Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
JULY 9, 1921
ASweef-as-Su^ar Fox-Trot
WEETHEART
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wrong!
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MUSICAL EXPERTS CONDEMN JAZZ
Despite Defense by Geo. Ade, the Questionnaire
Sent Out by Chas. D. Isaacson Brings Some
Very Interesting Responses
Is jazz doomed to follow booze and Broadway-
night life, and be relegated to the limbo of more
or less forgotten things?
If so, George Ade probably didn't realize
what he was starting when he wrote an editorial
on jazz in the April Cosmopolitan. Through a
questionnaire conducted by Charles D. Isaac-
son and based on this editorial replies have been
received from 500 musical authorities in various
parts of the country. Four hundred expressed
themselves as unqualifiedly opposed to jazz and
100 were divided in their opinion.
Bereft of its last lingering remnant of a wild
life, Broadway without jazz, without even its
"blues" left, will be a sober White Way, indeed.
George Ade in his jazz editorial said: "Because
you seek the drugging effects of ragtime do not
contradict those who claim to get an actual
kick from the Boston Symphony Orchestra."
(George sounds a bit archaic with his reference
to ragtime, for ragtime is a day-before-yesterday
Urm and style, jazz having long since supplanted
it.)
"Music is the universal heritage," said George
further on in his editorial. "Somewhere in the
flower-dotted fields between Brahms and 'The
Maiden's Prayer' there is room for all of us
to ramble. Be comforted by the reflection that
all music'is good."
In the questionnaire based on the Ade edi-
torial the question asked was: "Is it possible
to advance to great music by gradual processes?"
Lowering Effect, Say 400
"Jazz was ruled out in most of the answers,"
said Mr. Isaacson. "It was agreed in about 400
of the answers that jazz could not lead upward
at all. One could only move downward from
jazz. Left to continue its way jazz is certain
to drag its adherents away from all that is fine
in art. This is the consensus of opinion of the
majority of thinkers, musicians and educators
questioned."
Jazz was condemned out of hand by Dean
F. C. Lutkin, of Northwestern University, who
said: "Jazz is the musical equivalent of rouge,
lipstick, short skirts, bedroom plays, question-
able dancing and everything vulgar and indecent.
It is a serious obstacle in the path of art and
many years will pass before its pernicious influ-
ence will be counteracted."
Gena Branscombe, composer, compares jazz to
"a strumpet, a painted woman, degrading, with
bestial mediocrity and petty sensuality as her
qualities."
Chalif, Russian dancing master, says; "It is
an explosion of insanity in music. Music creates
passions and feelings, but jazz creates mad,
beastly, vulgar feelings. It is a burlesque of
good music."
Daniel Frohmaii, veteran theatrical manager,
analyzes jazz calmly and opines that it is a mere
metrical form of noisy sounds better adapted to
the feet than to the ear.
Adores Ragtime, Abhors Jazz
Raoul Vidas, French violinist, discriminates
between jazz and ragtime. "I adore ragtime, but
abhor jazz," he says. "Ragtime is the most typi-
cal of the popular music of all nations. French,
Italian and English popular songs are really
dull besides the American ragtime airs."
John Alden Carpenter, composer, heads those
who speak in praise of jazz. "Let us be jazzy
when we feel like it and not get the fantastic
idea that we are un-American if we are un-
jazzy," he says. "The only real danger is that
we may talk about it too rrauch."
Riccardo Stracciari, baritone, offers this con-
structive opinion: "Jazz is responsible for the
awakening of an interest in music. Jazz is
necessary in developing a desire for the best,
just as the alphabet and the Mother Goose
rhymes are needed in making a basis for an
understanding of good literature."
Ellis Parker Butler, humorist, says: "Seems to
me that the whang-bang of jazz is the raw dyna-
mite blast that rips open and tears loose. You've
got a dead wall of the marble of musical appre-
ciation, and jazz whacks out the big chunks that
can be shaped into something worth while. You
get what I miean, Ike
. Jazz jolts out the
big gobs out of which the musical Rodin can
chop the real thing later on. Ain't it the truth
that it is a shorter road from jazz to Debussy
and Tschaikowsky than from old hymn tunes?"
Karlton Hackett, Chicago critic, says "It is a
strong American growth."
Leo Feist, song publisher, looking at the sub-
ject big and large, as does George Ade, says.
"Some men get more pleasure out of a cbromo
in the kitchen than a $100,000 painting in the
parlor. Leave the chromo in the kitchen."
Sue Harvard, soprano, speaks of jazz as
"poison and cocaine."
ENGLISH VISITOR IN TORONTO
A. V. Broadhurst, of Enoch & Sons, London,
Enthusiastic Over Reception Given Publications
of His House on This Side of the Atlantic
TORONTO, ONT., July 2.—A recent visitor to
Toronto was A. V. Broadhurst, of Enoch & Sons,
the widely known music publishing house ot
London, England. Mr. Broadhurst spent some
time at his firm's New York branch, which was
established a year ago under the management of
John Hanna, and came up to Canada to call on
Arthur Downing, of the Anglo-Canadian Music
Co., the Canadian wholesale agent for the Enoch
catalog.
When seen by your correspondent, Mr. Broad-
hurst expressed himself as greatly pleased with
the reception that the Canadian and American
people are according the Enoch publications. A
song has got to square with a high standard he-
fore Enoch & Sons will put it on the market. Th«»
words must have a real message, and there must
be a spontaneous melody, for, as Mr. Broadhurst
says, "Music and melody are to me synonymous."
The Waltz Sensation of To-day
"YOU'LL NEVER KNOW, NOR CARE"
"DEAR ONE"
The Most Beautiful Waltz-Ballad. By the Writer of "Rose."
"WHEN THE SUNBEAMS KISS THE DEWDROPS FROM THE ROSE"
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MAX E. HASENBEIN & CO., Inc.
230-232 Baker Building
Music Publishers
.
RACINE, WISCONSIN