Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
THE INDIAN IN MUSIC.
A T the recent annual meeting of the
**• American Folk-Lore Society in Bos-
ton, Arthur Farwell, instructor at Cornell
University, spoke o'n the subject of "Indian
Music," claiming that the North American
Indian is as much belittled musically as in
other departments of his "civilization." Mr.
Farwell began with the general assertion
that the folk songs of a nation underlie its
successful music, and that the great masters
—Beethoven in Germany, Grieg in Scandi-
navia, Tschaikowsky in Russia, Dvorak in
Bohemia, and Wagner, attained their strength
in the development of the folk-lore music of
their respective lands. "This music," ex-
plained the speaker, "is the expression of
the feelings which nature and natural phe-
nomena produce in the different peoples;
the reproduction of their sunshine, or in the
northern lands the reflection of their cold
and snows, and of their long, dark winter
nights. The Celts live on islands, and in
their music we have the wail of the winds,
the roar of the surf and the ceaseless beat-
ing of the ocean. These are the fundamen-
tal principles of folk music, and also the
underlying basis of successful music in
those lands.
"In our own country we have as yet no
great musical productions. The students
who go abroad from us to take their course
under European masters, bring back with
them the feeling and spirit of the institu-
tions under which they have studied. They
try to transplant into foreign soil and dif-
ferent conditions what they have been
taught of form and harmony, and these do
not take kindly to our atmosphere, and en-
vironment. But we have our own basis for
a great music in the future. The settle-
ment of the country by the European, the
adapting of his customs and ways of life
to the circumstances of climate and condi-
tion of this land, do not change our nat-
ural musical foundations. They are now
exactly those of the Indian. It was nature
which induced him to sing and express in
his song the conditions surrounding him, and
these conditions prevailing to-day, we must
look to them for the expression of our na-
tional music."
The points which Mr. Farwell brought to
the attention of the audience were empha-
sized by the presentation of nearly a dozen
Indian songs. They were harmonized by
the speaker in a way at some variance with
the academic methods which are taught in
the schools, and rightly so, he claimed,
since it is a music apart by itself and not
subject to the conditions and forms of mod-
ern life.
Each song is accompanied by a myth, and
in the light of the environment which the
folk tale gives it, the music is seen to be an
interpretation or a setting of the myth. In
the song, "The Thunder Bird," the roll of
the thunder is the dominant idea, while the
song that accompanies the rounding up of
the cattle, an imitation of the barking of
the wolf, is one that might easily have place
in a modern collection of songs. It has the
freedom of the open air and a grace that
gives it immediate interest. It is not unlike
the Russian airs in feeling, while the "Old
Man's Love Song" is suggestive at once
of Grieg. This song, in the minor key,
with its arrangements of themes in a man-
ner not unlike the prescribed form of to-
day, was indeed a song not needing words.
Each of the group was different in its char-
acter from the. others, the "Deathless Voice,"
that of a hero whose soul is forever march-
ing on, and whose voice is inciting the liv-
ing to bravery and conquest, was a stirring,
martial air, with the peculiarity of an echo
of half of each phrase.
Mr. Farwell presented song after song in
support of his claim that the Indian "sav-
ages" of our country were more musical
than are we of to-day. He showed by set-
tings for the piano that their songs are not
H. II. BARNHART.
the nonsensical yells and screeches that we
are prone to consider them, but are the
spontaneous outburst of their communings
with nature, and are worthy in every way
to form the foundations of a national music
in this country which shall equal that of
any of our older European contemporaries.
WILL TOUR THE UNITED STATES.
JV/I R. H. H. BARNHART, basso, will ar-
' * rive in New York about the middle
of October for a tour of the United States.
His engagements in this country last season
were with the Pittsburg Orchestra and other
prominent organizations, and his work was
praised by all the leading critics in the prin-
cipal cities. During the season of 1899-
1900, he appeared in the principal cities of
Europe, and was engaged for the forthcom-
ing American tour at that time by Chas. L.
Young.
MAUD POWELL SAILS.
'"T HAT eminent violin virtuoso, Miss Maud
'
Powell, sailed for Europe on Thursday
last, having finished one of the most success-
ful tours during her career. She played at
nearly fifty concerts this spring. Miss Pow-
ell will remain abroad during the coming
season, devoting her time to concert tours
through Germany, Holland, France and
Great Britain, and will not be heard here
until the season of 1902-1903.
MRS. M. H. DE MOSS.
A MONG the coloratura singers of the day,
**• Mrs. M. Hissem de Moss, whose por-
trait appears on our front page, takes a high
rank. Her voice is a pure and flexible so-
prano of great range and fine quality. This
season has been the first that Mrs. de Moss
has spent in the East and it has been very
satisfactory to her. She was first heard here,
at the concert given in the Madison Square
Garden by the Aschenbrodel Verein, for the
benefit of the Galveston sufferers. Follow-
ing this she was heard with the Oratorio
Society, under the direction of Mr. Frank
Damrosch, in Bach's B minor Mass. Later
she was the soloist at one of the Young
People's concerts given in Carnegie Hall,
and also at one given under the auspices
of the Brooklyn Institute, both of which were
conducted by Mr. Frank Damrosch. Be-
sides singing in these concerts, she was heard
twice in the Brooklyn Institute course, and
in several concerts with the Pittsburg Or-
chestra, Victor Herbert, conductor, the last
concert being in Orange early last month.
She filled a number of out-of-town concerts
with much success, notably with the Men-
delssohn Society of Philadelphia, the Or-
pheus Society in Springfield, and elsewhere.
Henry Wolfsohn, who was looking after her
business this past season, is to make her
his principal soprano for the coming sea-
son. This past week she was one of the
leading sopranos at the Bethlehem Bach
Festival. She is also the star prima donna
at the forthcoming Cortland Festival and is
to sing the Mendelssohn "Hymn of Praise"
in Allentown, on the fourth of June. At the
April concert of the New York Arion So-
ciety, Julius Lorenz, conductor, she will also
be heard.
A CLEVER riUSICIAN HONORED.
C DGAR STILLMAN KELLEY, who has
' ' been appointed a professor at the Yale
Music School as an associate to Professors
Samuel S. Sanford and Horatio W Parker,
is a musician of decided individuality. He
was first heard of fifteen or more years ago
while living in San Francisco. McKee Ran-
kin, the actor, then managing the California
Theatre, revived Shakespeare's "Macbeth"
with artistic accessories. The scenery and
the costumes had archaeological verity, and
Mr. Kelley composed a score of incidental
music in which melodies of the period were
treated in the most modern manner.
Kelley was always advanced in his notions.
When he first returned to this country after
his studies in Europe, he was a Wagnerian
to the extent of bigotry. Subsequently he
tried his hand at light music of a popular
sort. He wrote some songs based on Chi-
nese musical forms, and two or three comic
operas.
His latest effort—which hardly received
the attention it deserved—was the incidental
music for the "Ben Hur" production. In
this he employed the scales, harmonic pro-
gressions and irregular metres of ancient
Greece.
Mrs. Lucie Boice-Wood sang the soprano
role in Gaul's "Holy City" at Roseville, N. J.,
on Wednesday last under the leadership of
Tali E. Morgan.
„