New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-15
Mrs. COllingwood Tucker
Delights Audience with
Folk Music.
TERRIFYING BALLADS
AMONG LULLABIES
Plantation Melodies and Their
Artistic Descendants Have
Interesting Exposition.
BY II. +. kREHBIEI.

There was nothing, perhaps, more in
dicative OF the utterly unconventional,
even unprofessional. character Of the
entertainment given in the Bandbox
Theatre yesterday afternoon than the
fact that there was nothing in the an.
nouncement on the house bill which onc
received after entering the tiny play.
house 10 tell who IL was that WAS 70
give the entertainment. Not even what
Its character was 10 be, unless IL could
be guessed from the list OF titles which
followed the general heading Song,
OF the Old South" As a matter of
feet, there is scarcely definition In
our ordinary concert-room termlnology
which would have fitted the case. for
IL was neither lecture nor concert, nor
even that hybrid thing called lecture.
recital.
1t might have been we'll had tho pro-
gramme mentioned the name Of the en-
tsrtainer, but even that was forgotten.
or neglected, and one had 10 guess that
it was Mrs. Collingwood Tucker from
some excerpts from newspaper notices
printed on the back Of the programme,
The audience, however. not numer-
Gus but extremely sppreciative and
cordial in Its expression of approval,
seemed well able TO dispense with ali
Introductory words. Like Mrs. Tucker,
they were from the South (the major
ity Of them, az any rate). and II they
did not know her personally they knew
By Inheritance, or experience, or intui-
ton the songs she had come 10 sing
and talk about, and showed by many q
neighborly nudge and smile and hearty
laugh how much they enjoyed tho re-
minders OF her childhood which had
also been theirs. the bits of amiablo
local color in the pronunciation Of
some words, the humor and also the
pethos OF her tales and her songs.
Mrs. fuckers vivacious and uncon-
ventionsl style too completely won the
hearts of her listeners 10 permit them
70 become critical about the matter and
manner OF her serious discourse on
folksong in general, with which she
began her conversation with her au-
dience. That is what her entertainment
was-e conversation enlivened with
anecdote and song which, toward the
close, when its artistic and scientific
purport seemed wholly lost sight Of.
was, we fancy, like Sunday afternoon
q couple Of decades ago in CAPTAIN
Dicklnson's home in Chattanooga But
that Mrs. Tucker wanted 20 be serious
in purpose with all her lght-heartcd-
ness Of style was evident every little
while all through the afternoon. She
argued along lines familiar 20 many
| Tribune readers in setting forth the
nature, significance and beauty Of folk
songs in general and Afro-American
folksongs in particular; but her plea in
their behalf was much more eloquent in
/ the infectious humor Of her singing OF
Hey! Mistah Rabbit" and her deeply
emotional Interpretation of 81 Couldn't
Hear Nobody Pray" than in her argu-
ments. Ii was something new TO those
Of her listeners VINO had no experience
Of the romance of Southern planta-
ton life 20 hear land see, also) how
the old Mammys OF blessed memory
used to put their little charges 10 sleep,
not with the soothing songs prescribed
by the methods Of the modern scientific
nursery, but by singing songs Of fear
ful import and list w'aring 'em out"
Mrs. fuckers demonstration opened the
door 20 speculation In the psychology
Of cradle songs. The writer of this
notice was reminded Of how ne came
into possession of beautiful variant
OF the grewsome ballad Of Hugh Of
Lincoln" as 1t is called in the history
Of English balladry.
After a lecture some years ago on
folksong in America in a New England
city, lady of gentle birth and breed
ing put IN his hands a version of tho
old song which has ritual murder for
its theme, and said she and her family
had been sung to sleep by It for gem
erations, and had never once suspected
the awfulness of its story. But she
could recall visibly one Of It's melodia
effects, because il always made thu
sleepy feeling" come.
The first part Of Mrs. fuckers enter
tainment was devoted 20 secular and
religious folksongs the second, TO a
/ song Of antebellum days and two
illustrating the humor and pathos of
Southern plantation life during and af-
ter the War Of the Rebellion. Then
came specimens of the artistic after
math called forth by the real folksongs
and the limitations Of them which en-
llyened negro minstrelsy in it's palmy
days. She sang Kingdom COMM"
and "Camptown Races" rolickingly and
unctuously and "De Ole Home" with q
simple pathos which had special APP
peal for many of her hearers.