New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-10-20
Newcomers Play Piano
forte Duets Agree
ably.
AMERICAN FOLK
BALLADS CALLED FOR
How the Number of RecitalS
Might Be Considerably
Curtailed.
BY III. T.. kRFHBIEL.


Great should be his name and greatly
to be praised he who at a song recital
nowadays can keep the senses of his
hearers alert, their interest keen and
their sympathles warm for an hour.
The singer Tom DobsOn, who came 70
US from some unheralded region toward
the end OF last season, did that then
and il was with pleasurable expecta-
tiOns that his concert in the Punch and
Judy Theatre was attended yesterday az
ternoon. Not that there had been a
disclosure of an unusual voice, nor a
manifestation Of extraordinary artistry,
but simply because everything about
the affair was ingratiating singer,
his voice, his manner, his art, his songs,
the pleasant intimacy of the unique
little playhouse. SO II was again yes
terday, despite the fact that his voice
was not in good condition and he was
quite frequently hard put to it to make
his skill atone for his vocal short
comings. Consequently he did not
always preserve that atmosphere OF
unaffected comradeship, that free
dom from formality, which made his
first concert sound az II he had casu-
ally dropped in amon9st party OF
friends and was singing for them out
Of pure good nature. II IS a gracious
form of entertainments that he has hit
upon and far from its smallest ele-
ment of charm is the mingling of high
art with homely in the choice of his
songs and the varying manner in
which he sings them. His diction Is
altogether admirable. Even boarding
school girls can understand his French
and a provincial Teuton might nave
been almost as completelv content with
his German dialect in the two arrange
ments of folksongs by Brahms which
he sang yesterday as Milesian critic
with his Irish brogue in the MIN,
Penny Fidil." But why, we wonder, is
the melody of that son0 attributed 70
somebody with the name Of Hughes on
his programmes Delvers into musical
folklore have lately dug up an Amer
lean ballad telling the adventures OF
one Joe Bowers. who had brother
Ike, who came from old Missouri, all
the way from Pike, and this interest
ing tale the boys, old and young,
of fifty years ago, used to sing
20 the same tune that Tom Dob
son consorts with the mine Penny
Fidil." Nevertheless the song Is g.
singer will feel moved TO resuscitat-
other specimens of American balladry
BY doing so he might fulfil almost az
pretty a mission as by singing such ex-
Quisite things as the old setting o.,
Ben Jonson's Have you seen but a
white lily grow" which was in yes
terday's scheme, every performance Of
which puts 70 shame the pretensions
OF modern song writer's whose lsbori-
Gus efforts at expressive defamation
are like the Gathering of hob-nailed
shoes compared with the graceful lit
of the composers Of the Elizabethas
period In England. Dobson is com
poser, too, but Of his melodies moth
ing can be said in this notice because
it must perforce deal also with another
concert which took place at the same
hour in another music room
At Aeolian Hall newcomers gave a
recital Of music for two pianOfortes.
They were Miss Marta Milinowski and
Mr. Harry, or II. Edward, Cumpson.
Who they are we have not been told;
perhaps Americans thrown back upon
their home beach by the waves OF the
European war Theirs is a kind of en-
semble playing which, though sporadi-
cally cultivated here for years, has not
yet taken a vigorous foothold Flip
pant observers Of the present musical
situation might easily be tempted to
say that the time seems ripe for this
experiment, and even for an extension
of H. Pianists are plentiful-mor than
plentiful. Why not employ them in
double, or triple, or even Quadruple
harness? When Henri Herr visited
America. about seventy years ago,
he Joined fifteen local pianists in a
performance OF the overture "Semira-
mide," arranged for thirty-two hands
and eight pisnofortes. There are at
least sixteen virtuosi Of considerable
eminence in and about New York at