The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1912-09-29

the negroes for music-a talent which In
8 Coleridge-Taylor's case received in Eng
land encouragement and honor. whereas
in our own country the barrier Of race
has kept colored musicians, with one or
two exceptions, in the music hall, and
has made them ashamed Of their best
heritage-the folk music OF the old plan
tation.
Believing that the true development of
any race should include as an important
factor an intelligent recognition of mark
ed racial talent. the Music School Settle
ment for Colored People Started last
year, has had as one of its express aims
an appeal for serious consideration OF
the musical gifts Of the negro people.
As neighborhood settlement, the
school in the single year of its exist
ence, has already filled so important a
need that it has outgrown its present
quarters at the Free Kindergarten for
Colored Children, In West Sixty-second
Street. and will soon occupy a building
farther uptown, in the black belt" Of
Harlem.
More than 1000 lessons to children and
adults have been given in nine months,
and it is believed that the large negro
chorus now being formed will prove one
of the most attractive and important
features of the settlement. The educa-
tional appeal to the colored people
through music is unquestionable, and
. some of the leading educators OF the
South, including principals of great in
dustrial institutions for the negro. be-
lieve that the Music School Settlement
is finding a meeting ground of common
sympathy for whites and blacks, which
will help promote better understanding.
y Notable Concert.
A concert given under the auspices OF
the school at Carnegie Hall last May was
planned to show what the colored people
had themselves accomplished in music.
nnaided by outside help or encourage
ment. A negro orchestra of 125 members,
made up of violins, mandolins, pianos,
banjos. guitars, 'cellos, and drums Cthe
orchestra of the 'Clef Club'O, performed
original works of the best negro COM
posers, such as Coleridge-Taylor and
Henry T. Burleigh; and the music that
called forth the greatest enthusiasm was
that which was truest to the old negro
melodies. The large audience included
many of those interested in educational
work for the negro, like Mrs. Carnegie,
W. Jay Schieffelin, and Robert c. Ogden
Carnegie Hall was taxed to its utmost
capacity, and a thousand people we're
turned away.
So successful was the concert, not only
as a concert. but in its incentive to negro
school decided to inaugurate a prize con-
test for the best musical compositions
based on negro themes, TO be judged by
a jury made up of David Names, Kurt
SCHNEIDER Miss Natalie Curtis, Walter
Damrosch. and Rudolph E. Schirmer, and
to he performed at the concert next sea-
son. A letter from Names. associate di-
rector of the school, published in the
negro papers, appealed to the colored
composers to preserve the folk-song OF
their race as their own peculiar gift to
American music.
Though the settlement school has for
its main work its sociological purpose,
there could be no stronger proof of its
value as a path-breaker. unsteady, than
the fact that some of the best compost
tions performed at the concert last May
were instantly accepted for publication
and evoked from SCHNEIDER, who saw
these compositions in manuscript the FOL
lowing enthusiastic comment:
With the publication of these larger
and more ambitious works of colored
musician. the attention OF the musical
world is called to an extraordinary talent
that has lived among us, so far rather
unrecognized and unheeded, for the last
fifteen years. Not that VIII Marion COOK
was unknown, but the only places where
his melodies could be heard were
the light opera stage and vaudeville,
where there were few TO estimate them
at their proper artistic value. MOST OF
the bigger works remained imprinted. ana
lacked the stamp of approval from au-
thoritatfve white people that would nave
raised them above the level of Dediocrity
In which they Powered.
True Negro Music.
This revelation came at once at the
concert given under the auspices OF the
New York Music School Settlement for
colored people There were great many
representative white musicians and the
entire New York musical press present
and there was a stir when the orchestra
started to play the fascinating rhythms
Of Cooks Swing Along followed by a
storm of applause; there was no one In
that audience that did mt feel that for
once he had heard the real thing the
true Southern negro idiom, worked out
with clever musicianship and genial
Verve into truly artistic manifestation.
This pleasurable surprise was equaled
II not surpassed when the second part OF
the programme brought another compo-
sition Of Will Marion Cook: THE Rain
Song To this delightfully."- quaint and
naive daIect-poem the composer has
found a melody well-nigh perfect in its
idiomatic charm and in its close adapta-
ton to the vocal infections of the col
ored dialect. The musical form given to
:.
from the middle of the orchestra and say
their little verse in turn with the full
chorus responding) was as happy in its
effect as it was natural and appropriate.
This is music very close to nature indeed
IN its resources, but there is much of art
in the way in which the climaxes are
built up, and there is also a particular
racial feeling for strong. full harmony.
Cook, besides having the advantage of
European training as a violinist under
no less a master than Joachim, knows
the musical traditions OF his race thor
oughIy;. and fortunately he is not asham-
- ed OF them On the contrary, they give
TO his work a deep-rooted strength and
the power Of conviction-as II ne were
the spokesman for all his brethren.
"Exhortation" Masterpiece.
Mr. Cooks work at its best means no
less than finding the proper musical cor
relative TO the negro id:onl, and thus
winning a new territory to music. A
comparison with another mans work who
has done similar service to his nation
becomes obvious when we look at Cooks
masterpiece. his 'Exhortation'-the ser
mon of a negro deacon to his audience
of darkeys Those who are familiar
with the peasant songs, the operas, and
SeminaristD of the great Russian.
MoussoFgsky. will realize the striking
parallel that exists between the Russian
composer and the negro, although on
such different grounds. What Nous