Music Trade Review

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8
A
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
AMERICAN MUSIC AND RAGTIME.
1 OHN PHILIP SOUSA'S views on the
J permanency of "ragtime" as recently
expressed during a visit to Chicago, will
hardly meet with the approbation of sin-
cere workers in the advancement of Ameri-
can music. He said: "Ragtime is an es-
tablished feature of American music; it
will never die, any more than 'Faust' and
the great operas will die. Of course, I
don't mean to compare them musically,
but ragtime has become as firmly estab-
lished as the others, and can no longer be
classed as a craze in music. • Nearly every-
body likes ragtime. King Edward VII.
liked it so well that he asked us to play
more of it, and we gave him 'Smoky
Mokes' and 'Georgia Camp Meeting.'
"Emperor William and the Czar were
also converted to ragtime. It is just as
popular everywhere as it ever was, and I
see no reason why it should not remain in
favor as long as music is played."
Speaking of ragtime brings to mind that
a gentleman who confessed himself not suf-
ficiently informed to discuss the subject of
American music wrote to the Sun that he
has been engaged in a brief but pointed
controversy with an English friend on the
matter of musical taste and productivity in
•the United States. The gist of the Briton's
assertions was that "Americans know noth-
ing about music," and that they com-
pose nothing but ragtime and care for
nothing else. Whereupon the correspond-
ent beseeches the paper "that shines for
HAROLD liAUKR, PIANIST, WHO REVISITS US AGAIN THIS YEAR.
all" to tell him whether America really is
guilty of being the inventor of ragtime and
whether it is actually true that we have no Edgar Stillman Kelley, sometime of San for the Englishman's assertion that we care
composers of music of the better sort.
Francisco, the orotund oratorios and can- only for that sort of music, an answer con-
In an editorial reply The Sun says: Our tillating cantatas of Prof. Horatio Willie taining just as much truth would be that
correspondent confesses his lack of musi- Parker, of Yale University, and the "Recol- England loves only the English ballad, be-
cal knowledge, and therefore we shall not lections of Brahms," by Arthur Whiting of side which a good hearty "coon song" is as
call him to account for his too ready ad- New York. Any of these gentlemen will champagne beside bottled vichy.
mission that in opera the old country is far endure comparison with the standard type
it
superior to ours. We understand him to of English composer. They certainly
There is a movement on foot for a Bach
mean England. Has he never heard of shrink when carried into the presence of Society in Buffalo that shall give at each
Silas G. Pratt's "Zenobia," nor John K. Beethoven and Mozart, very much as An- of its concerts at least one important work
Paine's "Azara?" Not Sir Arthur Sulli- thony Hope or Sarah Grand would in the by J..S. Bach. This work will be under-
van's "Ivanhoe" nor Goring Thomas's presence of Hugo or Flaubert.
taken by the Westminster Choral Society,
"Esmeralda" outdid either of these. Did
We are unable to say who "invented" under the direction of Angelo M. Read.
he never hear of "The Scarlet Letter" by ragtime, but it is much older than Ameri-
Walter Damrosch? This opera was actu- ca. When Columbus was battling with
Mr. Mancinelli, who is not returning to
ally performed and listened to.
the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, the this country, will conduct the first per-
But, as our correspondent truthfully Bohemian gypsies of Hungaria were play- formance of "Tristan und Isolde" ever
says, this is a young country. "At the age ing ragtime in its rudimentary form, and given in Rome during the coming Winter.
of the old world," he continues, "it may Scotch mothers in the Highlands were His own opera, "Ero e Leandro," will also
prove to be as musical." It may. When singing their babes to sleep with it. The be given.
the republic of the United States has ex- truth is that no one invented it. It is like
Victor Maurel has finished a book on
isted as many centuries as the kingdom of Topsy. It never was born; it "jes' grow-
voice
production which he has spent many
England, it may produce composers as ed." It "growed" and "growed" from the
years
in preparing. It will be published
learned as Sir C. H. H. Parry or Sir Fred- rudimentary form of the Hungarian and
erick Bridge, who can discourse most pro- the Scot till it became the exaggerated this month in Paris.
foundly of the principles of music through thing which is now supposed to be a life-
ETTA EDWARDS, Vocal Instruction, Steinert Hall
the four movements of a symphony or the like reproduction of the negro song, but is M RS. Boston,
Mass.
several parts of a festival oratorio, made nothing of the sort. The same little trick
for the Birmingham or Leeds market.
of throwing the accent into unexpected
At present, however, we are forced to places was practised long before the negro
put up with the Morningside Heights ideal- took it up, and he employed it in his slave
izations of Prof. E. A. MacDowell, of Col- songs just as the older races had before
umbia University, the cheerful and inspir- him.
•A.TTBTTHIT. I T . TT.
iting overtures and Hibernian string quar-
It remained for the American writer of
All oar Instruments contain the fun iron frame an4
tets of George W. Chadwick of the New music hall ditties to formulate the theory
patent toning pin. The greatest invention in the history
England Conservatory, the tinkling and that it was the exaggeration of this pecu- of piano making. Any radical changes in the climate, heat
merry suites of Arthur Foote of New Eng- liarity that would tickle the fancy of the or dampness, cannot affect the standing in tone of oar BV
and therefor* challenge the world that mm
land in general, the Chinese pipe dreams of masses and to compose accordingly. As •trnments,
will excel any othec