The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-12-10
AMERICAN FOLK SONGS

same thing; separation of the
two is inconceivable to those who sing
them they seem to belong together,
like husband and wife" This is true of
Fosters. He wrote his own poems as
well as his melodies, and the words
and music of such songs as. Way Down
Upon the Suwanee River, Massa's in
the Cold, Cold Ground, My Old Ken
lucky Home, are as closely allied as
are the text and the music in Wag-
ner's Tristan and Isolde. Yet-and
here is another point of identity with
the originatoTs of true folksongs--he
was not professional musician. Far
from 1t. To save his life he could not
have composed a symphony or a SON.
alta, or ever a short piece for piano
forte. His harmonies seldom go be-
yond the three most elementary chords
tonic, dominant and sub dominant:
and his melodies are so rich and salts
flying in themselves that they give
pleasure even without harmonies,
which brings them under the definition
of folksong given by Berlioz OF mu-
steal form Foster took no more thought
than a canary. His songs give voice
to the joys, sorrows, hopes and aspir-
atoms of people rather than an indi-
vidual'; they the songs created by the
people-the folk-for he was one of
them. If they are not folksongs, what
under the sun are they? Some have
called them by the German name
''volksthumlich." which means con-
scious limitations of folksongs. like
Schulz's Lieder i'm Volkston; but Fos-
ter did not consciously initiate the
songs of his or any other country: he
wrote what he did because his genius
was butt that way.
Not only are his songs-there are
over hundred and fifty OF them-gen-
uine folksongs; they are genuinely
American too. On this phase of the
subject, also, erroneous notions are still
widely current Thousands who sing
his songs do not know who wrote them,
or care; many other thousands thinl
they are negro plantation songs. Now,
Foster did visit the plantations and
campmeetings of the black men TO
catch their idiom; he had to make his
living by writing for the negro min
strels,' who at that time had practi-
cally monopoly OF the concert busi-
ness; yet even those of his poems
which he wrote. in the negro dialect
voice the general feelings OF mankind
rather than those of a particular race;
and as for his melodies, they are as
unlike true negro music as a Hungar-
ian rhapsody is unlike a Belini operate
aria. Infevery bar they betray his own
Individual genius and that this indi-
vidual genius was thoroughly Amer
lean is indicated by the way in which
the American people have taken them
to heart-indetinitely more than they
have any imported folksongs. Apart
from national anthem nothing
arouses such intense enthusiasm in an
American audience as the singing OF
one of these American folksongs. In
deed there is nothing quite like it in
any foreign country
We have become accustomed to for
elgn artists sighting the music OF our
country; but the omission of Foster
from Nine. Sembricii's programme Is
the unkindest osit of all. No doubt ii
| 1t owing 10 a misunderstanding VET
none the less 1t is regrettable. How
ever, no great harm viii result Eos
| ter's songs will survive this episode
and the American public may continue
| to bask In the fond conviction that NOT
only are we not without folksongs
1 judged by the stTictest scientific stand
1 ard. but we have an abundance OF them
| equalIing the most precious of Europe
treasures Had Foster lived before
printing was invented hts songs would