The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-11-05
DISCUSSES MUSIC
Arthur arweil Gives Lecture on
Indian Songs.

Arthur FarWells lecture recital on
Music and Myth of the American In
dian and It's Relation to American
Composition" delivered before the
Schubert club at the Odeon yesterday,
would stand very well for direct an
swer to that question which is
being asked very frequently today,
namely, What is being done to build
up a national American school of mu-
sic?n Mr.. Farwell told what is being
done. He told it in clear, concise fash
ion, with no reference at all to what he
is contributing toward the foundation
of such school. He told it, too, in
simple language that is invariably an
indication of thorough knowledge.
Rag-time was not decried by Mr..
Farwell in his lecture, and neither was
any other form of the so-called popular
American music that patriotic bands
feel it incumbent upon them to play.
For this music, the lecturer asserted,
would, together with the negro and
Indian music and the cowboys folk
songs, leave it's impress on the music
of the future. 1t was the music that
the American people have chosen to ex-
press themselves in and, purified, 1t
was destined to survive in wOrthier
form. The lecturer referred to the fact
that the colonization of the new world
took place during the period in which
the German school of music had made
its influence felt in every continental
center. Though there are great Amer
lean composers, he said, none of them
has escaped the influence of this Ger
man school of a hundred years ago.
That was one reason why their music
could not be termed in any sense of the
word national music. 1t was imitation
rather than creation. Mr.. Farwell ex-
planned that he did not claim that the
Indian music represented national
school. 1t was merely one of the ele-
ments that were in the future to COM
pose such a school.
This lecture was merely preface to
the programme proper in which the
lecturer sought to give his audience
some idea of the music in Indian life.
He explained the Indian mythology
which, he claimed, was quite as COM
plete as that of the Greeks, and told
how song was the natural expression
of the Indians reverence for the natu-
raj forces he worshiped. Mr.. Farwell
divides the Indian music into three
classes, the elemental, or cosmic, the
human and the superhuman. The first
is music designed to placate the ele-
ments, and, as an illustration of 1t, Mr..
Farwell played two themes of the
Omaha tribe. The second is music
that expresses some human trait or
longing, and the third honors that
mysterious principle which the Indians
called Wakonda, and which they be-
lieved was responsible for every form
of life and motion These were also
illustrated with themes that are tradi-
tional songs of the Omaha people.
These themes all reveal the Indians
close association with nature, for, as
the lecturer himself expressed it, some
thing of the freedom of the plains, the
beauty of sylvan solitude and the
grandeur of desolate heights is ex-
pressed by them. To illustrate how
these themes were developed, Mr.. Far
we'll played three of his own compost
lions. Dawn" "Ichibuzzhi" and THE
Domain of Hurakan." In building up
the themes the composer has succeeded
in preserving the Indian character of
the music, and not in diluted form,
either. The music is bizarre, but i'm
pressive, full of wild imagery that is
tempered by a note of pathos. The
playing of these numbers closed an in
teresting programme.