The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-11-19
AWE NEGRO;
HIS MUSICAL BENT
What the Col0red Race Has
Done With It's Gift
TO ENCOURAGE ARTISTS
Negro Orchestra Made Up of I25
Pieces Played in Carnegie
TO ENCOURAGE ARTISTS

The death Of Neutrality-suspicious., q
British negro and the foremost must
elan OF his race, has again drawn
attention to the talent of the negroes
for music-a talent which in Cole
ridge-Taylor's case, received in Eng
land encouragement and honor.
whereas in our own country the bar
rier of race has kept colorcd must
clans, with ono or two exceptions
in the music hail., and has made them
ashamed Of their best h~critage-the
folk-music OF the old plantation. says
the New York Evening Post.
Believing that the true develop
ment of any race should include as
an important factor an intelligent
recognition Of marked musical talent
the Music School Settlement for Col
Ored People (started last year. a
had as one Of its express aims an ap-
peal for serious consideration OF the
musical gifts OF the negro people. AS
& neighborhOod settlement. the school
in the single year OF its existence, mas
already filled s. important a need
that it has outgrown its present
quarters at the Free Kindergarten for
Colored Children, in west Sixty-sec-
ond street. and will soon occupy a
building uptown. in the black belt
OF Harlem.
More than 1000 lessons to children
and adults have been given in nine
moths, and it is believed that the
large negro chorus now being formed
will prove one Of the most attractive
and important features Of the settle
mcnt. The educational appeal 10 the
colored people through music is I'M
questionable, and some of the leading
educators OF the South, including
principals Of great Industrial institu-
tons for the negro. believe that the
music school settlement is tinding a
meeting ground of oInmon Sympa-
thy for whites and blacks which will
help promote better understanding.
A concert given under the spi
Of the school at Carnegie hall last
May WAS planned to show what the
colored people had themselves ac-
cOmpiished, in music. unaided by
outside help or encouragement. A
negro orchestra OF 125 members,
made up Of %violins. mandolins, pia-
nos. banjos. guitars, '%cellos, and
drums (thc orchestra Of the "Cle1
club'). performed original works Of
tho best negro composers. such as
Coleridge-Taylor and Henry T. Bur.
leigh; and tho music that called
forth the greatest enthusiasm wa:
that which was truest to the ole
negro melodies. The large audience
Oh I'll lIlOSc iANSl CSCCo /
educational work for the negro. lik'
Mrs. Carnegie, w. j. Schieffein ant
Robert c. Ogden. Carnegie hall wa
taxed to It's utmost capacity, and
thousand people were turned away.
SO successful was the concert, no
only as a concert, but In its incentiv,
to negro composers to do better work
that the school decided to inaugural
q prize concert for the best musica
composition based on negro themes
to be judged by a jury made up o
David Names, Kurt SCHNEIDER. Mis-
Natalie Curtis. Walter Damrosch an,
Rudolph f.. Schirmer, nd to be per
formed at the concert next season
A letter from Names, associate direc
tor Of the school, published in tn
negro papers appealed to the cOlore
composers to preserve the folk-son
Of their race as their own peculia
gift to American music.
Though the settlement school ha
for it's main work its sociological pur
pose, there could be no stronger proc
or It's value as a path-breaker, mus
cally, than the fact that some Of tn
best compositions performed at til
concert last May were instantly az
cepted for publication and evoke
from Schindlter, who saw these con
positions in manuscript, the followin
enthusiastic comment:
With the publication of the:
larger and more ambitious works
a cOlored musician. the attention
the musical world is called to an e,
traordinary talent that has live
among us. so far rather u~nrecognizt
and unheeded, for the last fftee
years. Not that Will Marion Coo
was known. but the only places whe
his melodies could be heard were IL
light opera stage and vaudevill
where there were few to estima
them at their proper artistic valu
Most OF the bigger works remain,
imprinted, and lacked the stamp
approval from authoritative viii
people that would have raised the
above the level of medicritv in viii
they lowered.
This revelation came at once
the COMFORT given under the auspic