The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-02-15

ANro-A-srte>ss are Fone % Muste. bet No
Afro-Amerfean Sous Has Vet Rses Dis-
sovsreA N srits 90 Csrcful Search.

Ano-A-srte.ss are Fond 81 Mu.ie. bet No
| Afro-Amerfenn sons Has Vet Rses DIE
sovsrea N spits 90 Careful Search.
| To TIE EDrroR or TIE suS-eir: The
! eminent Bohemian composer Prof. Dvorak. has
! been led TO believe that the so-eallsd negro
melodies Of the South. made familiar In Europe
and America By the singing Of students OF
schools and colleges for colored men and
| women. we're taken down from the folk songs
OF the slaves. have lived aud travelled In all
the Southern States and have large acauaint-
snce with musical people Of the South and one
and all have told me that there is not q jubilee
| or negro mivstrel song known in that part OF
! our country that was not written by Northern
| or European white men.
/ have talked with scores OF colored singers
at Fisk and Clark universities and with colored
ministers from Virginia to the end Of Texas
about the folk lore and songs OF the Afro
Americans. and all bore testimony TO the fact
we'll known in the South. that the colored
people do not tell stories about =" Brer' Rabbit"
or any other fairy tales and that they have
no songs or tunes that cannot be traced back
to some well-known European song or musical
composition which they heard from the white
people. All the Jubilee songs music. and words
were written by keen-witted New England
teachers Of music In schools for the colored peo-
pie. who despise the silly glbberish ofthe Gold
The truth lie that the colored people love and
appreciate really good music by the masters,
and their taste for poetry runs to Shakespeare
Milton. Byron, and others OF the modern
English school l have attended more than .
thousand colored churches when escortinR
Northern friends to see the sights Of the South.
and never heard jubilee song at the services;
they use the same hymnals that are In use By
the churches for white Congregations. and pride
themselves upon decorous services
When beethoven was writing the Moon
light Sonata" tcalled the Kreutzer Sonata In
Count TolstoTs novel; for colored piano play
or from New Orleans who was making tour
OF Germany. he asked the American for mott
that was purely Airo-American; but the only
tune that the Am erlcan knew to be OF New Or
leans creation wasa simple air sung By the
creoles Any one who knows the old airs
rst part oi the Moonsht sonata sns and ID L
the one air which the colored pianist told Bee
thoyen was native American air from his ma
In the tidewater counties of Virginia men
Army" Who Shall Be King But CHARLEY
Lpllibplliro" and other songs sung by the
eaty but most OF the knew
songs. and many Of the ignorant natives tell
strangers that those songs are negro and YOU
ton mel odies we're written By white ladies'
and gentlemen for the am sem emit OF their chill
Georgia who has written some Of the " best
break-downs and clog dances used on tho min
Who were at College. and. Of course. would Y not
stand In paternal way for the jingllng melo-
sung for Years wherever the EnaIsh lan ns
Is spoken was written By an eminent surgeon
tsnr DnS Ts9 Of hts Seen long
mo'U OF his song that has been used with tell |
Ing b PTG PySak In recent
cane and cotton fields" he writes and sings
ABOUT In the song;
or Sso Witch ss 81 Ss4 G es
ton. Mass, and the music 10 BY an Irish
used to write melodies for Dan bryant
an, nave ,o been iGr several years sorrespond-
siderable space to musical matters e and when
the English craze setin. about 1889. for Amer |
ten Sy ATsTIcan DssTOSs made tour % The
reached Gsw 0rieans / did not find f one ' song
or tune written BY eolored person, There
lection OF music written by Mexican composers
from eirs sung By poems. who. he assured me
few of the compositions, and played one or
two over In the evening in the residence OF q
me that the music was from q collection
printed and sold By tho bsndm master Of a Span
that fheard no more Of native American com.
positions from colored people.
ored people conmon 10 the N Northern States tics
and In Europe is that they are fond OF the
banjo: That Is not so: that instrument was
Invented by white Nirginian. who played the
first one at Christy's minstrel show in New
spise 1, and prefer guitars. yiolins. and wind
or reed instruments. Everywhere in the South
at night the sound Of the guitar is heard from
and they are me swsss Gs
which have found their way from the spanish
settlements in Florida and along the Missis-
sinpi to the furthest bounds OF the South.
heard vas from a colored man living In st. Al
bans, VT. who would stand in a little park In |
front OF the leading hotel on summer nights,
and. looking toward the setting sun, would |
OF his notes seemed to be like the sounds made
by forest song birds. and others were like the
sounds made by animals when pleased. But |
all the outpourinGs were musical. weird. and
He had been stolen when child by SLAYER
Captain who sailed from Salem and afterWard
settled In Vermont asked the colored man |
where he learned the sounds he sang. and he
make the same sounds at nighttall in some
part OF Africa a long distance from Zanzibar.
l. have written this communication because
i have been constant reader OF The BUN
TO see II endorsing the silly state IN ents OF
those who say that the plantation and Jubilee
melodies are the productions Of the colored
people who like good music and who in time
composers OF good music.
l have read with much pleasure and In |
terest the valuable African articles written by
youE learned Mr. q !, Adams. and l have not
African music worthy to be called music |
and do not suppose that any savage ever nit |
hy luck upon an air worthy Of being a motif
Tor modern musicians am, sir. yours.