New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-01-27

gracefully ir att parts; Except thc slow
movement, I'm which the voice OF tne
harpsichord. against background. 81 a
few well BALANCED strings Wills al~ayS'
be missed.
II was the third time this season thar
the Philharmonic Orchestra player
Dvoraks symphony. From the New
World" that work having been on the
programmes or the Goa, It's or January
and g. II was then played in" A more
finished manner than II was yesterday,
but the fact that IL was set down To-
gethcr with an orchestral transcription OF
the Cuban dance "Bamboula," by Cole
ridge TAYLOR. to commemorate the fifticth
anniversary of President Lincoln's oman-
cipation proclamation. discouraged COM
ment II was not easy to see how tn"
memory OF great man was TO De
honored or his great deed celebrated Oy
playing oven the most ingenious and
agreeable transcription OF the tune OF "A
wild dance, which in its native hahilat u
sung TO words something like IF the p1-
tato is cooked we shall eat it, which IL
the underlying sentiment of tho "Ram-
boula'' (Mr Taylor got the melody from
this writer. or even by Dvofak's fasCi-
mating symphony II seems likely th.. the
suggestion that tho SYMPHONY be- en-
ployed in such "A mission came from some
one laboring under the delusion that It's
thcinatic material was Of negro origin
Fortunately. Mr.. Huinisfon in his notes
on the programme put that matter IN its
proper light. Nothing is more obvious,
however. than the fact that truth VIII
never overtake the falsehood that DR.
Dvorak used negro and even Indian tunes
in his symphonic masterpiece; at least
not in Europe. where the composition
enjoys as great popularity as il does In
the United States Scores Of times has II
been stated by men who knew DR.. Dvorak
intimately, and who talked with
him on the subject when he still
had the symphony in hand, that there
are no Southern slave melodies or Indiah
tunes in either this symphony or the
Quartet in II (Op. 90. which he composed
here. but that he adopted the idiom OF
slave song and its spirit and embodied
them in melodies, OF his own creation, for
the purpose of showing American COM
posers that they had body Of true folk
song in this country which might be util-
lied in building UP a national school, all
to no avail From the press Of Joseph
Williams Limited. Of London &C. Schirnl-
err. New York;. there has just come a
book called Living Music" treatise IN
tended TO initiate the benighted student
into the beauties OF latter-day composi-
tons. written by Herbert Antcliffe. Speak
ing Of Dvorak. this writer says: He had
remarkable ingenuity in the utilization
of popular melodies, exhibited notably in
the most popular Of his instrumental
works, the symphony From the New
World based on negro melodies NOW
Dr. Dvorak was a fine specimen or tne
nationalist in music. but he VAS nor vi
the habit of utilizing popular melodies
even In mis- compositions, which are saul
rated with Czechism. He put forth the
Bohemian spiri, in his music, but he Oh"
not borrow Bohemian melodies for me
purpose lie invented his own. III is
question whether there is an "unorignal
melody in his "Slavonic Dances or his
"Klange aus Mahren." despite their titles
and in his "Husitzka'' overture there =
only one quoted phrase. and that from al
old battle hymn OF the Hussltes VT
down 10 the last day of his life he mus
have been forced to read about his ad"p-
tations of Bohemian, Moravian and pesrJ
melodies. H.. r. X.