Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-14
INDIAN
FOLK MUSIC

The Washington people are the main fac
tors in a movement for the translation
into musical notation and the preservation
of the Indian MELODIES and folk songs which
for three hundekd years have been so wide
ly talked of and have played such part
in fiction, but which have hitherto not been
collected. They are doing it by taking down
the melodies as they fall from the lips of
one of their number, an Indian. 1t is only
now, when the Indian race is passing from
the stage on which for centuries it played
so romantic a part, that any systematic
attempt is being made to preserve its char
acteristic songs for posterity.
The enterprise has focused the attention
of musicians throughout the United states
and Europe, and has won for its authors
an international reputation in scientific and
artistic circles. They are Mr.. Francis La
Flesche of the Indian office, Miss Alice u.
Fletcher of the Peabody Museum at Har-
ward University and Mr.. Edwin s. Tracy,
recently one of the musical instructors In
the public schools of Washington under Inc
direction of Miss Alys Bentley. The work
occupying their attention is the preserva-
ton of the songs of the American Indian
by the collecting and recording OF DIS ioik
music while opportunity Tor such research
is yet ripe. In their labors they are sec
onded by Mr.. Arthur Farwell, "a young
American composer of Newton Center, Mas
sachusetts, who is the founder OF the wa
Wan Press, named from the Indian music
sung by Mr.. La Flesche and published In
book form by Miss Fletcher.
X X
Mr.. Tracy's membership in the triumVl-
rate came by way of noting down the melo-
dies from oral and graphophonic dictation.
He succeeded Prof. John Comfort Fillmore
of Harvard. who was the first collaboration
with Miss Fletcher, and the movement
started in 1882, has now taken root In Hu
steal centers both in this country anu
abroad the whole resulting in the puplca-
ton of several books, quantity OF maya
zine literature and scores of musical COM
positions which are American to the core
First and foremost among the disciples OF
Indian music is Mr.. Francis La Flesche, an
Indian at the Indian office, whose modest
manner and transformations appearance give
little indication of the part ne mas taken 10
ward charging the material Which may oe
drawn upon for the development or amer
lean composition. He was discovery OF
the energetic Harvard woman who was
pushing chronological researches with a vim
and determination characteristic OF New
England. His father, who was ehieL ol
the Omaha Indians, was called Esta-
maZa which means Iron Eye. A man
of nobility and strength of character was
this Iron Eye. He determined that his
children should live and be educated among
the whites, and young La F1esche, whose
name was derived from a strain of french
ancestry in his makeup, was sent to the
mission school near his Nebraska home. AT
the white mans school the boy began the
evolution of a process which changed his
speech, and manners into those of what we
call civilization. Out of school hours, how
ever, he took part in the Indian ceremonies
and listened 10 the aboriginal music Whlch
is interviewer with every phase of indian
life The tribal songs, handed down from
generation to generation, were learned by
La Flesche, and he sang them just as every
Indiar lad does. To this day he has hun
d<ads of the melodies in memory and can
sing them at any moment.
He is no musician. He does not claim to
be. He has never had the opportunity-the
desire, perhapS-for a technical training in
music; yet his admirable education in other
matters and his love for his race equip him
for the role he is playing in preserving the
songs of dying people. He came to Wash
ington through the invitation of Samuel j.
Kirkwood, Secretary of the Interior under
Garfield, who placed him in the Indian Of
fee where he is at the present time. In
the early ninetes he graduated from the
National University of Law in this city and
became possessed of the degree of master
of laws.
Miss Fletcher's work has been written and
talked of ever since the publication of her
monograph, "A Study of Omaha Music"