New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-11-28
Fruits of NatiOnaliSm and
RaCiaIism Seen in
Many Recitals
CONCERTS DEVOTED
TO OLD FOLKSONGS
Nine. Guilbert and Others
Teaching History and
Meaning of Music
By VI. T.. KREHBIEL

naUOnallSm ana Iaclallsm III WuSiN diN
multiplying day by Gay. IT is about
ten years since Nine. Sembrich gave
her first recital of the folksongs Of
many nations. Since then a score OF
singers have made a feature OF folk
songs.
At the opera the audiences, whether
gathered together nv an intelligent love
for music, or curiosity, or in obedience
to the dictates Of fad and fashion.
are learning something Of the spirit
which has created the music of great
people, who are a pussant factor in the
civilization of to-day and are destined
to be greater whenever they hear
performance Of Boris Godounoff" or
"Prince Igor"
In large number Of the song recitals
and choral concerts concert-patrons arc
learning the same thing. Nine Yvette
Guilbert is promoting 1t not only with
seriousness, valor and intelligence but
with splendid success. In long series
of historical recitals at the Maxine FL
lott Theatre she is reviewing the his
tory of French balladry and song, both
artistic and popular, from the begin
ming of the written records. She has
not done much in folksong, strictly
speaking, probably because that field Is
not a large one. But in time she will
do more; for the spirit of study and
discovery seems to have seized upon
her fine mind.
Miss Wyman, who has been a pupil
Of Nine. Guilbert's, has begun the eX-
ploitation in an attractive way of ma
tive American balladry and of the an
cient ballads Of Great Britain as they
have been preserved by the mountain
GERS Of the Appalachian region.
Giving English Folksong
Now come the Fuller Sisters and pur-
pose, as their beginning at the Punch
and Judy Theatre indicated yesterday
afternoon, to open up the minds of the
public to the significant beauty of Eng
lish folksong and folkdance.
This, it seems to US, is all very in
teresting. and mere record of the
fact is more valuable than the per-
functory notice Of how such and such
a person gave such and such an enter
tainment at such and such time in
such and such a room, and was APP
plauded by an audience OF such and
such size or numbers OF dimensions.
1t means that something very vital to
art is in the air.
Last Friday afternoon and Sunday
evening Nine Guilbert gave exposition
of the song called forth by Joan of Arc
81
HELM her she had Mr.. Richard Hale, q
BARITONE (for the music Of historical
songs is not always adapted to the
voice or capacity of Nine. Guilbert)
and Nine. Chautard -Archainbaud. who
acclaimed some of the verses of Villon.
But the chief charm of the entertain
ment lay in Nine. Guilbert's offhand,
familiar, English French and French
English discourse on her two topics
a discourse which brought her listeners
into delightfully."- sympathetic touch
with her subject.
The music. treated with artistic in
telligence by her accompanist, Mr.. Fer
rari. was also a gracious lesson IN
musical history, bringing to mind, as
il did. a style Of song cultivated by
the minstrels OF the fifteenth century.
and, despite its harmonization in not
altogether archaic manner, illustrating
the large influence which the church
chant OF the time exerted upon secular
balladry. There were echoes Of Glenn
ent Marot's melodic invention in one
Of Mr.. Ferrari's fine accompaniment
and of the old Easter canticle 80 Fill
ct Ellie" in the "Alleluia" refrain OF
one of the legends about La Percelle's
sanity monitors which Nine. Guilbert
sang and detained in her inimitable
way.
As an Oldtime Snowman
Toward the close of the entertain
ment Nine. Guilbert transformed her
self into a Snowman of the old piano.
rama days and announced the subjects
Of a series of colored lantern pictures
Of the famous tapestries IN the Cathe-
dral at Rheims-not scenes from the
life of Joan of Arc, as some OF yes
terday's newspapers had it, but Of the
life of the Virgin Mary and the eoro-
nation of Clovis.
Nine. Guilbert's method of singing
the old songs of France is dramatic, as
everybody who has heard her knows.
She embodies all the characters that
speak in ballad in her own wonder
full self. by action and change of vocal
expression.
The Fuller Sisters. being three. di-
vide the dialogue in ballads among
themselves. a proceeding which has an
attractive quality. but which falls short
of Nine. Guilbert's in historic interest
as well as effectiveness; for theirs is
not the marvellous skill of the French
woman. and ever and anon the mar
rator is perforce confused with one OF
the dramatic characters. But the art
of the English women is delightful and
the field which they are cultivatlng eX-
tensiye and beautiful.
They began yesterday with some
children's games which, although pre-
sented in their traditional English
dress are universal, as folklorists
know. There were also in their lists
such familiar ballads as Lord
Thomas" (of which The Tribune
printed Kentucky mountain version
early last summer) and the "Teya SIS
ters'" Finally they, with the aid OF
fiddler and Miss Constance Binney'
gave some English country dances with
such exquisite grace as to make us
wish we might never again see ono
stem or fox trot. Their entertain
ment is to be an almost daily feature
M the Punch and Judy Theatre for
some time. All those who are longing
for aesthetic refreshment ought to at
tend it.
At the Opera
The opera Boris Godounoh, men,
toned as one Of the manifestations OF
nationalism in music at the beginning
Of this screed, WAS given at the Metro
nolitan Opers House last night. The
was wholly free from the
nerfunctoriness and eonventionallty-
which marked so many Metropolitan
performances at the close OF last sea-
son and the beginning OF this. IL was
80. - ,,;tsl IN spirit and execution,