New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-05-29

ton.
But II did not; and therein lies story
which. since the photograph is now become
so great a helper to the musical ethnoio-
gist, might as we'll be told. The jubilant
reioinder to the doubts of the modest critic
fell into the hands of the latter just when
he happened TO be in Frankfort, Germany,
where an international electrical exhibit
was holding. He asked, and received, per
mission from the manager of the Edison
exhibit to experiment for an hour or two
with the monographs of all kinds in the
show. He found no difficulty at all in run
ming the steady tone of pitch pipe up and
down an octave glissando by irregular ped
alling in making the record and employ
ment of an electrical motor in the repro
duction. And then, or afterWard, he re-
membered that the same champion of the
auricular constituencies of savages had
found deviations from what some call the
natural scale. others. more conservative,
the Pythagorian. in the scale of Chinese
music by delicate acoustical measurements
of the tones given out by Chinese flute!
Is not a modicum of rudimentary must
cal education called for in cases like this?
The entire modern orchestra takes its pitch
from the oboe; yet every oboe player can
tell the inquirer that despite a century of
learning spent on improving his instrument
the business OF its intervals depends upon
the notifications which he produces by
pressure of his lips upon the reeds And
yet scientific man was found ready TO ac-
cept the tones OF so rude an instrument as
a Chinese flute (maybe it was a clarineD
as a proof that the Chinese also conscious
~ (and therefore purposely) departed from
the scale which they preserved in theory
and in the tuning of their stringed instru-
ments.
We seem to have been brought around TO
a point where mild dispraise of Mr. Bur
tons book must cease and applause begin.
That applause need not stop with his dis
cussion of the intervals OF Indian music, In
which he is at one also with Miss Curtis,
who. hearing with good ears and imbued
with an excess of sentimental enthusiasm,
nevertheless was willing to think that pos
sibly all Indians were not good musicians.
Admiration is due TO Mr.. Burton for the
literary manner in which he
has presented his subject. His book makes
reading, and there is much to
Justify his high appreciation of some of the
aboriginal American melodies, though, like
the sentimentalists with whom he chose TO
associate himself, we are inclined to think
he attaches too great Importance TO
Them and regret that he seems 10 have
been unable to understand or appreciate
what Dr. Dvorak aimed al and accom-
plished in his symphony From the New
World"
In conclusion reference must be made to
his views on the Indians use of cross
rhythnns He does not believe that such
relationships as ga time in the drumming
tanned by Indian performers. He asserts
this to disprove the notion that the sense
of rhythm is more highly developed in the
red than in the white man. The notion
is not essential 10 an understanding of the
Indian instinct for rhythm. That instinct
is rudimentary, strange as IL may appear.
When the writer of these notes recorded
on a photographic cylinder the melody
which Mr. Burton used for the dance OF
IN his cantata "Hiawatha,
he found that the Kwakiutl Indians who
sang il for him could not sing 1t unless
they were permitted themselves TO pound
ont the rhythm OF Ga while they sang the
"A tune When II comes TO the study of
refnements In rhythm, of which white mu-
sicians arc incapable, we must go not to
the Indians of America but to the negroes
Of Africa H. E. K,