The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-03-21

too conventional. and sang them to my
self in the light Of their mythical mean
/ ing. they took on a wholly new charac-
ter. Far from being meaningless, they
appeared to me now as unusually ex-
pressive melodies or motives, impeliing-
| " suggestive of development into larger
forms. Here was a great find. a new,
forceful. varied, highly poetic. musical
idiOm. capable OF infinite development,
and belonging exclusively to America
belonging TO me. for I was born and
reared in the west, had seen Sitting
Bull himself and his warriors in cap
| tivity: Indian villages with their pic
| turesGue tepees. sun dances and the inn
| passioned addresses of the priest TO the
Sun God-0f these and much more. the
meaning now came hack to mo with re-
doubled force. These things were my
own part OF my OWN life. and here was
the means at hand Of infimate iy voic-
, ing the rich world Of romance in my
own art of tone"
He wishes it understood however.
/ that at no time has he held Indian
| songs to be the basis OF American mu-
sic, but merely an element of il. and
less than one-hslf of mis- own work is
based upon Indian or other American
| folk song.
OF his works Henry InzTaham, writ
ing to the ChautauQuan. says:
among his best negro songs may be
mentioned De Rocks Renderin and
| 'Moanin' Dove Of the Spanish Cali
| fornian folk songs. The Hours of Grief
The Black Face and The Bird Dance
Song; and of the COW boy folk songs,
The Lone Prairie The interesting
character Of these compositions in
which the music admirably supplements
and enforces the words, may be slight
/ ~ indicated by the words of the cow
boy song. The Lone Prairiee':
20, bury me not on the lone prairee,
Where the wild coyote will howl Ger
me-
/ In a narrow grave just six by three.
o, bury me not on the lone praircs.
And they buried him there on the lone
prairee,
| Where the coyote howls and the wind
goes free.
In his narrow grave just six by three.
And they buried him there on the lone
prairee."
This is a song such as a cowboy
alone on the wide prairie might sing as
/ he watched his cattle, song with an
| indescribably cheerful melancholy about
it; grimly humorous treatment of a
J
zaTre, is fully in harmony with the
words and the combination is extra
ordinary"
| Mr.. Henry Gilbert says: "Of the In
| dian compositions, the first was Amer
lean Melodies, delicately and sympa-
thetically harmonized. Then there is
! Ichibuzzi.' a laughing scherzo for the
piano. The Domain of Hurakon,'
rhapsodie for the piano, and Dawn
/ tone poem for orchestra. OF his nom
/ folk lore compositions, the two best are,
| Toward the Dream an imprisoned
adagio for the piano, which represents
MT. Farwell in his best mood. and A
Ruined Garden an intensely dramatic
and withal a very mUsicianly setting
I flor dramatic soprano) OF the poem of
| Philip Bourke Mars;on."
! Mr.. Farwell made two trims to the
/ far west, the results of his last one
| bringing forth a collection OF over 600
songs OF the Spanish Californians.
many of them of rare beauty. Return
! ing from the west and giving a talk
upon his experiences at the Twentieth
Century club of Boston. he was asked
! If there was any opportunity to hear
! these western composers. As there was
not, the American Music society Of BOs-
ton was then organized in April. 1906.
Another difficulty now confronted Mr..
Farwell namely. that American COM
positions II left to their fate could not
get a national hearing. Artists will not
learn and perform American works, no
matter how highly they regard them
in society that sanctions only Eu-
ropean music. A changed social atti-
tude was necessary, and to this end the
Wa Wan society was organized in 1907.
Within a year, ten "centers" through
out the United States were actively en-
gagged in creating a sympathetic stti-
tude toward American composers. A
center was next formed in New York
and a concert given at the Institute of
Musical Art. assisted by a number of
artists and singers from the Metropol-
itan opera house. The forming of this
center resulted in the support of such
Influential men as Walter DamTosch,
David Bispham, Frank Arens, Rudolph
Schirmer, David Manns, Raphael Josef
fy and Kurt SCHNEIDER.
Mr.. Farwell possesses a striking char
acteristic which is usually conspicuous
! by its absence from the makeup of
musician. He has monotonous teuacity
in sticking to an idea that some people
call a mania. 1t was this fine form of
mania that drove him TO persist until
ne induced the Boston society to con-
solidate with the Wa Wan. Thus were
twelve centers firmly established in the
following cities: New York, Boston,
Buffalo, Detroit, ST Louis, Salt Lake
| City, Colorado Springs, Rochester, San
Diego, Springfield, H., St. Joseph, Mo-,
ana Geneva, n. Y.
1t was now thought desirable to
change the name of the association.
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