Music Trade Review

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THE
56
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
CHARLES WAKEFIELD CADMAN WANTS MUSIC CONGRESS.
Prominent American Composer Makes Strong Plea for Such a Gathering at San Francisco Dur-
ing the Panama-Pacific Exposition for the Purpose of Impressing the World with the Im-
portance of American Music—Publishers Should Support the Movement.
Charles Wakefield Cadman, the prominent
American composer, whose numerous works are
familiar to music lovers throughout the country,
is one of those who has come to the front with
the suggestion that a music congress be held in
San Francisco in 1915, at the time of the big ex-
position in that city. Mr. Cadman outlines his
idea of the congress in the following letter to the
editor of the New York American:
I submit for your consideration the following suggestions
for a three-day musical congress at the Panama Exposition.
The matter has been submitted to the director and board of
managers of the Panama Exposition.
THE OBJECT.
American composers. The orchestra could be engaged at
San Francisco and a chorus organized under local leader-
ship. The chamber music interpreters should be chosen
wisely from different parts of the country, likewise the
soloists and the speakers, that the gathering may be as
representative as possible. A high standard of efficiency
should govern the selection of such men and women.
There could be a board of managers consisting of an
active council and an honorary or advisory council.
The advisory council should comprise the names of those
men and women prominently espousing the American com-
poser and his works. This council would have a voice
with the active council in outlining the policy of the con-
gress, and would assist in the propaganda and moral sup-
port of the enterprise.
The active council should have the initiative and the
power for carrying out the determined policy, co-operating
so far as possible with the exposition authorities.
CHARLES W. CADMAN.
1. To show America, and the world at large, the progress
of American musical creative art, its struggles and achieve-
ments, its present scope and its possible future.
2. To aid the cause of the American composer and to se-
cure a hearing for the best of his work through the un-
doubted prominence of a musical congress held at the Pan-
New Publications of B. F. Wood Music Co.
ama Exposition in San Francisco.
BOSTON PUBLISHERS ACTIVE.
Look Good—Thompson & Co. Have Strong
Catalog—Visitors at Ditson's.
played in the meeting as described the other day
in a new London labor paper as to supply an
amended and authoritative version for publica-
tion on the following day. The account first given
stated that Mr. Shaw "was so moved by the
singing that he found himself unconsciously join-
ing in and even attempting to conduct and lead the
siging." But in true Shavian style the "attempted"
is eliminated in the correction supplied by the
principal himself in the incident.
"I took on myself the duty of leading the sing-
ing in my box," writes Mr. Shaw, "being of the
opinion that hymn singing, when the tune is a
jolly one (and the Salvation Army has enough
genuine religion in it to specialize in jolly hymn
tunes), is a highly enjoyable, healthy and recre-
ative exercise. Now the art of leading a choir,
or an orchestra, or anything else, consists, not in
being 'carried away,' but in carrying other people
away; and this I did with such success that a
young lady in the Army bonnet took my hands as
we left tthe box at the end of the meeting, and
said, with moist eyes, 'We know, don't we?' "
A POPULAR MISCONCEPTION.
How many people have the correct conception
A three-day congress with morning, afternoon and even-
of what is meant by the term "rye" as it is ap-
ing sessions.
plied to the old ditty "Comin' thro' the Rye?"
(Special to The Review.)
1. Morning sessions given over to vocally and instru-
Pictures have depicted a laddie and lassie meet-
mentally illustrated talks or lectures on the musical strug-
Boston, Mass., March 3, 1913.
gles, progress and future of musical composition in America.
ing and kissing in a field of grain. The lines—
The
B.
F.
Wood
Music
Co.
has
put
out
a
few
This could include discussion of the theories and the re-
"If a laddie meet a lassie
new pieces the past fortnight, and they are destined
sults of composition based upon folk themes indigenous to
Comin' thro' the rye."
,.
to meet with the same hearty approval that is the
American soil.
2. Afternoon sessions would exploit chamber music by
and especially the other couplet—
good fortune of so much of the music published
American writers. It would also present a series of vocal
"A* the lads they smile on me
j.j
by this house. Business with the Wood Company
recitals, with music conceived in the days following the
is keeping up at splendid rate.
When comin' thro' the rye,"
American Revolution, down through the ante-bellum days,
C. W. Thompson & Co., at the corner of Park seem to imply that traversing the rye was an
through minstrelsy, arriving at the present heterogeneous
expression chosen by American writers of music.
and Tremont streets, is finding business excellent. habitual or common thing, but what in the name
3. The evening sessions would exploit serious orches-
Mr. Thompson has not put out any music this of common sense, asks a contemporary, could be
tral and choral works of American composers.
past
month, but his establishment is taxed through the object in trampling down grain in that style?
The morning sessions could present well-known educa-
the popularity of earlier publications.
The song seems to suggest a harvest scene,
tors, musical historians and analysists with the assistance ot
capable vocalists and instrumentalists chosen from a wide
A visitor to the Ditson Co. a short time ago where both sexes, as is the custom, are at work
field. It could also present those laboring for the preser-
was George Seixas, of the Recordi Co., who reaping, and where they would come and go
vation, the exploitation and the amalgamation of Indian,
spent three of four days in town. George W. through the rye itself, so as to meet and kiss in
Negro, Creole or other American folk themes in relation to
Furness, the Ditson traveling man, is in the it; hut the truth is, says the same authority, that
composition.
Middle West, and having a most successful trip.
The afternoon sessions could bring forth current Ameri-
the rye in this case is the name of a small, shallow
can chamber music and vocal composition in its manifold
stream near Ayr, in Scotland, which, having neith-
forms, with famous interpreters of these branches. One
BERNARD SHAW_ ON SINGING.
er bridge nor ferry, was forded by people going
program could comprise the best of the Stephen C. Foster
Hymn singing, according to George Bernard to and trom market, custom allowing a lad to
melodies, with other songs of that period, given in costume
and with simple stage setting. Then, again, a program
steal a kiss from any lass of his acquaintance
Shaw, is a most commendable exercise—when the
of "Negro spirituals," given by Afro-Americans, together
tune is a jolly one. And it woulJ seem that in a Avhom he met midstream.
with certain Creole songs done by those who have retained
certain Albert Hall meeting that is writ large in
This is the true explanation, if one will refer
them, might make up a program of interest to the musical
the anna'ls of the Salvation Army the enigmatic to Burns's original ballad, in which the first verse
public out of touch with such things.
A program of idealized and unidealized Indian music
Irishman, who, as all tfhe world knows, began his refers to the lass wetting her clothes in the
could be heard. This could consist of the untouched
career as a music critic, disclosed an unsuspected stream.
themes themselves supplied by Aborigines, with the ideal-
talent for conducting. At any rate, he so decid-
"Jennie is a wat, puir body;
ization of Indian melodies in the hands of artistic vocalists
edly objected to the -description of the part he
Comin' thro' the rye."
end instrumentalists. Native musical instruments could be
shown and their relation to the primitive music disclosed.
"Jenny's seldom dry;
The evening sessions could feature serious orchestral and
She drag'lt a' her petticoatie."
MILLION COPY HIT
choral music drawn from the work of deceased and extant
This being the case, the word rye has good claim
to the dignity of a capital "R."
THE PLAN.
Down By The Old Millstream
NOW PLAYING IN NEW YORK
Three Big Musical Successes
At the Globe Theater
ipper"
"The Lady of the Slipper
Book by Ann Caldwell and Lawrence McCarty.
Lyrics by James O'Dea.
Music by Victor Herbert.
Also New Hits
New WHEN WE WERE SWEETHEARTS
UNDER THE OLD OAK TREE
New
WAY DOWN SOUTH
New
New
RAG RAG RAG
New
THAT SUBWAY RAG
FRANKIE AND JOHNNY
New
New
New
New
New
New
New
TELL TAYLOR, MUSIC PUBLISHER
NEW YORK
CHICAGO
"All
For the Ladies"
Book and Lyrics by Henry Blossom.
My Caroline
#
Story the
f one
one ^tory
tne
Music by Alfred G. Robyn.
"Under Many Flags"
Conceived by Arthur Voegtlin.
Book by Carroll Fleming.
Music and Lyrics by Manuel Klein.
All the Music Now Ready.
M. WITMARK & SONS
Witmark Bldg., 144-146 West «7th St. N. Y. City.
Chicago San Francisco London Paris Melbourne
You or I, Love?
Gasoline
At the Lyric Theater
At the N. Y. Hippodrome
Don't fail to order these Songs
My Dixie Rose
Who shall Wear them
WALTER JACOBS
167 Tremont St.,
BOSTON, MASS
Publisher of
"Kiss of Spring," "Some Day When Dreams Come True,"
And Some Others World Famous.
OLIVER
DITSON
COMPANY
BOSTON
NEW YORK
Anticipate and Supply Every Requirement of Music Dealers
WHITE-SMITH MUSIC PUB. CO.
PUBLISHERS, PRINTERS & ENGRAVERS OF MUSIC
Main Offices: 62-64 Stanhope St., Boston
Branch Houses: New York and Chicago
Roses Tell
'Mid the Purple Tint-
ed Hills of Tennessee
You Can't Repay the
Debt You Owe your Mother
Meet Me in the Twilight
NEW YORK
MCKINLEY MUSIC CO.
CHICAGO