA"
By the Writers of
"MY CAIRO LOVE'
The
A Jazzy, Raggy Novelty Sensation.
It's in the air.
Featured by orchestras and singers
' everywhere.
Extraordinary
Spanish
Fox-trot Song
with the
Dash and
Swing of the
Spanish
Fandango
JUNE 19,
1920
western half of Africa. Research has estab-
lished that the East African negro has no music
of the particular "kink" in rhythm that we call
rag or syncopation. This is important as the
exotic character of all modern British music
lias caused wonderment. Not only Coleridge
Taylor was of the colored race, but also Scott,
German and Grainger, yes, even Elgar, are
"raggers." Science may some day establish a
prehistoric«connection between West Africa and
the British Isles that may have caused the strong
predilection for syncopation in Irish and Scotch
folk music.
We cannot foretell the impress that the voice
of the slave will leave upon the art of this
country—a poetic justice, Mrs. Burlin calls it.
ll is the negro whose melodies are on our lips
and whose rhythms impel our marching feet in
war. The irresistible music that wells up from
this sunny and unresentful people is hummed
and whistled, danced to and marched to, laughed
over and wept over by high and low and by rich
?nd poor throughout the land. The down-trodden
black man, whose patient religious faith has kept
his heart still unembittered, is fast becoming the
singing voice of all America.
"Only in Russia," declared one musician,
"have I heard chorus singing comparable to the
Hampton music." At Hampton, Tuskegee and
F|sh institutes and other southern schools are to
be found the great choruses of America as much
as in Boston and Lindsborg, or more so.
"How do they do it?" One may well ask, for
the singing is not only faultless in its simple
and natural beauty, but profoundly stirring in
emotional wealth of feeling.
. "Who trains this marvelous chorus?" The
question was eagerly asked by an European
musician who was visiting the Hampton Insti-
tute in Virginia, after listening to the great
chorus of 900 colored students sing the "Planta-
tions," as the negroes call the old melodies that
had their birth in days of slavery, religious songs
that were the voice of the bondman's soul. T h e ,
extraordinary unity, the precision of attack and
the faultless pitch were what impelled the mu-
sician's question. The answer of Mrs. Burlin
baffled him: "Why, no one trains these negro
boys and girls. Their singing is natural."
"I don't mean," he persisted, "who trains their
voices, which I understand are natural voices,
but who teaches them their parts and who drills
them as a chorus?" "No one," was the answer.
Rut the musician would not believe that such re-
sults could be achieved by instinct alone. He
finally was referred to Major Morton, who is
Booker Washington's successor as principal at
Tuskegee and who was at that time comman-
dant at Hampton and sang the solo parts of the
leader—"the lead" in negro musical parlance.
The reply emphasized through its laughing sur-
prise the inborn, intuitive quality of the negro's
love for music: "Why, nobody ever taught us
to sing." "Well, then, how do you do it?"
asked the musician in amazement. "T don't know.
We just sing, that's all."
And how spontaneously they sing. Who can
forget the first concert given by the Clef Club,
a negro orchestra in New York, before a large
and representative white audience about eight
years ago in Carnegie Hall? Says Mrs. Burlin:
"Music-loving Manhattan felt a thrill down its
spine such as only the greatest performances
can inspire when at a climax in the opening
march that entire negro orchestra of over 100
men burst out singing as they played."
Just imagine our Symphony Orchestra men
singing as they play, while Mr. Oberhoffer con-
ducts and sings the tenor solo.part!
Published also Instrumental
"LASSIE O'MINE"
By EDWARD J. WALT
Poem by FRED G. BOWLES
A SONG OF TRUE MERIT
Succeeding on its natural inherent qualities, this quaint and appealing little Scotch ballad is gaining
in prestige and sales daily. Give this song a display now. Published in
three keys; also Duet and Octavo Arrangements.
Stock Up on the Above Publications Now. Send Your Orders to ',
SAM FOX PUBLISHING CO., Cleveland, 0., U. S. A.
CAMPAIGN ON NEW FEIST BALLAD
Leo Feist, Inc., have just inaugurated a big
publicity campaign in trade and professional cir-
cles on their new popular song, "I'm in Heaven
When I'm in My Mother's Arms." The song
is of the ballad type of wide appeal and the
Feist organization look forward to its being one
of their sales features during the Summer
months.