The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-03-03

Ths Rssi Nssro Nus,s - e. Ne Fsuss ~ =
Csup Mssuse o. Revival

Gasp Nssrise o. Revival
To TIE EprroR OF TEE sUN-Sir. In your
issue Of Thursday. Feb Is you published .
letter from Mr.. @. wilired Pearce on Negroes
and Negro Melodies" Mr. resree states at
the close OF his letter that he wrote the com.
municatlon TO your paper because he did not
want TO see IL endorse the ally statements OF
those who say that the plantation and jubilee
melodies are the production OF colored peo-
pie" without desiring to enter into a discus-
sion with Mr.. Pearce on the various subjects
o! music which he has discussed do wish to
point ont some things wherein he IL in error.
In the hrst place. he has missed the point Of
the com position and work OF the eminent COM
poser DIR. Dvorak. DIR. Dvorhk does not be-
lieve. nor has he claimed, that he has utilized
negro melodies in his compositions nor that
negro melodies. a. written and published.
could be made the basis OF the school Of
American music which he suggests MIR.
pearcs ls quite right In saying the Jubilee
songs music and words. OF most all the So
called negro melodies we're written by KEEN
witted New Englanders But the writer grew
up IN the South and was surrounded through.
out his childhood and early manhood By
negroes. and from the experience thus gained
he wishes to say that these so-called negro
songs could never have been written for the
purpose OF portraying true negro music. or IL
they we're so written. the parties who did the
work were sorely In error as to what negro
music was
1t 10 not true at all that the negro music 10
but the transformed melodies which the me-
groes have heard. written by Northern or Eu-
ropean white mon. Unduestionably some OF
the music which the negroes sing had its ori-
gin In the white mind but In order to hear
tations or TO their churches once. or twice. or
three times; one must go TO their camp meet
sss s whs1 tine
in Sss by tns S ga Of tie
and negro women improvise the tunes which
they sing. At such places the observer. after
the prayers-in which the who.etconErogstion
verse improyl.ing the, tune as he goes along.
After he has sung one line over. time and time
other negro viii Join. and .sen another 'G and
then negro woman. and finally the whole
the same words and sing It over and over and
S SSs5 again iIGSTssnS II niger and
Very p0' apt %Ds0S,''a BE-. os ne HSish h4:
roundines.. and it is unlikely. to be one which
originated IN the white mind. To the person
orn of sGoh music viii b SsOI ound N
the fact that, on such occasions. the negroes
sn and ehdreS Put ia az tSs
only In the music Of the white mind. which is
written en- for the parts. that the negroes break
be heard also on the plantations at night. Tor
the negro often en- in his Jolly times sings words
can Invariably ind CHARACTERISTIC movements
time broken in the religious music BY tho
clap and pat Of the feet. in the Jolly music by
This religious music gives vent to many pe-
cuiarities OF the negro character: his COM
Tor the morrow; his hope and his fear as to
the future world; which shows itself In the
from some part OF true negro The
sons assign Tor these peculiar characteris-
be iancifui. but the chaTacteristlcs are there.
and can be heard by the person who gives
The negro rarely uses the fourth and moro
rarely sti,l the seventh whereas he will use
the fatted seventh continnally. and occasion;
arc the characteristics OF negro music, and It
H. Fesres ss.
says, perceived any pecul;arities about negro
There, he SAYS, ho heard a negro pour out
the widest cries in minor Keys" All the
ins" II IT. Pesrce had attended such '1 Ges
ious festivals as | have spoken OF. when the
hortationsl were over and the revival begun,
he could not have failed to hear the wild weird
which he noticed IN the old nearos
singing up II Vermont; and ALI the outpour;
,nGs, would be found musical weird. and
j wish to emphasize what Mr.. Psaree has
singers from the fisEe and Clark Unisersities,
and the many negro songs as published and
hat Pes1ss has w' m. .S
In which DR.; DvoraE had found tho peculiar
In the symphony which this
any negro motif but with the feelings of
genius he has absorbed the peculiartiss which
and with this feeling made his own he has
utilized his own mus cal NOUS dressed In
hese negro characteristics. He has caught
The peculiar feeling with which the crons"
81 an old negro woman. as she sits doing her
work. inspires you, and he has felt the wild
which the negroes. intsinging to-
gether. infuso into their eXpreaaIons. HI N